Tesla's FSD read 30, showed 50 and averaged 44km in Brussels

FSD sped in 55 percent of the 30 km/h zones it entered

Johanna.be, a Brussels group that campaigns for people on foot and on bikes, spent three days and about 400 km in July↗ with a Tesla running Full Self-Driving, on the low-speed streets where a mistake is most likely to kill ¹². The camera read 30, the dashboard said 50, and the car averaged 44 ¹². FSD broke the limit in 55 percent of tested 30 km/h segments and the 20 km/h cap in 42 percent of shared residential streets, averaging 44 km/h where 30 is legal ².

The screen said 50 in nine of ten zones

In 90 percent of the 30 zones the screen settled on 50 after the sign had been read, "akin to a passenger constantly reassuring the driver that the speed limit is 50 km/h" ¹². On cycle streets, where Belgian law forbids passing cyclists at all, it tried to pass the same rider four times, the safety driver intervening each time ¹. A pedestrian hit at 44 km/h is nearly six times likelier to die than one hit at 30, on WHO figures the group cites↗ ³.

The report went to the Dutch regulator RDW and the Flemish mobility ministry on 7 September, urging both to reassess their approvals ².

One Dutch file, recognized without re-testing

RDW approved FSD provisionally in April under the EU's exemption route for new technology, on testing done in Dutch conditions ⁵⁹. Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Czechia then recognized that assessment rather than putting the car on their own roads ²⁹. The 400 km through Brussels is the closest thing the file has to an independent road check ⁹.

On 29 September the European Transport Safety Council told member states to reject the speed offset↗, which can lift the car's ceiling as much as 50 percent above the limit it detects, along with a feature that matches traffic speed: neither was in the Dutch file's exemptions ⁴⁷¹⁰.

Tesla's defense is Tesla's data

Tesla's own September study says FSD cars do not speed excessively and match the speed of surrounding traffic↗ ⁶; Elon Musk says delay "will cost lives" ⁴; the Flemish ministry calls the software a learning system whose driver remains 100 percent responsible ⁶. A liability rule settles who pays the ticket. It does not slow the car.

No vote in October, and the arithmetic is not there

The 6 October agenda carries a 25-minute discussion slot and no vote↗, and the committee next sits in December ⁵. The seven states behind the Dutch file hold roughly 12 percent of the EU's population against a 65 percent bar, with France, Germany, Italy and Spain still outside ⁵. Tesla says Croatia approved on 29 September, an eighth state ⁸.

The beneficiary list writes itself: safety groups hold the first measured record to put in front of the committee, and incumbent driver-assistance suppliers sell against a system filmed trying to pass one cyclist four times ¹⁶. December turns on the arithmetic, not the advocacy.