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Introduction
Across Europe, a wave of astonishment is rising around Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised), and it began with a single test ride in France. A veteran tech journalist stepped into a Tesla expecting incremental progress—what he encountered instead left him stunned. At the same time, Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus is taking visible leaps toward real-world usefulness, and Elon Musk is once again warning legacy automakers that the future is arriving faster than anyone expected. While some companies insist on developing autonomy in-house, others quietly acknowledge they are falling behind. And in Los Angeles, a driverless Waymo taxi wandered into a live police standoff, triggering a digital firestorm.
This is the landscape: automation accelerating, old players hesitating, and the world reacting in real time.
Tesla FSD (Supervised) Leaves French Journalist “Mind-Blown”
Julien Cadot, a respected French tech journalist, finally got his long-awaited chance to test Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) on French roads—eight years after first trying the early Autopilot system. He expected incremental upgrades. Instead, he described the experience as “mind-blowing,” praising both the vehicle’s safety decisions and its strangely human-like driving patterns.
Cadot’s Anticipation Turns Into Shock
He announced the test on social media with excitement, noting that he had waited nearly a decade to revisit Tesla autonomy. Minutes after stepping out of the car, his reaction was explosive. He admitted he could not share too much before releasing his full video, but emphasized that FSD behaved with levels of confidence and finesse he did not expect from a machine.
Human-Like Maneuvers Impress
What surprised him most were the intimate, nearly instinctive maneuvers: overtaking a delivery truck by mere inches—something he said he would never dare to do to protect a rim. Yet FSD executed the move with precision. Its handling of cyclists was equally striking; the system consistently gave the mandated 1.5-meter passing distance, shifting into the opposite lane only when conditions were clear and safe.
“Not the Same Language” as Autopilot
When asked how FSD compares to the standard Autopilot Europeans know today, his answer was blunt: it’s “incomparable.” Autopilot feels rigid; FSD behaves like a seasoned driver navigating a complicated city. Examples included bypassing a blocked lane even when a solid white line was present, after performing a full safety check—something a human would do instinctively to keep traffic flowing.
Tesla’s European Push Expands
Tesla is now aggressively expanding FSD testing across Europe. Spain approved 19 FSD test vehicles, with nationwide routes permitted. Hiring patterns suggest Austria is next. Demonstrations continue in France, Germany, and Italy, building momentum toward a broad continental rollout.
Tesla Optimus Steps Into a New Phase of Capability
While FSD gains traction in Europe, Tesla’s robotics division is accelerating in parallel. Optimus—the company’s humanoid robot—recently displayed new physical abilities, including a light jog with natural-looking movement.
From Vision to Early Reality
Elon Musk has promoted Optimus as perhaps the most transformative product in modern history. Though early prototypes were experimental, the newest iterations appear more stable, agile, and functional. The robot is making public appearances, including at the NeurIPS conference, where observers recorded videos of its hand mechanics and charging system.
The Challenge of the Human Hand
Despite visible progress, Musk emphasizes that the key to unlocking Optimus’s usefulness lies in the hand. The human hand has evolved into an unmatched tool of precision, dexterity, and strength. Tesla’s engineers have discovered the sheer complexity of replicating its degrees of freedom, muscle strength variations, and finger lengths.
Why the Hand Matters Most
Movement and balance can be engineered; gripping, manipulating, and interacting with objects cannot be faked. Without a functional hand, Optimus cannot fold laundry, cook, clean, or assist with daily human tasks. Tesla knows this is the bottleneck—and is pouring resources into solving it.
Musk Warns Legacy Automakers: A New Déjà Vu Is Unfolding
Elon Musk recently expressed frustration that legacy automakers continue to ignore Tesla’s offer to license Full Self-Driving. To him, this echoes past warnings about electric vehicles—warnings competitors shrugged off until Tesla overtook them.
The EV Ignorance Cycle
A decade ago, major automakers dismissed electric vehicles as unprofitable experiments. They even scrapped early EV programs, choosing instead to double down on combustion engines. Then Tesla arrived with the Model S, followed by the Model 3, and the rest of the industry scrambled.
