Tesla cuts FSD’s speed margin from 50% to 10% over the limit in Europe

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, and 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. 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.

• 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.
• 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.

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.

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