South Korean police have booked 80 people accused of illegally unlocking Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, months after Tesla limited its FSD V14 Lite rollout in South Korea to U.S.-built vehicles.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, its traffic crime investigation team booked the 80 suspects and referred them to prosecutors on suspicion of breaching the Motor Vehicle Management Act. Officers also confiscated 21 unapproved FSD unlocking devices. (via Korea JoongAng Daily)
The investigation, announced Tuesday, found that suspects allegedly used devices purchased from Europe, China and other markets, or built their own hardware, to activate FSD on Teslas that cannot legally use it, such as China-made models.
One suspect reportedly connected a European-made activation device to their Tesla, while another working in the IT industry built a device using information available on GitHub.
Police said suspects also exchanged information through online communities about unlocking FSD and preventing their vehicles from recording evidence of the unauthorized activation.
In South Korea, FSD is currently permitted only on U.S.-built Model S, Model X and Cybertruck vehicles, which do not need Korean safety certification thanks to the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.
China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles have yet to clear Korean safety standards, leaving their owners unable to legally activate the system.
According to Carisyou Data Lab, only 47,458 of South Korea’s 229,311 Teslas as of August, or 20.7%, are legally eligible to use FSD.
Police described the unauthorized modifications as “jailbreaking” and said getting around limits Tesla builds into its software puts road safety at risk.
“Safety risks were confirmed, including the possibility that FSD may fail to properly recognize driving conditions or operate differently from the driver’s intentions,” a police official said.
In April, Tesla began remotely disabling driver assistance features on vehicles fitted with unauthorized third-party devices, with reports from Europe, China, Japan and the UK.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requested the police investigation in April after identifying signs of unauthorized activations. Tesla Korea had also remotely disabled FSD on affected vehicles, although some owners continued attempting to bypass the restrictions.
The Motor Vehicle Management Act prohibits unauthorized software changes that could affect how safely a vehicle operates, and violators face as long as two years behind bars or a fine as high as 20 million won (C$21,160).
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