3 minTesla's first big European FSD safety report: 65 million km and six collisions
Tesla says FSD (Supervised) was 5.2 times safer than manual driving across five EU countries. Here are the numbers behind the claim, how they compare, and what they cannot tell us yet.
Tesla has published its first broad set of safety figures for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in Europe. In a post from its European account on July 29, 2026, Tesla said the system was "5.2 times safer than manual driving" across about 65 million km in the five EU countries where it is approved.
Those countries are the Netherlands, which approved FSD first in April, followed by Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Belgium. Data collection in each country started on the day FSD was approved there.
The numbers
- Distance on FSD: about 65.7 million km in total, of which 41.9 million km on highways and 23.8 million km on other roads.
- Highways: zero collisions on FSD. Manually driven Teslas had 88 collisions in 429.3 million km. Tesla calls FSD 8.5 times safer here.
- Other roads: six collisions on FSD. Manually driven Teslas had 368 collisions in 514.5 million km. Tesla calls FSD 2.8 times safer.
- Driving style: Tesla also reported far fewer automatic emergency braking events (13.4 times fewer), harsh braking, harsh acceleration and sharp swerves on FSD.
In plain terms: on ordinary roads, Teslas on FSD had about one collision per 4 million km, against about one per 1.4 million km for Teslas driven by hand. Overall, six collisions in 65.7 million km against 456 in 943.8 million km works out to roughly the 5.2 times Tesla claims.
A tougher comparison than in the US
One detail makes these figures more interesting than Tesla's usual American safety reports. In the US, Tesla often compares its cars with the general driving population, which includes older cars without modern safety systems. In Europe, the baseline is other Teslas driven manually with the same active safety features switched on. The main difference between the two groups is whether FSD was engaged.
The trend is also positive. Tesla's earlier report, covering only the Netherlands, put FSD at 3.5 times safer.
What the data does not show
- No independent check: these are Tesla's own figures, shared on social media, without an outside audit.
- Definitions: Tesla has not explained exactly what counts as a collision or how its multipliers are calculated. The 8.5 times figure for highways is especially unclear, because zero collisions cannot be divided into a clean ratio.
- Small numbers: six collisions is a small sample. A handful of extra crashes would change the off-highway figure noticeably.
- Where FSD is used: drivers may switch FSD on mostly in easy conditions and drive manually when things get tricky, which would flatter the system. The data does not correct for that.
- Supervision: every FSD kilometre had an attentive driver ready to take over. The figures say something about car plus driver, not about the software alone.
Why it matters
The timing is not a coincidence. Tesla wants approval in all of Europe, and an EU-level vote is expected in October. Not every country is convinced; Sweden and France have been among the more hesitant voices. Solid European data, gathered under European rules, is exactly what regulators have been asking for, and it carries more weight than US statistics from very different roads.
What to watch next
- Regular reporting: whether Tesla publishes these figures on a fixed schedule, as more countries come on board.
- Details: clear definitions and, ideally, data shared directly with regulators such as the Dutch RDW, which already requires Tesla to report safety-critical incidents.
- The EU vote: whether these numbers help move the countries that still have doubts.
