Tesla dials back European driver-assist speed cap to 10% over the limit

The Netherlands' vehicle authority, RDW, confirmed it signed off on a software update that reins in how far Tesla's driver-assistance system can exceed posted speed limits. The margin now tops out at 10%, down from 50%, and the feature formerly branded "FSD Supervised" is officially called Tesla Assisted Driving.

The old setup was generous to a fault. Under the previous configuration, the system could drift up to 50% past the detected limit for what Tesla framed as safety and traffic flow — meaning 150 km/h on a 100 km/h highway, or 45 km/h in a 30 km/h city zone. The new cap also resets to 0% every time the car starts, and the RDW said other speed-related functions are now off by default, without specifying which ones.

The rebrand shows up on the in-car display, in the owner's manual and in other driver information on HW4 vehicles. Tesla ships the whole thing over the air. The RDW described the package as "several minor changes" Tesla asked it to assess, said it checked the implementation and found no adverse or unintended effects, and folded it into the existing type approval without amending or extending it. The regulator also stressed the rename doesn't alter what the system does — it's still driver assistance, and the driver stays responsible.

The RDW notified the nine member states that recognize its approval: Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Add the Netherlands and that's 10 countries, up from eight at the start of October.

Speed has been Tesla's sore spot in Brussels. Sweden asked the EU in June to reject the system unless Tesla killed the ability to set speeds above the posted limit. In September, a Brussels pedestrian safety group caught the system speeding in 55% of the 30 km/h stretches it tested. France has pointed to urban speeding as a reason 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 and cap speed tolerance at 10%. Today's update delivers both — but it's not the zero-tolerance line Sweden wanted.

The bloc-wide call still rests with the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles, whose talks the RDW calls confidential and won't discuss. The EU has pushed the vote to December at the earliest, and passage needs a qualified majority: 15 of 27 member states representing at least 65% of the EU population. A 10% cap may be enough for France, Italy and Spain — or it may not. And as critics note, capping the overage doesn't fix the deeper issue: the system still struggles to read the actual speed limit. Meanwhile, Tesla keeps selling the same software in the US as "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" for $99 a month.