VLA 2.0 vs. FSD in Amsterdam — Part 2: Tesla Model 3

This story is about self-driving cars, not home energy upgrades, so it does not have direct bearing on planning insulation, heat pumps, or rebates for your house. It comes from a series testing automated driving systems on the same Amsterdam streets: first an XPENG L03 running software called VLA 2.0, then a Tesla Model 3 running Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) system, on hardware version HW4.

In dense, bike-heavy Amsterdam traffic, the Tesla's FSD tended to react late and then overcorrect: braking hard for distant cyclists, stopping mid-intersection, missing turns, and drawing honks from other drivers. It also struggled with tight street parking and sometimes indicated it had parked when it was still partly in the road. Acceleration was uneven, lurching off the line rather than moving smoothly. The reviewer noted FSD performed better once traffic thinned out later in the day, and suggested it would likely feel more at home on the wider, simpler roads common in most of the US.

The piece also mentions new UN vehicle regulations in Europe (called DCAS) that may end automatic speeding-over-the-limit behavior and will require hands on the wheel during city driving. None of this changes anything about home energy programs, rebates, or efficiency projects — it is simply an on-the-road comparison of two competing autonomous-driving systems.