Day: September 3, 2025

• Tesla has been stoking excitement for its self-driving software in Europe.
• Documents show the automaker’s push to deploy Full Self-Driving — and regulators’ caution.
• It has faced increased competition in the region from Chinese rival BYD.

For nearly a year, Tesla has been teasing a European rollout of Full Self-Driving, its driver-assist software. It has posted videos of its cars navigating narrow Roman streets, busy German boulevards, and Paris’s Arc de Triomphe — all while touting an ambitious timeline for the product.

To get there, the automaker has had to contend with what CEO Elon Musk has called a “layer cake of bureaucracy.” As Tesla has pushed for approval of a system it says is four times safer than human drivers, European regulators have moved slowly, requiring a level of testing and oversight far beyond that of their US counterparts.

Internal Dutch regulatory records reviewed by Business Insider show Tesla has taken a carrot-and-stick approach in its efforts to expand its Full Self-Driving system in Europe. Dutch officials, who hold the keys to EU-wide authorization, have moved more cautiously.

The mismatch underscores challenges that Tesla faces in its push to deploy self-driving technology as it confronts slowing sales — as well as a less enthusiastic European public and stricter regulatory environment.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. The Netherlands Vehicle Authority, known as the RDW, said that it couldn’t answer questions by Business Insider’s deadline because staffers were on vacation.

The Dutch chokepoint

Tesla employees have expressed impatience with the extensive testing the RDW has required and the slow pace of its processes.

“Keep in mind that this is mission critical for our leadership,” a Tesla employee wrote in an email to the RDW last November, urging the agency to approve Tesla’s testing permit by the end of the month.

Tesla’s dealings with the RDW are key to the company’s self-driving efforts across Europe. The company has asked the agency to help it get its Full Self Driving system approved across the EU, the records show. (Despite its name, Full Self Driving requires a licensed operator behind the steering wheel, paying attention and ready to take the wheel, at all times.)

The RDW documents cover a period from September 2024 to January 2025, and show that Tesla met weekly with regulators beginning in October. As of December, regulators had approved nine vehicles for testing in the country.

Starting last year, Tesla also sought permission to test vehicles equipped with FSD software in Denmark and Norway, according to records shared with Business Insider by Kees Roelandschap, a Tesla fan in the Netherlands who has closely followed its regulatory moves in Europe.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration declined to comment. A representative for the Danish Road Traffic Authority confirmed Tesla received permission to test FSD this spring and “regularly informs us about the process.”

While Tesla’s vehicles are allowed on European roads, their self-driving capabilities are much more limited than in the US. Maneuvers such as highway lane changes require driver approval, and the vehicles generally cannot navigate intersections on their own.

“It’s very restrictive here, and it’s due to the regulations,” said Roelandschap. “Roundabouts, forget it. It will brake for traffic lights, but it will also brake for those lights in front of a railroad crossing.”

The tension between Tesla and the RDW comes at a crucial juncture for the car company. Musk said in July that the carmaker hoped FSD would help buoy sales.

The company’s stock price is down about 18% year-to-date, and it has cut prices in response to more competition and slumping demand in some markets. In Europe, Tesla sales through the first four months of 2025 were only about half of what they were in the first four months of 2024, with Chinese competitors like BYD making gains, according to Jato Dynamics.

Tesla’s campaign for approval

The number of vehicles Tesla delivered globally grew nearly tenfold from 2017 to 2022, helped along by sales growth in Europe, which accounted for about a fifth of its deliveries in 2023. The company has had a presence in Europe since it opened a hub in the Netherlands in 2013.

In its quest to have FSD approved, Tesla has at times pursued a charm offensive, the documents show.

Tesla made plans for Musk to meet with RDW staff when they visited Tesla facilities in California, and the company shelled out around $30,000 to bring a group of RDW staff to its engineering headquarters in Palo Alto in November 2024.

