Study finds Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) keeps breaking traffic rules

A Belgian mobility NGO examined how Tesla's Full Self-Driving system behaves on the road and uncovered significant shortcomings in its compliance with traffic rules. The study was conducted in July 2026, primarily in Brussels, with researchers driving around 400 km through the city over three days, as well as making a few trips in Flanders and Wallonia.

The study deliberately focused on situations where pedestrians and cyclists should receive particular protection, especially in 30 km/h zones, residential streets with a 20 km/h limit, and bicycle streets.

The autonomous Tesla exceeded the speed limit in a 30 km/h zone in more than half of all cases (55 percent). When the speed limit was exceeded, the actual speed averaged 44 km/h instead of 30 km/h, or around 47 percent above the limit.

But why did this happen? According to the study, a 30 km/h sign was often initially recognized correctly, but the driver was then shown a persistent speed limit of 50 km/h. The researchers say this happened in 90 percent of the tested 30 km/h zones. In other words, the camera correctly detected 30 km/h, but the system apparently adopted 50 km/h when processing the camera data.

Tesla's driving system also apparently did not know Belgium's traffic rules. On bicycle streets, the autonomous driving system repeatedly attempted to overtake cyclists, even though this is strictly prohibited in Belgium. During one test, the vehicle attempted to overtake the same cyclist four times, with the human driver having to intervene each time.

The approval process for FSD is particularly interesting: In the EU, FSD is not legally considered an "autonomous car," meaning the driver remains legally responsible and must stay alert at all times in order to intervene. Tesla's FSD was approved in the Netherlands and that approval is only provisional. Other EU countries have in some cases adopted the approval without conducting a new assessment. Apparently, this failed to uncover the fact that Tesla's FSD does not always recognize country-specific traffic rules (for example, the prohibition on overtaking cyclists on bicycle streets in Belgium).