Musk's Europe gamble: Will others follow the Dutch and approve FSD?

The Netherlands' vehicle regulator RDW has approved Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system for use on Dutch roads after an 18-month evaluation that included over 1.6 million kilometers of driving and 13,000 customer ride-alongs. This approval is a critical step for Tesla, as CEO Elon Musk's compensation plan—currently valued at $1.7 trillion—requires at least 10 million active FSD subscriptions over the next decade. To reach that number, Tesla cannot rely solely on North America; it needs the European Union (450 million potential customers) and China to approve the system.

RDW will now present its findings to the EU's Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, which could vote as early as July or October 2025. Tesla needs 15 of the 27 member states to approve for EU-wide adoption. However, internal emails seen by Reuters reveal significant skepticism from other regulators. A Swedish official was "quite surprised" that the system was programmed to exceed speed limits and questioned whether the name "FSD" misleads consumers. A Finnish official raised concerns about hands-free driving on icy 80 km/h roads and the risk of large-animal collisions. Tesla has also aggressively lobbied Swedish regulators to follow the Dutch approval, even before they had reviewed the relevant documents. Additionally, the Dutch-approved version of FSD is more conservative than the US version: it monitors drivers more frequently, requires hands-on at a moment's notice, complies with UN R-171 regulations, and lacks features like summon or urban road use.