Tesla closes in on European approval for FSD Supervised

In the last year, Tesla has amped up its efforts on Full Self-Driving (FSD), expanding its rollout to markets outside of North America, including Australia and New Zealand. 

Late last year, the brand even attempted to target one of its most challenging markets with FSD Supervised, delivering it in parts of Europe, as a passenger test ride.

Now, the company has announced it is a matter of weeks away from approval in key European market, starting with the Netherlands.

On its official European X account, the company said: “Together with RDW, we have officially completed the final vehicle testing phase for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and have submitted all documentation required for the UN R-171 approval + Article 39 exemptions.”

It also outlined key activities the company has undertaken over the last 18 months to reach this stage of the approval process. These included:

  • 1,600,000+ km of FSD (Supervised) testing on EU roads
  • 13,000+ customer sales ride-alongs
  • 4,500+ track test scenario executions
  • Thousands of pages of written documentation for 400+ compliance requirements
  • Dozens of research studies into safety performance/results

Following this update, many owners who have waited years for this announcement responded with excitement.

One said: “We have been waiting for so long! Thank you Tesla and RDW team , our road will be safer, and this tech will save thousands of lives”.

Another referenced the test rides the company has been offering in Europe and said: “Awesome news! 👏🏻 I just had my FSD Ride-Along this week in the Netherlands, and now I fully understand why everyone in the US is hyping it. Once you experience it, you’ll want it. It really feels like the future.”

Tesla started these rides on the tail end of 2025 and the program has seen over 13,000 rides. At the time of the launch, the company enticed interested owners and supporters of the autonomous vehicle tech in the continent by saying: “Ride along in the passenger seat to experience how it handles real-world traffic & the most stressful parts of daily driving, making the roads safer for all”.

Image: Tesla Australia and New Zealand

Europe has been one of the few major markets that has not yet seen the rollout of Tesla’s software, although plenty of testing has certainly been going on there.

In April 2025, Tesla shared a two-minute video of the FSD Supervised software, testing in Europe, with the caption saying: “FSD Supervised in Europe, pending regulatory approval”.

In July, Tesla’s supervised FSD was showcased testing in the UK, crossing multiple London landmarks. 

In the video shared of the drive in London, a Model 3 with the FSD Supervised software autonomously drove through traffic, stopped for pedestrians, and completed a journey around the city’s busy streets.

With the latest news from Tesla in Europe, it’s likely that the company is working through the regulatory approval process not only in the Netherlands but also across multiple countries, which are likely to follow in the near future.

Given the level of excitement for this software, it’s expected to have a strong uptake in Europe, which would also pave the path for large amounts of subscription revenue from the software on the continent.

      • Eyes are vastly more capable than Tesla's cheap wide angle distortion devices......and even 99% is simply halfway there.

        • Your eyes can only look in one direction. FSD(S) has constant 360° vision, it's far safer at T intersections for example.

        • That question has been settled for decades in the rail industry. The safety record of automated trains is vastly better than human-driven ones. Humans are fallible. Now they are introducing automated trams, next buses. Why stop there? Even if automation can stop humans doing malicious things, like deliberately running over people, that will be an achievement on its own.

  • After THOUSANDS of kilometres using FSD in our Y I can absolutely confirm this is a game changer.
    Yes- we have an older version (13.2) of it here in Australia so far, but even with it’s few publicised well known faults it is a dramatic safety improvement, allowing the driver to sit back and “oversee” the whole drive. (Eventually we’ll see version 14 here, which is much better still.) We can often drive all day without any need to intervene.
    Then add to that driving tired or distracted, and it’s an even bigger safety enhancement. I have a son who’s a shift working pilot, often doing HUGE long days after very early starts, and he calls it a total game changer when he’s tired for his 40 minute drive home, which is also often in heavy traffic.

    Humans can be quite good drivers, but so often they’re not, whether just basic lack of skills, drug and/or alcohol affected, tired, distracted or even suffering a medical episode.

    • Humans have vastly superior eyes compared to the cheap, low grade, wide-angle, easily contaminated camera phone lenses.
      Elon knows that time's running out for this particular con.
      Local and State Governments are run by adults who don't shut themselves off from ANY 'inconvenient' facts or data.

    • A single geofenced Robotaxi operates in A geofenced sector of Austin in daytime in good weather.

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