AUSTIN, Texas — In a single week in May 2026, Tesla took two of the biggest steps yet toward making autonomous driving a global reality.
On May 21, Tesla confirmed that its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system is now available in China — ending years of regulatory delays in the world's largest EV market. Within hours, FSD expanded to Lithuania, becoming the second EU country to approve it after the Netherlands, triggering a mutual recognition process that could unlock the rest of Europe within months.
China: The Market Tesla Had to Win
China is the most competitive EV battleground on Earth, with rivals like BYD, NIO, and Huawei-backed brands racing to deploy their own intelligent driving systems. In China, FSD is available as a one-time purchase at 64,000 yuan (approximately $9,400 USD). Tesla is targeting full regulatory approval from Chinese authorities in Q3 2026 for fleet-wide deployment.
Europe: A Framework That Opens the Continent
The Netherlands' RDW authority granted approval after 18 months of testing across 1.6 million kilometers of European roads. Lithuania followed immediately via the EU's mutual recognition framework. Germany, France, and Italy are expected to follow before year-end. In Europe, FSD is available via subscription only, after Tesla eliminated the one-time purchase option worldwide in February 2026.
The Global Scoreboard
FSD Supervised is now active in 10 countries. Tesla has nearly 1.3 million paying FSD customers globally, targeting 10 million active subscriptions by 2035.
What This Means
Every Tesla driving with FSD active feeds data back into the neural network that makes the system smarter. With Chinese roads and European motorways now in the mix, Tesla's AI training dataset is becoming the most diverse in the world.
