Image: Tesla Europe/X
The Netherlands’ vehicle regulator, the RDW, has approved changes to Tesla’s FSD (Supervised) in Europe, the system Tesla now calls Tesla Assisted Driving.
Those changes sharply limit how far the system can drive above the speed limit.
Drivers could previously set a speed margin of up to 50 percent above the posted limit, which the system may use when needed for safety and traffic flow. That ceiling now drops to a maximum of 10 percent.
At every start, the margin will also reset to 0 percent, and other speed-related functions will be switched off by default, according to the RDW’s November 3 notice.
The update also makes the European name official in the car. The RDW said “Tesla Assisted Driving” (TAD) will appear on the in-car display, in the owner’s manual and in all other driver information. The changes apply to cars with Hardware 4 or later.
For readers new to the story, the RDW is the Dutch authority that granted the type approval for Tesla’s supervised system. Other countries can recognize that approval, which is how Latvia came on board in late October. The system still requires an attentive driver who remains responsible for driving.
According to the RDW, Tesla itself asked for the assessment of “a number of minor changes.” The regulator found no adverse or unintended effects on how the system works or how the car drives, so the existing approval stays valid under the same conditions without being amended or extended.
Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, the countries that have accepted the Dutch approval, have been told about the changes. Tesla will deliver the update over the air.
What isn’t clear yet is when the update will reach owners or which software version will carry it. Approval across the whole EU is still before the European Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, and the RDW said those discussions are confidential. Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini recently called for a swift EU sign-off.
Will European owners trade a lower speed margin for approval in more countries?
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