Autoblog and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article.Tesla is aiming to have its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" semi-autonomous driving technology approved in regions beyond America's borders, particularly Europe, but the way it is going about this process is raising eyebrows and red flags. Tesla has reportedly been misleading in its presentation of safety statistics, claiming that the use of FSD makes roads up to 10 times safer than when only human driving skill is at play. Reuters says Tesla used several invalid data comparisons to underline its statistics, exaggerating their efficacy in presentations to some European regulators.Tesla's Exaggerated Claims of Safety Are QuestionableTeslaTesla began the process of having FSD approved in the Netherlands in late 2024, sending its data to RDW, the Dutch road regulator. The automaker sent RDW a letter in November 2024 claiming that "increased usage" of FSD "leads to safer roads," and after more than a year, FSD was approved in the Netherlands in April of this year. Reuters approached RDW, questioning whether the regulator used Tesla's data to evaluate FSD, and while RDW declined to comment on the issues Reuters found, it said in a statement that it "does not rely on marketing claims or external statistics," instead performing its own tests of the technology on public roads and test tracks. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment, but since receiving approval in the Netherlands, it has begun courting Swedish regulatory approval, claiming that FSD can travel more than seven times as far between crashes as the average U.S. human driver, with the potential to save 32,000 lives and prevent 1.9 million injuries.AdvertisementAdvertisementRelated: Tesla's Unsupervised Robotaxis Are Expanding Across Austin MetroWhat makes these claims particularly misleading is that they are based on the assumption that every U.S. vehicle, including lorries and motorcycles, is replaced by an FSD-enabled Tesla that is at least seven times safer than the vehicle it replaces. In addition, Reuters found that Tesla exaggerated safety by comparing the rate of accidents in FSD-enabled Teslas that triggered airbag deployments to a U.S. crash rate for all vehicles that includes far less severe crashes. In other words, while FSD may well help improve aggregate safety statistics, the way in which Tesla is presenting the benefits of its tech makes FSD look far more effective than it could realistically be.Why Tesla's FSD Push in Europe Matters WorldwideTeslaTesla gaining FSD approval across Europe would make its products more attractive in a market that is currently being dominated by Chinese brands, and getting more data from FSD deployment in Europe would lead to benefits for the tech in every market. The more FSD is used, and the more problems appear in the real world, the sooner Tesla can improve the system, but on the flip side, FSD being approved based on misleading data could have serious consequences. Hopefully, European regulators will take Tesla's stats with a pinch of salt, and hopefully, each country will make its decisions based on independent testing. EU states will soon vote on legalizing FSD, with individual member states able to approve it on their own in the meantime.This story was originally published by Autoblog on Jun 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Autoblog as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
+12 others