It held an FSD “Experience Day” in the parking lot of the RDW’s headquarters in Zoetermeer, welcoming regulatory staff to get behind the wheel of its automated cars. Musk personally spoke with the RDW’s two managers in January; afterward, a Tesla employee wrote in an email that they made “good points,” and Musk “gets it now better.”

In emails, Tesla employees appeared frustrated with the permits the company has been asked to obtain, the tests it has been required to conduct, and scheduling and communications issues with RDW employees.

They said an accelerated testing timeline was crucial to its success and asked the agency to “be more reasonable in their requests,” claiming a testing snafu cost “valuable time.” They also argued that European drivers were missing out on new technology.

“The system we are applying for in this letter has been made available to customers in North America since 2018 and is constantly updated to improve its safety and its capabilities ever since,” Tesla wrote in a November 2024 letter.

Tesla released its FSD software in the US to a limited group of drivers in 2020 and to paying customers across North America in 2022. The carmaker estimates that more than a billion miles have been driven using FSD. In the US, the software can recognize stop lights, change lanes, and execute turns, though it has been faulted for sometimes ignoring traffic laws.

Still, the RDW has proceeded cautiously. In November 2024, when Tesla said initiating FSD testing in the Netherlands that month was “mission critical,” regulators said that they were working on a plan for the project.

Tesla did not receive approval to begin testing until more than a month later.

Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call in January that the company aimed for the RDW to present Tesla’s technology to the EU in May 2025.

The RDW appears to still be deliberating. In March, the Netherlands told members of a European Commission technical advisory group that an unnamed manufacturer would soon submit an application to the group for approval of a self-driving technology. As of June, the group’s minutes indicated that the RDW “is still assessing the feasibility of the application.”

John Creamer, an auto-industry consultant, said in an email that European regulations on driver-control assistance systems haven’t kept pace with technology used by the likes of Tesla. Such regulations probably won’t be implemented until late 2026 or 2027, he said.

Unlike the US, where multiple companies, including Waymo and Zoox, have released autonomous vehicles in select cities, no AVs have been released in the Netherlands to date. Multiple AV companies are testing in Germany.

In an internal memo from October, agency staff proposed closely coordinating with its parent ministry, and, once Tesla finishes gathering testing data, making a “joint Go/NoGo decision” as to whether to allow Tesla to roll out FSD across the country. The parent ministry said it would not be involved in that decision and that the RDW memo overstated its role.

In the past, the RDW has been criticized for moving too quickly in Tesla’s favor. Earlier this year, an RDW whistleblower accused the agency of allowing Tesla to abuse a regulatory loophole in 2015 to deploy its Autopilot software, an advanced driver assistance system used on highways. The regulator told Dutch broadcaster BNNVARA that it stood by its decision.

A clash of systems

Europe’s automotive industry has historically been much more regulated than its US counterpart. While American automakers can self-certify that they have complied with federal safety standards, a car cannot be sold in Europe unless and until it has been “type approved” by regulators or their testing partners.

Approval for self-driving cars has hewed closely to this precedent.

The US has become the “Wild West” for autonomous vehicles, Missy Cummings, a former safety advisor for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, previously told Business Insider.

“There is very little regulation around training or informing the public about testing,” she said in October 2024.

Texas is in the process of launching new AV regulations, but until recently, the state operated on an honor code. To launch a version of its Robotaxi service in Texas earlier this summer, Tesla was only required to provide proof of insurance. In California, where the company has been testing since 2014, it’s required to submit information about incidents where operators take over from the software, and it must pass several milestones before it can begin operating on public roads.

By contrast, Europe’s type-approval regulations require testing by a government or independent technical service, and sometimes factory inspections, before a car or automobile component is allowed on the market. Creamer, the automotive regulatory consultant, said the RDW is widely respected and is among a small group of European regulators that are seen as highly engaged on autonomous driving issues.

