Tesla leaned on Dutch regulator to ease its FSD review, emails show

This story is about Tesla's self-driving software, not home energy upgrades, but it ran alongside a sponsor note about solar, so here's the gist. Reuters obtained emails showing Tesla pushed the Dutch vehicle regulator, RDW, to scale back its review of "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)," including disputing a €365,000 bill for the regulator's work. RDW approved the system anyway and is now asking the European Union to do the same across the bloc. Eight EU countries currently allow FSD, and a bloc-wide vote could come as early as December, though it needs 15 of 27 member states representing 65% of the EU population.

Reuters also found that Tesla's safety claims rest on a small, methodologically weak study that measured things like hard braking and honking rather than actual crashes, and Tesla's own fine print says the data can't show cause and effect. Tesla has nonetheless told the public its technology could prevent most of Europe's road deaths. Separately, Tesla encouraged owners to pressure regulators directly, and public records show a wave of emails from fans to officials in Sweden and Norway.

For homeowners, this has no bearing on energy rebates or home upgrades. It's purely about whether Europe approves Tesla's driver-assist software, with Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden still undecided.