The approval allows Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) (supervised) system to be used in customer vehicles, enabling cars to navigate city streets, intersections, and lane changes while requiring active driver oversight, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
This marks the first time Tesla’s advanced self-driving system is legally available to customers in Europe, a region known for strict vehicle safety regulations.
The rollout will begin via over-the-air software updates, initially targeting Tesla vehicles such as the Tesla Model Y and Model 3.
Tesla says its system relies primarily on external cameras and artificial intelligence, processing all data directly on the vehicle’s onboard computer.
Unlike traditional rule-based systems, Tesla’s approach uses an end-to-end neural network trained on vast amounts of real-world driving data. This allows the system to interpret road conditions, from traffic signals to pedestrians, and make driving decisions in real time.
The company claims its global fleet contributes over 500 years of driving data daily, helping the AI learn even rare scenarios and continuously improve performance.
Tesla emphasizes that the system is not fully autonomous. Drivers must remain attentive and responsible at all times when the feature is active.
According to company data, vehicles using the system are up to seven times less likely to be involved in collisions per kilometre compared to manual driving alone.
On privacy, Tesla says most data processing happens locally within the car, while any shared data used for system improvement is anonymous and based on user consent.
The approval comes as Europe accelerates efforts to integrate autonomous driving technologies.
In the UK, the Department for Transport is preparing a regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles, with full regulations expected by the second half of 2027.
Meanwhile, companies like Wayve and Uber are planning robotaxi services in London, while Waymo and Lyft are also targeting the UK market.
Before receiving regulatory clearance, Tesla conducted more than 1.6 million kilometres of testing across Europe. It also offered ride-along demonstrations to over 13,000 people and submitted extensive safety documentation to regulators across the EU.
With the Netherlands rollout underway, Tesla says it is now working to secure approvals in other European countries, signaling a broader expansion of self-driving technology across the region.
