Very recently, Tesla obtained permission from the Netherlands Vehicle Authority, RDW, to deploy its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature in the Netherlands—for supervised use. In practice, this means Tesla’s FSD is classified as a Level 2 driver-assistance system. It’s one of the first approvals of its kind in the EU and part of a broader wave of carefully controlled FSD pilots in Europe under strict regulatory frameworks.
Tesla offered me—as a frequent Model Y driver—a free one-month trial, which I accepted.
Activating FSD disables the standard cruise control, but you can’t just start using it right away. First, you need to complete a 20-minute in-car video course. The key message is straightforward: hands on the wheel, eyes on the road—at all times. Tesla actively monitors this via cabin cameras, as the system is explicitly designed to be supervised, not autonomous.
A few days after completing the course, I used FSD for a 20-minute trip through Amsterdam and onto the highway for a meeting. On a busy roundabout during morning rush hour, the system felt a bit hesitant—almost overly polite. In real traffic, you’d normally be slightly more assertive when merging. FSD, however, prefers to wait.
By default, it also sticks to the slower lane. After a while, I discovered that using the indicator allows the driver to “nudge” FSD into changing lanes—for example, to overtake a slower vehicle. That interaction actually feels quite natural once you get to know it.
During the trip, I noticed only one clear mistake. When taking an exit, FSD didn’t activate the indicator as it should. That made me wonder whether the rules had changed in the 40-odd years since I got my driver’s license. A quick check of the Dutch regulations confirmed: the indicator is still mandatory in that situation.
Read further: Icecat
