Arrests (!) for 80 people for unauthorized use of FSD in South Korea. Devices from Europe and China

The South Korean authorities weren’t joking when they threatened prison sentences for breaking the law by unauthorizedly activating FSD Supervised/FSD under supervision (now known as TAD) in Teslas. Financial News reports that the police have arrested 80 people and seized 21 devices used to activate this system, which is not officially available in Korea. The manufacturer had previously warned that it intended to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.

Prison time for bypassing car security features

In March 2026, South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport announced that using external devices to activate FSD in Teslas was illegal because such vehicles no longer met safety standards. The package could be purchased, but it couldn’t be used in the manner known even in the United States. Unauthorized modifications to a vehicle’s subsystems carried a penalty of up to 20 million won or up to 2 years in prison (!), and the driver was fully responsible for any traffic accidents caused by their vehicle.

Tesla launching from a balcony; illustrative photo (c) by: TeslaFam Ben / X

The police were set to arrest 80 owners of modified Teslas. Three-quarters of them likely feared the warnings issued half a year ago or gave up when the trick stopped working, as only 21 devices used for software modification were collected (an example image is below). Unofficially, it is known that these devices changed the flags related to FSD (in simple terms: 1 = available and active, 0 = unavailable and inactive), allowing FSD Supervised to be activated even in areas where the manufacturer had not yet approved its use. As a result, South Koreans could also experiment with Teslas that “drive themselves.”

The software-modifying hardware (more precisely: communication devices) came from Europe and China. Among those arrested were both a user who simply purchased the appropriate device and connected it to his Tesla, as well as a driver who created his own version based on descriptions and codes found on the GitHub platform. The police even approached those who engaged in online discussions about illegally activating FSD and ways to cover up their actions. The efforts will continue in coordination with relevant government agencies, as illegally modifying cars violates regulations regarding vehicle certification for public use.

Update 2026/10/28, 22:53: Some media reports suggest that only certain suspects were arrested, while most simply received polite invitations from the prosecution. Since we rely on machine translations, we are not certain which version is true.

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