Tesla’s driver-assistance system in Europe can no longer be set to drive 50% over the speed limit. The Netherlands’ RDW, which approved the system in April, confirmed today that it signed off on an update capping the speed margin at 10% and officially renaming “FSD Supervised” to Tesla Assisted Driving.
The changes land weeks before EU member states could vote on approving the system across the bloc, and they match the conditions Germany set last month.
The RDW confirms the 50% setting
The RDW’s notice is the clearest official confirmation of how the system was configured when the Dutch regulator approved FSD Supervised on April 10. The “speed margin,” which lets the system deviate from the detected limit for “safety and traffic flow,” could go up to +50%. On a 100 km/h highway, that’s 150 km/h. In a 30 km/h city zone, it’s 45 km/h.
Now the margin tops out at +10%. It also resets to 0% every time the car starts, and the RDW says other speed-related functions are now disabled by default. It didn’t say which ones.
The new name shows up on the in-car display, in the owner’s manual, and in other driver information on HW4 vehicles. Tesla pushes all of it over the air.
“Minor changes”
The RDW describes the update as “several minor changes” that Tesla asked it to assess. The regulator says it checked the implementation, found no adverse or unintended effects, and folded the changes into the existing type approval without amending or extending it. It also stresses that the rename doesn’t change what the system does. It’s still driver assistance, and the driver is still responsible.
The RDW notified the nine member states that recognize its approval: Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. That’s 10 countries counting the Netherlands, up from eight at the start of October.
The EU-wide decision still sits with the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV). The RDW says those talks are confidential and won’t comment on them. As we reported, the EU pushed the vote to December at the earliest, and passing it takes a qualified majority: 15 of 27 member states representing at least 65% of the EU population.
Speeding was the main objection
Speed has been the biggest problem for Tesla’s file in Brussels. In June, Sweden asked the EU to reject FSD unless Tesla removed the ability to set speeds above the posted limit. In September, a Brussels pedestrian safety group found the system speeding in 55% of the 30 km/h segments it tested, in a country that had already approved it. France has cited urban speeding as one of its reasons for refusing to recognize the Dutch approval.
Then, on October 6, Germany’s Transport Ministry said it would back EU approval after Tesla agreed to drop the “Full Self-Driving” name, which the ministry called misleading, and to cap speed tolerance at 10%. Today’s RDW update delivers both.
But 10% isn’t what Sweden asked for. Sweden wanted no setting above the limit at all. Several European countries are known for enforcing speed limits strictly.
Electrek’s Take
Good, but that’s only part of the problem. Tesla’s biggest issue with FSD right now is that it doesn’t properly detect the speed limits.
Being locked at 10% over the limit doesn’t mean much if you don’t know the actual limit.
The name change is needed globally and it is past due. “Tesla Assisted Driving” describes what the system does. Meanwhile, Tesla still sells the exact same kind of software in the US as “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” for $99 a month. If it’s misleading in Berlin, it’s misleading in California.
Practically, this update gets Tesla Germany’s vote. The question for December is whether a 10% cap is enough for France, Italy, and Spain, or whether Sweden’s zero-tolerance line wins out.
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