“I waited seven years!” : Tesla owners in Europe demand $7,500 refund as fully autonomous driving blocked for older vehicles

Fully autonomous driving was recently legalized in the Netherlands
Furious Dutch Model 3 owner feels many are being left behind
Thousands of participants have joined a growing petition against Tesla

There is growing pressure on Tesla to compensate buyers after a Dutch Model 3 owner took to X to express anger at the company for failing to recognize customers who had already paid for Fully Self-Driving (FSD), but cannot use it due to owning older hardware.

Mischa Sigtermans, a self-confessed owner of one of the first Model 3 vehicles in the Netherlands, claims to have paid for fully autonomous driving in 2019, when Tesla was willing to take €6,800 (about $7,500) of his money on the promise that highly autonomous driving technology would be available in the near future.

April 14, 2026

In 2019, when Sigtermans purchased the Model 3, Tesla publicly announced that “every Tesla is equipped with the hardware needed in the future to make the vehicle fully autonomous in almost all circumstances.”

Seven years later, and although the technology has finally been approved by Dutch vehicle authority RDW, only vehicles equipped with the latest AI4 chip will be able to drive fully automatically.

Additionally, Elon Musk just announced an AI5 chip that would be much more powerful than existing technology and will ultimately be used to support future iterations of FSD.

The collective complaint already has some 2,939 verified participants, and many owners from other European countries are eager to join because they know their vehicles will likely not be compatible if and when FSD is rolled out to broader European markets.

“The more people who sign up, the more weight it carries when we sit down with Tesla. Or when we stand up in court,” the collective demand states.

Analysis: legal pressure increases on Tesla

(Image credit: Tesla)

False advertising claims about fully autonomous driving are not limited to Europe, as Electrek reports that there are currently between $100 million and $500 million in pending class action lawsuits regarding this technology.

This is a drop in the bucket compared to the $14.5 billion in lawsuits cited by Electrek when you consider phantom braking, autopilot/FSD crashes, wage and hour violations, odometer manipulation, inflation of range claims, and many other cases that have been widely reported in recent years.

However, four million vehicles were sold on the promise that they would have “all the necessary hardware” for fully autonomous driving, which quickly proved false.

Now, as a growing number of Europeans feel disappointed, Tesla may have a new front to fight on. Now is not a good time, as it plans to roll out FSD to wider European markets.

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