Dutch transportation minister defends Tesla FSD approval

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM, June 16 (Reuters) - The Netherlands' transportation minister on Tuesday denied the country's influential RDW authority had relied on statistics submitted by Tesla as the basis of its approval of the company's "Full Self Driving (supervised)" software for use on Dutch roads.

The RDW approved the Tesla software on April 10 in a European first, saying it believed it would make a positive contribution to safety. The agency has proposed to the European Union that FSD be approved for use throughout the 27-nation bloc, leading to additional preliminary approvals in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.

Minister Vincent Karremans, who oversees infrastructure, faced questions in parliament following a Reuters story that said Tesla had presented misleading safety statistics to the RDW and other European agencies in the run-up to the approval.

Karremans said it was possible to question Tesla-presented statistics, but that they had not formed the basis of the RDW's approval.

"We have asked the RDW about that, and the answer is that this was not the case," he said, adding that RDW approval was based on its own "independently verified testing."

MINISTER SAYS NO INCIDENTS YET

Tesla's FSD is a driver assistance system that can accelerate, brake, and steer a car. Drivers must keep their eyes on the road and remain ready to take the wheel.

Karremans said that Teslas equipped with the system had so far driven 24 million miles on Dutch roads "without any noteworthy incident".

That is broadly in line with a Tesla Europe statement on X on June 9 in which it said cars equipped with the software had so driven 23.6 million kilometers (15 million miles) in the Netherlands with no highway collisions and three collisions on smaller roads. Tesla's statement covered the April 10-June 5 period.

The RDW could not immediately confirm the Tesla statement. It said it had not relied on Tesla-submitted data in its assessment.

“The RDW takes note of all information provided by manufacturers but bases its decisions solely on an independent, comprehensive assessment in accordance with European regulations," it told Reuters in an emailed answer to questions.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Barbara Lewis)