South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said attempts to unauthorisedly activate Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) function in the country are clearly illegal and urged owners to refrain.

The ministry said on March 31 that Tesla Korea had recognised a vulnerability in vehicle software related to attempts to unauthorisedly activate FSD and reported a cyber security threat situation for automobiles.

According to the ministry, cases have recently been confirmed overseas in which Tesla's built-in FSD function is arbitrarily enabled using unofficial external devices. It said concern is growing that attempts could arise in South Korea as well, with owners using such devices or publicly available source code to activate FSD on vehicles that cannot use the function.

In South Korea, Tesla's FSD function can currently be used only on U.S.-made Model S and Model X vehicles and the Cybertruck. That is because under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, U.S.-made vehicles that meet U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are exempt from certification under South Korea's vehicle safety standards.

However, Model Y vehicles imported from China and other models cannot use FSD because their safety standards have not been certified.

The ministry said, "If Tesla's FSD function is activated without authorisation, it is deemed under Article 29 of the Motor Vehicle Management Act to be a vehicle that does not meet vehicle safety standards, making it prohibited to operate." It said, "Unauthorised activation of FSD is deemed under Article 35 of the act to be an act of arbitrarily modifying, installing, adding or deleting software that could affect the safe operation of a vehicle."

It added, "If this is violated, it will be punishable by up to 2 years in prison or a fine of up to 20 million won." It urged that "problems should not arise in which South Korean owners, without recognising this, unauthorisedly activate Tesla FSD."

[Yonhap News Agency]