RDW European type approval Tesla FSD (Supervised): 10 April 2026

What the RDW did

The Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (RDW) is the Dutch type approval authority. They assess whether vehicle technical systems meet European regulations before they can be used on Dutch public roads.

On 10 April 2026, the RDW issued European type approval for Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system. The explanation is published at rdw.nl. The Netherlands is the first country in Europe where Tesla's FSD (Supervised) can officially be activated on public roads.

According to the RDW, the system was tested for more than eighteen months on the RDW test track and on public roads to reach this approval.

What the approval covers, and what it doesn't

The RDW explanation is deliberately cautious: FSD (Supervised) is explicitly not an autonomous system. It's an advanced driver assistance system that operates under the active supervision of a driver. The type approval document specifies a range of conditions, including:

• Continuous sensor monitoring of the driver (eyes on the road, hands available for takeover)
• It's not permitted to engage in other activities (such as reading a newspaper) while behind the wheel
• The driver must be able to take over control at any moment

Tesla's last regulatory excuse is gone

Until 10 April 2026, Tesla could argue in its correspondence with customers that Full Self-Driving was 'still waiting on regulation'. That defence is now off the table. The regulation is in place, at least in the Netherlands.

That means one of the two reservations from Tesla's own 2019 disclaimer, 'legal approval, which may take longer in some countries', has now been fulfilled for the Netherlands. Tesla can't hide behind that clause anymore.

At the same time: the system the RDW approved is Full Self-Driving (Supervised) as Tesla currently delivers it on vehicles with AI4 hardware. Publicly reported figures (see evidence item 8) show that Tesla is rolling out a stripped-down version ('v14 Lite') on Hardware 3 vehicles that performs measurably worse. The RDW approved the system that Tesla delivers to new AI4 buyers, not the Lite version that HW3 owners receive.

The approval HW3 owners waited six years for, but won't actually get

The RDW approval is a pyrrhic victory for HW3 owners who bought the Full Self-Driving package in 2019. The functionality they've waited six and a half years for is now legally permitted on Dutch roads. But the version that'll be rolled out on their own vehicle is different, smaller, and measurably worse than what Tesla delivers to new customers.

The combination is legally powerful:

1. Tesla promised in 2019 that every vehicle had 'hardware suitable for full self-driving'
2. Tesla's own CEO, VP, patent, and fleet reports confirm that HW3 can't meet that promise
3. The RDW implicitly confirms, by approving the system only in the AI4 variant, that there's a qualitative difference between what HW3 and AI4 can deliver
4. Tesla can no longer hide behind 'legal approval'

This doesn't mean that HW3 owners have no claim for compensation or delivery. It means their rights are easier to substantiate than ever. The only reservation Tesla ever had on paper is now fulfilled, and the defect turns out not to be in the legislation. It's in the hardware.

Verification

The RDW explanation is publicly available at rdw.nl. For legal proceedings, the full type approval document is relevant. It can be requested directly from the RDW (for example via info@rdw.nl) with reference to the decision of 10 April 2026. If necessary, such a request may be framed as a formal freedom-of-information (WOO) request.