Israel, the self-proclaimed startup nation, has long punched above its weight in autonomous vehicle technology. Mobileye, the Driver Assist System (DAS) Tesla used before transitioning to their own hardware, is also headquartered in the country.
While several companies working on autonomy are located in Israel, Tesla’s FSD software is not yet available in the country, even though it’s available in a growing number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Australia, and New Zealand. According to statements (in Hebrew) from Israel’s Ministry of Transportation, advanced regulatory reviews are underway to approve FSD in the country.
The Petition That Sparked Momentum
Frustration among Israeli Tesla enthusiasts eventually boiled over into action. A group of owners launched a petition urging Transportation Minister Miri Regev to approve FSD, amassing over 1,000 signatures from verified Tesla owners. The documents in the petition highlight FSD’s track record in challenging markets such as China and Mexico, arguing that it could improve road safety in Israel, which has been plagued by high traffic and high accident rates.
Minister Regev’s response to the petition was surprisingly proactive. According to a spokesperson (translated):
"Minister Regev sees great importance in promoting innovative technologies, particularly the introduction of advanced driving systems (FSD) to the Israeli market."
The Minister has since directed her ministry to expedite approvals, pending necessary safety checks. Upon this news breaking, Musk even took to X to comment, stating that FSD is “super convenient” and increases safety.
Cool!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2025
FSD is super convenient and increases safety significantly.
Teslas in Israel
Tesla officially entered the Israeli market in 2021, making Teslas readily available to its 10 million residents. More recently, Tesla added support for Hebrew in 2023 with update 2023.32.
Due to market timing, a large percentage of vehicles on the road already include HW4, Tesla’s latest FSD hardware that runs more advanced models in FSD V14. This means it could be as simple as a flick of a switch to enable FSD on most vehicles in the country.
Plus, all the vehicles in the country have been silently moving along roads, gathering data, and sending it back to Tesla for analysis. That means handling regional irregularities, like Australia’s infamous Hook Turn, is just a matter of training on that specific data, rather than gathering and testing new data.
We expect FSD to cost roughly 26,000 ILS (approximately $8,000 USD) and to eventually be available as a subscription of approximately 325 ILS/month (~$99 USD/month).
Rollout Process
Assuming regulatory approval proceeds similarly to the launch in Australia, that means AI4 owners would receive access first, while legacy HW3 owners would eventually receive access in the coming months.
Approval in the region won’t mean an instant rollout, just like we saw in Australia. Once approved, Tesla will likely roll out the feature on a separate software branch and give limited access to early testers in the region. Once Tesla is confident in the system's performance in the region, it’ll roll out the update to additional owners.
With FSD live in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Puerto Rico, Israel could serve as a gateway to the Middle East.
Robotaxi Expansion
For those invested in seeing autonomy spread across the world, there’s nothing more bullish than politicians seeing progress and taking it into their own hands to bring it to their own nations. Expanding into the Middle East means more data for Tesla on the unique driving scenarios there, while also expanding its market for both recurring and one-time FSD revenue beyond the current markets.
Plus, if Israel becomes one of Tesla’s first international Robotaxi proving grounds, it could accelerate an international expansion. That’ll be something to watch closely as we continue to see FSD roll out globally throughout the remainder of 2025 and into 2026.
