It is there. Lithuania just approved it. The second stop. After the Netherlands cleared the way last month, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system has found another European home.
Why rush? Well, actually. It matters to the boss. Elon Musk isn’t just selling cars anymore. He’s betting the farm on AI. Robotics. A different identity entirely. His massive $1 trillion pay packet hangs on hitting specific targets. One of them is big: 10 million active FSD subscribers by 2035. That’s the number that counts. Right now, they’ve got nearly 1.3 million globally. That’s it. A long, steep climb from there.
The software has been around since late 2020, labeled beta. It updates regularly to squish bugs, steering and changing lanes and parking itself. You used to buy it outright. Not anymore. January marked a shift. Now you rent it. Ninety-nine dollars a month. Just for the privilege.
Europe is slow. Not furious, certainly. Regulators watch with crossed arms, unlike in the US. Approval is a bottleneck. For now, only the Netherlands and Lithuania let it run. But there’s a loophole, maybe a shortcut. The Dutch regulator, the RDW, handled the first approval. They are pushing for that certification to hold weight across the entire EU. If it sticks? Rollout gets faster.
Some places are waiting in line.
The Greek transport ministry dropped a bill last Wednesday, aiming to greenlight FSD.
Belgium seems close too, mimicking the Dutch process. It’s not just Europe. You can also find this software in Australia, Canada, and Mexico. New Zealand. Puerto Rico. South Korea. The States, obviously.
FSD fits the Musk dream. But it is also the only one actually in customers’ hands.
What about the fully autonomous stuff? The version without a driver watching? That’s FSD Unsupervised. It doesn’t exist for you. Not yet. It’s stuck in a tiny fleet of robotaxis—about fifty cars, if you want to be generous—crawling through Austin, Dallas, and that big city of Houston.
And Optimus, the robot man?
Nowhere near production. Still just a concept, mostly.
The European road is narrow, paved with caution, and only two cars are allowed to drive on it today. Who gets third place next? Nobody really knows. Maybe Greece. Maybe just time.