Before starting testing this past fall, Tesla had to have its vehicles’ cybersecurity and software update management practices audited. Tesla also had to conduct an electromagnetic interference test in California that an RDW inspector witnessed via videoconference.

Over-the-air software updates also posed an issue for the handful of test vehicles that the RDW has authorized. In a December 2024 email, an RDW employee told Tesla that its vehicles couldn’t leave a parking lot until the latest version of its software was approved. It’s not clear from the emails how long that took.

In the US, by contrast, Tesla regularly releases new software updates without the piecemeal approval of regulators. It regularly tests out multiple different prototype versions of its AV software in a week, Business Insider previously reported.

In January, Tesla sought permission to conduct an over-the-air software update for a vehicle that was involved in an unspecified “incident,” according to the documents. It’s unclear what the incident entailed.

In the meantime, Musk continues to vent his frustration on X.

“Tesla is waiting for EU approval (sigh),” he wrote in May.

• Angelisa Cuniff is a 27-year-old marketing professional with $25,000 in credit card debt.
• Lifestyle creep and golden handcuffs contributed to her financial struggles, despite a six-figure salary.
• She now focuses on reducing isolation, building community, and learning financial resourcefulness.

I have $25,000 in credit card debt at age 27. The day I totaled that number, I remember thinking, Is it cheaper to die? My thought was that funerals were a little less than $10,000, and I had racked up more than double that. I was doomed.

At my most broke, I’m also making the most money I have across my six-year career. I recently started a marketing position, making well over six figures, three days a week, in person in New York City.

How did I end up here, essentially working to pay back what I owe?

I cracked 6 figures in 2023

My former boss gave me a promotion at my old company that put me just over the six-figure mark in 2023, at the ripe age of 25. She sounded giddy when she called, telling me, “When I finally hit that six-figure mark, I remember being so excited. How do you feel?”

I remember searching inside for that “I made it!” feeling and finding nothing. The truth was, I was deeply struggling with the responsibilities of that job, and making poor decisions based on my newfound financial freedom.

It was my first year living alone. That January, I signed a lease with my dad as a guarantor for $2,900 a month, assuming that once I made more money, I would be able to cover it comfortably. That wasn’t the case.

I fell victim to lifestyle creep

My spending patterns still reflected what I had the leeway to do when I was paying a fraction of rent ($1150 a month) with roommates: I bought flights to see friends cross-country, put other trips on a credit card that I had yet to pay off, and picked out brand-new furniture for my brand-new place before I had the cash.

It wasn’t long before I realized the discordance. My emergency savings turned into my regular savings, and six months into that apartment, I knew it would take me years to build up a safety net. The promise of independence started to feel like a trap.

I realized I had fallen into the golden handcuffs

My workplace structure was also sending me into a spiral. I learned about the term golden handcuffs, and I wondered if this applied to me and exacerbated the issues I was having financially.

My former position offered the opportunity to travel, but I often covered billable expenses on my personal card, with delayed repayment from our tiny finance department. I was paid my six-figure salary, but only with one lump sum payment a month, which made budgeting extremely difficult.

It was a remote position that offered “flexibility” and “stability,” but because of the long hours and difficult projects, the flexibility was usually just me sitting in my apartment working after hours to try to meet deadlines. I was isolated, and my world felt incredibly small.

How empty I felt doing everything right on paper gave me the sense that I was failing at something, which led me to put even more hours in at work to feel like I was earning my keep, which was then almost immediately spent.

This was the role I based my lifestyle on before a recruiter reached out on LinkedIn, and I ended up at my current company.

When I think back to the purchases that led me to debt, I know I could’ve made better decisions

I do have compassion because many of these purchases were out of convenience, to give myself a break from burnout, and to attempt to maintain community through events, trips, and rare chances to see my people. Living with roommates previously had guaranteed me a community I took for granted, which I deeply missed.

Another huge cost for me that accrued a significant amount of interest was therapy, which my insurance didn’t fully cover. I thought if I worked a little harder on myself, I could fix my external stressors. This simply was not the case.

