Tesla is moving closer to launching Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in Europe, with the company now confirming a clear regulatory timeline centered on the Netherlands. After more than a year of behind-the-scenes work with European authorities, Tesla says Dutch regulators are targeting February 2026 to grant national approval — a milestone that could unlock a wider rollout across the continent.
In a detailed post from Tesla’s Europe & Middle East team on X, the company outlined the scale of its efforts so far, revealing extensive engagement with regulators across the European Union.
“Tesla has been working hard toward shipping Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in Europe for over 12 months now. We have given FSD demos to regulators of almost every EU country,” the company wrote.
Those efforts have included more than one million kilometres of internal FSD testing across 17 European countries, along with sharing detailed safety evidence in Tesla’s most recent Safety Report, which includes comprehensive data released for the first time by the company.
“Currently, RDW has committed to granting Netherlands National approval in February 2026,” Tesla confirmed, referring to the country’s vehicle approval authority. “Upon NL National approval, other EU countries can immediately recognize the exemption and also allow rollout within their country.”
From there, Tesla plans to push for a formal EU-wide approval through a TCMV (Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles) vote.
Why the Netherlands
Tesla’s regulatory strategy is centered on its partnership with RDW, which oversees vehicle approvals in the Netherlands. The company is seeking exemptions under existing UN regulations, including UN R171 (covering Driver Control Assistance Systems), as well as EU Article 39 for capabilities not yet formally regulated — such as system-initiated lane changes and certain hands-off functions.
However, Tesla argues that some current European regulations were written for older, rule-based driver assistance systems and don’t reflect Tesla’s modern AI-based autonomy.
“Some of these regulations are outdated and rules-based, which makes FSD illegal in its current form,” the company explained. “Changing FSD to be compliant with these rules would make it unsafe and unusable in many cases.”
Rather than downgrading the system, Tesla says it is pursuing rule-by-rule exemptions while maintaining safety and usability.
Software Clues Point to Release
Recent software updates also suggest Tesla is actively preparing for a European launch. In newly uncovered FSD v14 code we first told you about last week, Autosteer no longer carries a hidden “beta” label — a change likely aimed at aligning with stricter European terminology rules. Europe has historically been cautious about features labeled as experimental or unfinished.
The update also adds new attention-monitoring icons tied to head and gaze tracking for Tesla’s vision-based driver monitoring system — a major focus for European regulators.
But perhaps the biggest hint of its imminent release is the addition of a new warning message: “Approaching a country border, FSD features might become unavailable.”
Based on this we surmised this suggests Tesla is preparing for phased, country-by-country availability across Europe, depending on local approvals, and the company’s latest post on X confirms this.