Now It’s Happening With Autonomy
Tesla has offered FSD licensing for years. No takers. Reasons vary—from pride to regulatory fear to cost—but the pattern is identical: dismiss first, regret later. Meanwhile, Tesla continues training its neural networks with real-world driving data, widening the gap every single day competitors hesitate.
Falling Behind Has Real Costs
Ford is slowing EV investment. GM’s autonomy programs have suffered internal turmoil. Other companies continue to retrofit outdated platforms with partial automation. Without a strategic shift, they risk losing an entire generation of customers who equate “future mobility” with autonomy.
The Consequences Move Beyond Market Share
Autonomy impacts safety, insurance, city planning, and even affordability. Tesla’s data already shows lower accident rates under FSD supervision compared to human drivers. If other companies fail to adapt, they may lose relevance in a category that will soon define the modern automobile.
Waymo’s Misstep in Los Angeles Raises Eyebrows
A driverless Waymo taxi recently caused a social media uproar after entering the perimeter of an active LAPD standoff in downtown Los Angeles. The vehicle made an unprotected left turn, rolled directly into an ongoing police action, and startled both officers and a suspect on the ground.
A Harmless but Embarrassing Incident
The vehicle cleared the area in seconds. No injuries occurred. Passengers were unaffected. Yet online reaction was immediate, pointing out the irony: if this had been a Tesla, the media would have erupted. Critics joked that a Tesla in the same situation would have faced lawsuits, federal investigations, and wall-to-wall news coverage.
A Double Standard Emerges
Tesla robotaxis in Austin faced huge attention for minor infractions. Waymo, in contrast, may avoid similar scrutiny despite driving into a police standoff. The inconsistency has sparked debate over whether public perception—rather than engineering performance—shapes the narrative around autonomous vehicles.
What Undercode Say:
The European response to Tesla FSD marks a turning point. For years, the continent has approached autonomous vehicles with caution, emphasizing regulation and controlled trials. Yet Julien Cadot’s reaction provides something regulations cannot dictate: genuine human awe. When a seasoned journalist calls a machine’s decisions “human,” this signals a paradigm shift.
Tesla’s advantage comes from scale, data, and iteration—three areas where competitors lag dramatically. FSD is not advancing because Tesla is perfect; it is advancing because Tesla is relentless. Millions of real-world miles feed a system that learns continuously. Traditional automakers operate with slower development cycles, siloed departments, and risk-averse cultures. That gap cannot be closed with money alone; it requires a structural overhaul.
On the robotics side, Optimus is quietly establishing Tesla as a future labor supplier. The moment its hands reach human-level dexterity, the robot transitions from novelty to utility. Factories, warehouses, and homes become potential markets overnight. Musk’s claim that Optimus could reduce human labor within two decades is not hyperbole—it is a projection based on visible progress and exponential improvement.
Legacy automakers, meanwhile, stand at a crossroads. Their refusal to adopt FSD reflects the same pattern that delayed their EV rollout. They want autonomy, but they want to build it themselves, even if that means arriving years late. The consequence is predictable: market share erosion, pressure from investors, and a growing dependence on companies that embraced innovation earlier.
Finally, the Waymo incident in Los Angeles exposes a cultural rift in the autonomy narrative. Tesla remains the lightning rod—praised by supporters, attacked by detractors, scrutinized by media. Others operate with far less attention. This imbalance shapes public trust and distorts the conversation about what autonomy really is: a technology still learning, still improving, and still unevenly judged.
Together, these developments paint a portrait of an industry in transition: robotic labor rising, autonomous driving maturing, and legacy companies watching the future unfold faster than they expected.
Fact Checker Results
✅ Tesla FSD tests are expanding across Europe, including Spain and France.
✅ Tesla Optimus has demonstrated new locomotion abilities and improved hand mechanics.
❌ No evidence supports claims that legacy automakers plan to license FSD soon.
Prediction
Autonomy will become the defining battleground of the next decade 🚗🤖. Legacy manufacturers will be forced into partnerships as their in-house programs fall behind. Meanwhile, Optimus will begin performing controlled labor tasks by mid-2030s, introducing a new era where robots and autonomous vehicles reshape daily human life.
🕵️📝✔️Let’s dive deep and fact‑check.
References:
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