I was exhausted, depressed, and lonely. My values of freedom, community, and love were being quashed by reality.

Inflation over the last few years hasn’t helped, especially for young people starting their lives

In terms of debt, I know I’m not alone: thousands of women on TikTok create accounts and post their credit card debt, block their loved ones, and document their payoff journeys.

I feel a sense of camaraderie with them and understand their shame: Who wants to admit they fumbled when the rules are supposedly so clear? Spend less than you make, and invest the gap.

Instead, each morning, I wake up and pull up my three main banking apps on rotation, just in case a charge I do not recognize slips through.

Finances are inextricably linked with emotions

One of the antidotes to financial despair, for me, has been reducing isolation and building community. My new job covers my key living expenses and allows me to be in person, which has already given me a burst of energy and excitement, as well as structure to get me out of the house.

Once my previous lease cycle ended, I scraped together enough cash (shout out to Depop and Facebook Marketplace) to move to a place with fewer frills than my old amenity building, on the corner from some of my closest friends in the neighborhood. My weekends are no longer booked with business flights, and I’ve put a pause on traveling for leisure.

I’m trying to approach this time in my life with gratitude for learning financial lessons the hard way

A positive outcome of this has been acquiring the skill of resourcefulness and the awareness of how much I’m consuming, which I see as a gift. I’ve started to work with what I have and become creative with clothing, food, and household items.

When I go to the grocery store, I buy exactly what I need for the week and stretch it far. This has led to a much deeper sense of presence in my life, which I don’t take for granted.

I feel a sense of hope with my work-in-progress financial state and like I’m actively working toward building a life that’s both sustainable and successful.

• Yaro Shcherbanyuk purchased a deteriorating 1966 straight-six engine Mustang for around $10,000.
• He spent around two years turning the car into an EV using the guts of a 2024 Tesla Model 3.
• The car was retrofitted with Tesla’s external cameras so that it can have Full Self-Driving.

Yaro Shcherbanyuk owns the quietest 1966 Ford Mustang you’ve ever heard.

That’s because under the hood of the cherry red Ford isn’t the original straight-six engine that came stock in the car — it’s a drivetrain from a 2024 Tesla Model 3.

“We’ve always sold components to people who do EV conversions,” Shcherbanyuk told Business Insider. “We figured, why don’t we try doing one?”

In the summer of 2022, Shcherbanyuk, the owner of Calimotive, a Tesla auto parts shop in the Sacramento area, found a white 1966 Mustang on sale on Facebook Marketplace.

The Mustang became a passion project that he worked on for about two years with his dad, Viktor, and brother Daniel.

In total, Shcherbanyuk said it cost around $40,000 to convert the Mustang into an EV — and yes, the car is equipped with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system.

“It’s pretty smooth,” Shcherbanyuk said. “You feel like you’re in a Tesla.”

Here’s a look at the process of the conversion.

Tesla and Ford did not respond to a request for comment.

Shcherbanyuk picked up the ’66 Mustang for about $10,000

Shcherbanyuk said he didn’t have a specific car in mind for his conversion project. He and his brother only knew they wanted a classic car.

Shcherbanyuk found a ’66 Mustang located in Reno and had a local tow truck driver pick it up. The car looked better in photos than in person, Shcherbanyuk said.

“We probably overpaid a little bit for it, but it’s OK,” Shcherbanyuk said. “We weren’t sure what we were going to do. I just wanted something running and in OK condition.”

The Mustang seemed to be on its last legs.

“Realistically, this car would’ve went into the scrapyard in a few years,” he said.

The Calimotive owner did not have a detailed plan going into the project

There was no blueprint Shcherbanyuk could follow to convert the Mustang.

“We were just kind of going with the flow,” he said.

At first, his family considered fitting the Mustang with components from a Model S. But once he stripped down the car, Shcherbanyuk realized that the Model 3 battery was nearly a perfect fit.

