At the hardware and software level, Teslas sold in Europe are identical to those driven on American streets. Therefore, the driver-supervised version of FSD (Full Self-Driving) now arriving on the Old Continent is expected to be the same as the latest version in the U.S.—which has recently made significant strides, both in recognizing traffic signs and in eliminating false braking and false alarms.
FSD is legal on European roads. This legislative victory is the result of 18 months of work on a vast amount of documentation and data collection, as well as real-world testing to train the artificial intelligence on European roads—environments where not only driving habits differ from those in America, but the roads themselves are physically different (gradients, lane widths, etc.), and road markings and traffic signs vary from country to country, which the AI must correctly interpret.
Dozens of research studies have also been developed to prove the system's safety in real-world conditions. FSD still requires careful driver monitoring with eyes on the road (hence the emphasis on "Supervised" FSD), which is monitored at all times, thus remaining at SAE Level 2 autonomous driving, similar to Ford's BlueCruise and comparable systems. However, it is a Level 2 system that is increasingly approaching Level 4, as one might expect from autonomous taxis, such as those already operating in Europe (for example: Verne in Zagreb, Croatia).
The Netherlands is the first European country to introduce it. Late last year and early this year, Tesla accumulated real-world testing in countries such as Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, through a program where Europeans could experience FSD (Supervised) firsthand. The company states that over 13,000 people tested the system on European roads.
This led to the Netherlands being the first to approve it for everyday use, so Tesla customers in the Netherlands will gain access within a few days. For the rest of European countries, waiting is required—not for technological reasons, but because approval from the relevant authorities in each specific market is needed.
It will not be available only via subscription. In the Netherlands, it is already available, and here's the surprise. It was expected that FSD would be exclusively subscription-based, as has been the case in the U.S. since February of this year (when the old Autopilot was simultaneously deactivated). This option exists for new buyers of the Model 3 and Model Y, at a price of 99 euros per month.
However, it appears that it will also be possible to purchase FSD outright without a time limit. In that case, in the Netherlands, it is offered for around 7,500 euros as an optional extra. Of course, both options can be activated later directly from the car, just like other features.