Elon Musk is firmly convinced that Europe will eventually roll out the red carpet for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. However, looking at the actual regulatory landscape, it seems the “red carpet” might actually be a series of trap doors. While the Dutch authority RDW gave the green light to FSD (Supervised) back in April, setting off a celebratory spark in Austin, the rest of the continent isn’t exactly reaching for the champagne.
Tesla’s subsequent attempt to “blitzkrieg” the Nordic countries, demanding Estonia, Finland, and Sweden recognize the Dutch approval before they’d even read the technical specs, has been met with the kind of skepticism usually reserved for emails from exiled princes.
Internal emails obtained by Reuters reveal a narrative that Elon definitely left out of the last earnings call. It turns out that when you tell a Swedish transport investigator that your AI-driven car likes to treat speed limits as “suggestions”, they tend to get a little twitchy.
One Finnish official was caught off guard by the notion of a hands-free system cruising at 80 km/h on icy roads, while others raised the very specific, very Northern concern of how the software handles a stray moose.
Then there’s the linguistic gymnastics of the name itself. “Full Self-Driving” followed by a “Supervised” asterisk that requires the fine print of a mortgage is, according to Swedish investigators, a recipe for consumer delusion. It’s a marketing masterstroke that doubles as a regulatory nightmare.
While the system allegedly performed admirably near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the broader European consensus is far from settled. To get the final “go”, Tesla needs 55% of EU countries and 65% of the population on board. With the next meaningful votes not scheduled until July and October, the wait is going to be long.
Meanwhile, the RDW remains the lone cheerleader, essentially telling its peers, “Trust us, it’s fine,” without actually releasing any data to back it up. In the high-stakes world of continental safety, “trust me” usually doesn’t cut it when the car is doing the driving for you.
