What the RDW just approved — and what it means
On 10 April 2026, the Dutch vehicle authority — the RDW (Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer) — granted Tesla the first European type approval for its FSD Supervised (Full Self-Driving Supervised) system. It is the first time in history that an advanced driver-assistance system of this calibre has been officially approved on European soil.
The approval falls under UN Regulation R-171 (Driver Control Assistance Systems) and classifies FSD Supervised as a Level 2 assistance system — meaning it can take over many driving tasks, but the driver remains responsible at all times. The RDW puts it plainly: the vehicle "is NOT autonomous or self-driving."
The process was far from quick. The RDW examined and tested the system for more than 18 months: 1.6 million kilometres on European roads, 13,000 customer ride-alongs, 4,500 test-track scenarios and documentation covering over 400 compliance requirements. The European version also "differs substantially" from the US variant, according to the RDW itself.
For now, the approval is valid only in the Netherlands. But the RDW has already announced it will submit an application to the European Commission so all member states can vote on whether to accept it on a bloc-wide basis. Germany (KBA), France and Italy could recognise it nationally within 4 to 8 weeks. Tesla expects pan-European approval by summer 2026.
More than 2,500 km with FSD in my hands: the real experience
I have been one of the very few people who got to try FSD first-hand for over 2,500 kilometres — don't ask me how. And given that I drive nearly 140,000 km a year, I can say without the slightest hesitation that it has been one of the best experiences of my entire life when it comes to driving.
The first time I saw it work I said out loud: "Wow. That's brutal. This thing is seriously good." And that was only the beginning.
What changed immediately
One of the first things I noticed was while talking on the phone. I always use the car's speakerphone — meetings, client calls, team coordination. Before FSD, no matter how hard I tried to focus on the conversation, I had that constant, subtle sense of losing control: I have to pay attention to the phone AND to the road. It was a steady mental tension, small but very real.
With FSD engaged, that tension vanished. I felt more relaxed. I arrived home with more energy after exhausting journeys. The car handled the driving — and I was still paying attention, but without the double mental drain.
The paradox: now driving manually feels "scary"
It sounds exaggerated, but after getting used to FSD, manual driving feels incomplete. FSD gives you a sensation of total situational awareness that human driving simply cannot match. It doesn't just look ahead — it processes rear, lateral and diagonal traffic, all at once.
Real examples I experienced:
- A fast-moving car was closing in from behind. The Tesla detected it, smoothly moved aside to let it pass and returned to its lane. Before I had processed what was happening, it was already resolved.
- At a narrow intersection where only one car could fit through, the Tesla braked, pulled to one side, waited for the oncoming vehicle to pass, and then moved on. Clean, no hesitation.
- At another unsigned intersection, the car stopped. The other driver raised a hand, yielding the right of way. The Tesla interpreted the gesture and proceeded. We're talking about atypical, unsigned, unpaved, goat-trail roads. Absolutely mind-blowing.
The effect on traffic: the concertina queues
There's an effect nobody mentions that is huge for traffic: when the car in front of me started moving, my Tesla started moving almost instantly. Without the one-or-two-second human delay that compounds car by car.
That accumulated delay is the main cause of "concertina queues" — those traffic jams that keep growing from front to back for no apparent reason. If every car started moving almost at the same time, as FSD does, many of those jams simply wouldn't exist. It is basic physics applied to traffic.
What the Dutch approval could change in Europe
Now, with the RDW's approval, everything could change. Finally, the technology can arrive in Europe in a legal, regulated way.
And I say "finally" with full intention. Because to me, it seems pretty clear that European carmakers have been trying to hold back this technology for years so that outside competition wouldn't beat them on their own turf. Instead of innovating, they legislated. Instead of competing, they erected bureaucratic barriers.
The reality is that European red tape has kept a technology that was already available and proven over millions of miles in the United States out of Europe. The same regulators who make us waste an extraordinary amount of time with cookie banners — reject, accept, configure, reject again — are the ones who have taken years to approve a system that saves lives.
Conditions of the approval: what you need to know
The approval is not a blank cheque. The RDW sets clear conditions:
- The driver is responsible. Always. No exceptions.
- Eyes on the road. The system monitors that the driver looks ahead via interior cameras.
- Hands available. Hands don't have to be on the wheel, but must be available to take over immediately.
- Progressive alerts. If it detects inattention, the car issues visual, audible and haptic alerts. If the driver doesn't respond, the system temporarily disables itself.
- Mandatory reporting. Tesla must report safety incidents and submit annual performance reports to the RDW.
In other words: you drive with an extraordinary safety net, but you are still the one driving. And that seems perfectly right to me.
For those of us who clock serious kilometres: a life-changer
For me, and for everyone who moves around doing tens of thousands of kilometres a year, this technology is simply a brutal life-changer.
It is not a gadget. It is not a cool accessory. It is a tool that gives you back energy, focus and safety. It changes your entire perception of what it means to be safe behind the wheel. You arrive less tired. You react better. You enjoy the journey instead of merely surviving it.
Once you try FSD, everything in your life changes. And it changes because this is, simply, the real future. Not the future they sell you in a keynote with renders — the future that works, here, now, in your car, on an unpaved goat trail in the mountains of Alicante.
All that's left now is for European bureaucracy to stop standing between the technology and the people who need it.