Tesla is once again asking regulators to move faster than the rest of the world is comfortable with, this time in Europe, where the company is pushing to accelerate approval of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. And the pitch is familiar: the technology is improving rapidly, the data set is massive, and delays are supposedly holding back innovation.
But the response from European regulators so far has been polite, procedural, and notably cautious, which feels appropriate, given what’s actually at stake, i.e., FSD still doesn't see motorcyclists, and still runs cars off the road.
At the center of the latest push is the Netherlands’ RDW, the Dutch vehicle authority responsible for evaluating Tesla’s request to test and eventually deploy higher levels of automated driving. According to Reuters, Tesla is expected to begin FSD testing in February 2026 under controlled conditions, with the RDW overseeing the process. That alone doesn’t mean approval is imminent, but it does signal that Tesla is trying to move the conversation from theory to real-world validation as quickly as possible.
