Over the past 18 months, Tesla has been working with the Dutch vehicle approval organization, RDW, to get approval for its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) semi-autonomous driving system.
After a long consultation period, which included covering almost one million miles with FSD (Supervised) active and offering ride-along trials with 13,000 people in numerous European countries, the RDW deemed the technology safe to be given the green light.
Teslaโs controversial CEO, Elon Musk, has long-promised to introduce the partially autonomous cruise control system to other markets outside of the US, where it has been on sale for years. But the company has regularly butted up against regulatory red tape.
According to a press statement put out by Tesla to promote its European debut, the company says that when FSD (Supervised) is engaged, collisions are up to "seven-times less likely per kilometer driven compared to manual driving alone".
However, safety campaigners, such as Dan OโDowd of The Dawn Project, reiterates that โ59 people have been killed in over 3,000 crashes involving Teslaโs self-driving software in the U.S. since 2021 aloneโ.
"The RDW's decision is deeply troubling given Tesla FSD's myriad of well-documented safety defects," OโDowd adds.
What's more, the companyโs Robotaxis, which use a similar hardware suite that relies on the vehicleโs external cameras and artificial intelligence to navigate the world, as opposed to a plethora of radar and Lidar sensors like rivals, have made the headlines because data suggests they crash four times more often than the average human driver, according to Fortune. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
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In a bid to bolster its safety credentials, Tesla has made a number of changes to its software for the version that will go on sale in the Netherlands.
Not a Tesla App reported that those customers that had first-hand ride-along experience with Euro-spec FSD (Supervised) noticed that it differed to the technology found in the US.
Dutch owners will have to pass a mandatory safety quiz before FSD activates, for example, while the 'Sloth' to 'Mad Max' speed profiles in the US version have been ditched in favor of more straightforward 'Max Speed' setting in the Netherlands.
Analysis: Europe will be watching closely
While it is easy to think that the recent ruling in the Netherlands will automatically open the door for FSD (Supervised) to be used in the rest of Europe, it is highly likely that many other markets will continue to exercise caution.
Even RDW, the organization that gave the green-light to FSD (Supervised|) in the Netherlands, says that the system is not "self-driving," adding that the "driver remains responsible and must always remain in control."
This confusion with messaging used to promote the technologyโs capabilities has caused plenty of problems in the US, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launching an investigation into the safety of the technology.
Recently, it escalated its probe to "Engineering Analysis", which it says will evaluate the systemโs ability to operate in reduced roadway visibility.
All the while, Elon Musk continues to promote the fact that every iteration of the FSD software will โfar exceed human levels of safety" and that users will soon be able to text and drive, when realistically, itโs simply a Level 2 semi-autonomous cruise control system that is also offered by the likes of Ford and BMW.
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