Seoul Metropolitan Police have referred 80 Tesla owners to prosecutors for using cheap hardware to illegally activate Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance software in South Korea, according to Chinese electric-vehicle outlet D1EV, which carried a report by KuaiTech. Police said 21 of the bypass devices were seized, and that one owner had built their own device using open-source code.
The devices cost about 30,000 won (roughly 150 yuan, about $21) and unlock a feature that Tesla sells in China for 64,000 yuan (about $9,000) as a one-time option — a Chinese guide price, before taxes and incentives — and in South Korea for 150,000 won a month. Police said some devices were bought from European and Chinese e-commerce platforms. Installation reportedly takes around five minutes and leaves no trace once removed, which made detection difficult. FSD is Tesla's branded advanced driver-assistance package and still requires an attentive driver; the name does not mean the vehicle is fully autonomous.
Strict Korean rules leave most Teslas locked out
South Korea applies unusual restrictions to FSD. Under the Korea–US free trade agreement, only American-built Model S, Model X and Cybertruck vehicles are exempt from Korean safety certification and allowed to use the feature, according to the report. Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y, among the best-selling Teslas in the Korean market, are not.
That leaves a large pool of owners outside the legal system. Police figures cited by D1EV show 185,491 of the 238,968 Teslas registered in South Korea at the end of September — 77.6 percent — could not legally use FSD, including about 183,000 Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y cars. The gap between demand and legality created the grey market that police have now moved against.
A global crackdown and a costly penalty
The investigation started after Tesla Korea reported a software vulnerability to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) in March, the report said. MOLIT asked police to investigate in April. Tesla then pushed an over-the-air update that detected and disabled roughly 100,000 "jailbroken" vehicles worldwide, covering Europe, China, South Korea and Turkey. Owners caught using bypass tools permanently lose FSD and risk voiding their warranty.
Korean law treats modification of software that affects vehicle safety as a serious offence. The 80 owners now face up to two years in prison or fines of up to 20 million won (about 104,000 yuan, roughly $14,650) — penalties far larger than the cost of the hack.
The case came five days after Tesla Korea formally submitted its FSD approval application to MOLIT. With more than 70 percent of Korean Teslas unable to use the feature, according to Tesla Korea's figures, approval would both expand the legal customer base and help cut off demand for unofficial fixes.
