Tesla’s driver-assistance software in Europe can no longer be told to run 50% above the posted speed limit. The Dutch vehicle authority RDW confirmed on Nov. 3 that it approved an update capping the user-set speed margin at 10%, down from the old ceiling of +50%. On a 100 km/h motorway the previous setting permitted 150 km/h, while the new cap stops at 110 km/h.
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The margin works as a driver-selected offset. A driver picks the percentage by which the system may exceed the detected limit, a feature Tesla justified on grounds of safety and traffic flow. Under the old +50% ceiling, a 30 km/h residential street could be driven at 45 km/h. With the new +10% ceiling, the same street tops out at 33 km/h. Each time the car starts, the margin falls back to 0%, and other speed-related functions now ship switched off by default, though the regulator did not say which ones.
RDW’s +10% ceiling, the 0% reset and the Tesla Assisted Driving name
The RDW published its notice on 3 November, and Electrek’s Fred Lambert reported the details the same day. The regulator described the speed-margin change as one of several minor modifications Tesla asked it to assess. It found no adverse or unintended effects on the system or on the car’s driving behaviour and folded the changes into the existing approval without amending or extending it. Tesla delivers the update over the air, and it applies to cars running hardware version 4.0 or later.
The same package renames FSD Supervised as Tesla Assisted Driving, with the new name appearing on the in-car display and in the owner’s manual. The RDW was explicit that the rename changes nothing about function: the system remains driver assistance, and the driver remains responsible for driving. Germany’s Transport Ministry had made the name an issue in early October, according to Electrek, calling “Full Self-Driving” misleading and saying it would back EU approval if Tesla dropped the label and held speed tolerance to 10%. The Dutch update delivers both conditions.
Sweden, Belgium and the case against any margin at all
Sweden’s transport agency pushed hardest. A letter dated April 30 from the Swedish Transport Administration to the EU’s Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, reported by Electrek in June, asked for the speed offset to be removed. The agency wrote: “Failing this, the Swedish Transport Administration recommends that TCMV vote against the proposed introduction.” A 10% cap is therefore a compromise rather than the outcome Stockholm requested, since deleting the offset would leave no margin whatsoever.
Field evidence added pressure from Brussels. Johanna.be, a nonprofit campaigning for pedestrian and cyclist safety, published a study on Sept. 24 after three days and roughly 400 km of driving in July. According to Electrek’s account of that study, the car exceeded the 30 km/h limit in 55% of the 30 km/h zones it drove, averaging 44 km/h, and its screen displayed a 50 km/h limit in most of them. The group cited WHO data that a pedestrian struck at 44 km/h is nearly six times more likely to die than one struck at 30 km/h.
Capped at 10%, a 30 km/h street tops out at 33 km/h, well under the 44 km/h average the Belgian testers logged. A misread sign, where the screen shows 50 km/h in a 30 zone, sits outside what a margin cap can control, and Electrek’s own argument is that limit detection remains the larger problem. The cap trims the damage when the system reads the limit correctly but cannot repair a wrong reading. Johanna.be asked both the RDW and the Flemish mobility ministry on Sept. 7 to reconsider their approvals, and Flemish Mobility Minister Annick De Ridder had approved the system on June 10 after Tesla logged 5,000 km of supervised testing on Flemish roads, per Electrek.
Ten countries recognize the Dutch approval and the EU vote waits for December
The RDW notified nine member states that recognize its approval: Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Counting the Netherlands, that makes 10 countries, up from eight at the start of October by Electrek’s tally. France declined to recognize the Dutch approval and cited urban speeding, Sweden remains opposed, and Italy and Spain are listed as open questions.
EU-wide approval runs through the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, whose talks the RDW calls confidential and declined to discuss. Electrek reports that the vote has slipped to December at the earliest, and passage needs a qualified majority of 15 of 27 member states representing at least 65% of the EU population. The Dutch approval itself dates to April 10, when the RDW granted a European type approval with provisional validity in the Netherlands under UN R-171 after more than 18 months of testing, a status other states may recognize but are not obliged to.
What remains unresolved is whether a 10% cap satisfies France, Italy and Spain, or whether Sweden’s zero-tolerance position prevails when the committee returns to the question. Tesla had not commented on the update in the sources reviewed, and the RDW has not named the other speed-related functions it says are now disabled by default.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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