Your Daily Autonomous Vehicles Briefing

Tesla's FSD (Supervised) Gains European Foothold, While Waymo Navigates Urban Challenges and a Startup Faces Scrutiny After Duck Fatality

• The Dutch vehicle authority RDW granted type approval for Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software on April 10, 2026, under UN Regulation 171, making the Netherlands the first European nation to authorize the system. This approval, following 18 months of testing and 1.6 million kilometers of European road data, allows for hands-off driving under driver supervision and sets a precedent for potential EU-wide recognition by summer 2026. Tesla has already begun offering FSD (Supervised) demo drives in the Netherlands.

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• Tesla also released its FSD software version 14.3 on April 11, 2026, featuring a 20% improvement in reaction times and a new fleet learning system that enables vehicles to collectively learn from complex driving scenarios across the entire network. However, recent sightings of approximately 60 Tesla Cybercabs outside Gigafactory Texas on April 8, signaling mass production, revealed that all units included a visible steering wheel, contradicting CEO Elon Musk's prior assertions that the Cybercab would have no pedals or steering wheel.

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• Waymo has expanded its robotaxi service to Nashville, bringing its total operational cities to eleven. However, within the first five days of the Nashville rollout, videos surfaced showing Waymo's self-driving cars struggling with urban traffic, idling in intersections, and stalling around pedestrians and other obstacles, leading to frustration among local road users. Separately, Waymo announced its sixth-generation robotaxi system for 2026, which aims for cost-effectiveness by utilizing fewer sensors, including powerful 17-megapixel cameras and reengineered short-range lidar.

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• In a concerning incident on April 12, 2026, an autonomous vehicle operated by the startup Avride struck and killed a mother duck in Austin, Texas, and reportedly did not stop. Witnesses claimed the car ran a stop sign, though Avride denies this based on vehicle data and has launched an investigation, adjusting routes to avoid the area. This event has sparked public outrage and raised questions about the safety of self-driving cars in unpredictable situations involving wildlife and pedestrians.

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