He said he was able to use the entire chassis of the Model 3.

“It’s pretty much almost like the ‘skateboard’ of a Model 3, but cut into three sections to fit pretty much within that Mustang wheelbase,” he said.

Some fabrication was required to fit the Tesla components underneath the Mustang’s hood

Almost everything that can be found under the hood of the Tesla Model 3 can be found under the hood of the Mustang.

Fitting all the components involved cutting out parts of the Tesla Model 3 frame and welding them onto the Mustang.

“There were a lot of fabrications that needed to be done,” Shcherbanyuk said.

The Mustang’s interior is equipped with the Model 3’s 15-inch screen

The interior is a mix of the past and present.

The seats, taken from a Tesla, have heating and cooling, but the windows have to be rolled down with a hand crank.

Shcherbanyuk installed Tesla’s main media console in the car, which allowed him to control the vehicle’s functions through the 15-inch screen and receive regular firmware updates.

The original ’66 Mustang also did not have air conditioning. This one does.

Not all of the functions of the original Tesla are available in the Mustang.

For example, the air vents are manually adjusted and can’t be controlled with the touchscreen. Some firmware updates are also no longer available for the converted car.

“We have the Cybertruck steering wheel, and that thing never updates, although it does work perfectly fine,” Shcherbanyuk said.

The Mustang can be charged at ANY Tesla charging station

Shcherbanyuk installed the Tesla charging port in the same spot where the ’66 Mustang’s gas cap was originally located: at the rear of the car.

Shcherbanyuk said he has been able to get 258 watt-hours per mile, which would be just as efficient as, if not more than, a Tesla.

During a test drive on a Thursday afternoon, the Mustang-Tesla’s screen indicated that it had 194 miles of range left at around 80% battery.

This could be the only ’66 Mustang with Autopilot

The Mustang was retrofitted with Tesla’s cameras, which are critical for functions such as Sentry Mode and backing up, and for a key feature of every Tesla: Autopilot and Full Self-Driving.

Shcherbanyuk said he initially did not know if he’d attempt to install the components needed for the advanced driver-assistance system to work.

“How the Autopilot actually came to be was that we wanted to put the Model 3 power steering rack in there to have power steering,” he said. “And then once we threw that in there, we were like, ‘We might as well just start putting the cameras and everything else in there.'”

Getting FSD to work was one of the biggest challenges of the project

According to Shcherbanyuk, getting FSD fully operational required some experimentation with the placement and angling of the cameras on the Mustang’s fender.

Then he had to drive the car about 2,000 miles to get the cameras properly calibrated.

“Biggest challenge was probably getting Full Self-Driving to work,” he said. “It was just very, very time-consuming.”

The FSD on the Mustang still has some kinks that a normal Tesla wouldn’t experience.

During FSD’s “chill” mode, Shcherbanyuk encountered a few moments where he took control of the steering wheel.

The Mustang’s body is also longer than a Model 3. That means the FSD gets a bit closer to the car in front when the Mustang approaches a stop, Shcherbanyuk said.

For now, FSD also doesn’t operate at night due to technical issues with the headlights that Shcherbanyuk still needs to resolve.

In total, the project cost $40K and eight months of actual labor

The conversion project took nearly two years to finish, with eight months of actual labor put into the vehicle, Shcherbanyuk said.

Considering the $10,000 for the Mustang, about $15,000 for the Model 3 components, other replacement parts, and the paint job, Shcherbanyuk estimated the total cost of the conversion to be around $40,000.

There were a few car purists who thought Shcherbanyuk’s project a sacrilegious act against such an iconic American vehicle. Still, the Calimotive owner said most people have been enthusiastic about the conversion, and he’s gotten requests for conversions.

Shcherbanyuk said he’d likely build another Mustang if he winds up selling this one.

“Most people don’t get how much labor is needed to do something like this,” he said.