Tesla FSD cleared in Netherlands

Tesla’s supervised Full Self-Driving system can now be used in the Netherlands after Dutch regulators granted Tesla formal type approval on April 10. (rdw.nl) The approval came from the RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority, after what it said was more than one and a half years of testing on a test track and on public roads. The agency said the system was “extensively examined and tested” before approval. (rdw.nl) What got approved is not a robotaxi service or a self-driving car in the legal sense. RDW said FSD Supervised is a driver-controlled assistance system, and the driver “remains responsible and must always remain in control.” (rdw.nl) In plain terms, the software can steer, brake, accelerate and make many route-following decisions, but a human still has to watch the road like an instructor with a learner driver. Tesla says the system can make lane changes, choose forks, go around vehicles and objects, and make left and right turns under supervision. (tesla.com) That distinction matters because Europe has moved more slowly than the United States on advanced driver-assistance systems. The Netherlands is the first European country to approve Tesla’s supervised system, and RDW said the Dutch type approval could lead to later admission in all European Union member states. (rdw.nl) The regulatory path also helps explain the delay. On March 23, RDW said Tesla and the agency were still in the final phase of assessment after an intensive joint testing program that had started about 18 months earlier. (rdw.nl) The broader rulebook is new. United Nations Regulation No. 171, which governs Driver Control Assistance Systems, entered into force on September 22, 2024, and says these systems assist the driver rather than replace the driver, who must keep monitoring the road and the vehicle. (eur-lex.europa.eu) RDW built those limits into its explanation of the approval. It said the car monitors whether the driver’s eyes are on the road and whether their hands are available to take over immediately, and repeated that “it is not permitted or possible” to read a newspaper while driving. (rdw.nl) That will not end the argument around Tesla’s branding. Tesla still markets the feature as Full Self-Driving, while its own support page says none of the features make the vehicle fully autonomous or replace the driver as the driver. (tesla.com) For Tesla, though, the Dutch decision is the breakthrough that matters: a real European regulator has signed off on supervised use on public roads, and the next test is whether the Netherlands becomes the gateway for a wider European rollout. (rdw.nl)