{"id":14234,"date":"2026-05-05T18:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/14234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T18:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T18:36:09","slug":"belgium-moves-to-fast-track-tesla-fsd-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/14234\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium Moves to Fast-Track Tesla FSD Approval"},"content":{"rendered":"

The domino effect for Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving (FSD) in Europe is officially in motion. After the Netherlands became the landmark first EU country to approve FSD for public roads<\/a> last month, other members of the bloc are racing to follow suit. While several countries like Sweden are expediting their own testing processes<\/a> and analyzing the Dutch RDW\u2019s decision, Belgium has just made a major play to take the lead.<\/p>\n

Belgium Fast-Tracks the Approval Process<\/p>\n

In a move that caught the attention of many Tesla enthusiasts this week, Annick De Ridder, the Flemish Minister of Mobility, officially signaled that Belgium\u2019s Dutch-speaking northern region of Flanders is ready to move. De Ridder has formally requested that Tesla submit the data the Dutch RDW used to inform its approval of FSD to the Flemish administration for review. Her goal is to prevent local regulations from stalling technical progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the Tesla FSD test project in the Netherlands, I have asked Tesla to transfer their file to us. That is now with my administration, which I have instructed to provide clarity by the end of the week on a possible rapid homologation. Because you shouldn’t slow down innovation, but make it possible in a thoughtful and safe way,\u201d De Ridder said<\/a> on X. This instruction to provide clarity by the end of the week suggests that Belgium is serious about a fast-track approval.<\/p>\n

The Dutch RDW Domino Effect<\/p>\n

The sudden urgency in Belgium isn’t a coincidence. Much of the EU looks toward the Dutch RDW for automotive policy direction. Tesla leadership, including AI chief Ashok Elluswamy, believes that the approval in the Netherlands could create a domino effect that fast-tracks expansion across the entire region<\/a> and even globally.<\/p>\n

The RDW is currently presenting its findings to other EU countries, explaining the safety metrics and data that led to their landmark decision. Since Tesla started rolling out FSD (Supervised)<\/a> to the first public testers in the Netherlands last month, neighboring governments have been under pressure to ensure their residents aren’t left behind. The European version of the software even features exclusive UI changes and specialized behaviors<\/a> designed to comply with the unique road rules of the continent.<\/p>\n

Growing Pains Amidst Expansion<\/p>\n

While the expansion looks promising, it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. In the Netherlands, Tesla is discontinuing one-time FSD purchases<\/a> starting May 15, moving toward a subscription-only model like in North America. Additionally, some Dutch owners of older Hardware 3 (HW3) vehicles are organizing global action against Tesla<\/a> because FSD isn’t yet available for their cars, and because the company recently confirmed that unsupervised self-driving will not be possible<\/a> on them. <\/p>\n

Tesla has promised a distilled version of the latest FSD build<\/a> for these older vehicles later this summer, but many owners are frustrated by the wait. Despite these hurdles, the momentum in Belgium proves that European mobility is shifting toward autonomy. If the Flemish administration provides the “rapid homologation” De Ridder is looking for, Belgium could very well become the second major piece of the European FSD puzzle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The domino effect for Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving (FSD) in Europe is officially in motion. After the Netherlands became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5954,7,89,69,9651,9657,1023,9658,9652],"class_list":{"0":"post-14234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-approval","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-fsd","13":"tag-full-self-driving","14":"tag-netherlands","15":"tag-supervised","16":"tag-tesla"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116523420009770800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}