Tesla is actively lobbying for continent-wide approval of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in the European Union. As of October 2026, the system has secured national approvals in eight member states, which collectively account for approximately 12.6% of the EU population.
The current regulatory progress stems from a decision by the Dutch road authority RDW on April 10, 2026. Following 18 months of testing, which involved over 1,000 individual trials and 1.76 million kilometers of driving, the Netherlands granted a provisional EU type approval. This allows other nations to accept the software without conducting independent tests.
A broader approval across the entire bloc requires a decision from the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV). A meeting scheduled for October 6, 2026, concluded without a vote, pushing the next potential decision date to December 2026. Further delays could extend the process into 2027.
Tesla justifies its push by claiming that FSD results in seven times fewer crashes than the average US driver. Independent researchers have challenged this figure as misleading, and the specific data from the Dutch trials remains confidential, preventing public verification of the safety claims.
