South Korea is prosecuting the FSD "jailbreak." The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's traffic crime investigation team said on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026 that it had booked 80 people for illegally activating Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) feature, and seized 21 unauthorized activation devices, Korea JoongAng Daily reported.
What police say happened
- Suspects allegedly used devices bought in Europe, China and elsewhere, or built their own. One connected a European-made unit to their own Tesla. Another, who works in IT, reportedly built a device using information found on GitHub.
- Suspects also allegedly traded tips online on how to unlock FSD and how to stop the car keeping a record of it.
- The charge is under the Motor Vehicle Management Act, which bans unauthorized software changes that can affect safe operation. The maximum penalty is two years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won (about $15,000).
- "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.
Why owners try it
In Korea, FSD is legal only on US-built Teslas (Model S, Model X and Cybertruck), which are exempt from Korean safety certification under the Korea-US free trade agreement. The China-built Model 3 and Model Y haven't passed Korea's standards for the feature. Of 229,311 Teslas on Korean roads as of August, 47,458 (20.7%) can legally use FSD, according to Carisyou Data Lab.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport asked police to investigate in April. Electrek noted the devices plug into the car's CAN bus to get around the regional software lock, and that Tesla began remotely detecting them and stripping FSD from affected cars in April. Police said the investigation is ongoing with technical help from the ministry and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority.
