Tesla Korea’s CEO Just Faced Lawmakers Over Who Gets FSD

Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Jong-tae questions Tesla Korea during the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit on Oct. 8. Credit: Tsla Chan/X (via National Assembly / MBC broadcast)

Tesla Korea CEO Seo Young-deuk told South Korea’s National Assembly on Thursday that only about 45,000 of the country’s roughly 230,000 Teslas can use Full Self-Driving, and that the company has never formally asked Seoul to test the system.

Appearing as a witness before the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee audit in Yeouido, Seo answered questions from Democratic Party lawmaker Jang Jong-tae about who gets FSD (Supervised), how safe it has been on Korean roads, and whether Tesla would seek a government verification.

Seo also put the scale of Tesla’s Korean business on the record, and his figures show why lawmakers were asking:

• About 89,000 Teslas sold in Korea through September, roughly 90% of them Model Y
• About 45,000 of roughly 230,000 Korean customers can use FSD, including Hardware 3 cars Tesla recently enabled
• More than 100 million kilometres driven on FSD in Korea, with minor crashes but no significant serious accidents reported to the company

That sales mix explains the fight, because Korea’s best-selling Tesla is the Model Y built at Giga Shanghai, and those China-made cars still cannot legally run FSD under domestic rules. U.S.-built Model S, Model X and Cybertruck units can, because the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement recognizes U.S. safety standards and lets those cars skip a separate Korean certification for the feature.

Tesla first switched on supervised FSD in Korea in late November 2025 for U.S.-built Model S and Model X, then added Cybertruck later that December. An American-built Model 3 and Model Y Hardware 3 path followed this summer with FSD Supervised v14 Lite. The Shanghai-built volume that dominates Korean sales remains locked out.

Jang pressed Seo on whether Tesla had refused to cooperate with a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport safety check. Seo said that was not the case, but was blunt about the paperwork: Tesla Korea has not formally requested any FSD test from MOLIT or the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. Asked whether Tesla would apply under existing special provisions in the Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, he said the company would actively cooperate if the ministry sets up a channel and framework.

Korea watcher Tsla Chan posted English-subtitled clips of the exchange, and OBS News carried raw hearing footage of Seo’s answers and Jang’s follow-up with ministry officials.

What still is not on the table is a timeline. Seo did not say when Tesla would file, MOLIT did not announce a new verification window during the hearing, and Jang’s broader complaint, that Korea still lacks clear standards for a Level 2 hands-free system already logging tens of millions of kilometres on Korean roads, did not get a start date either. The ministry’s Mobility Policy Office said it would review the lawmaker’s points and noted that FSD is not yet covered by an international standard because Tesla keeps the driver responsible for crashes.

For context, Tesla Korea said in August that the country’s FSD fleet had already passed 50 million kilometres. Seo’s figure on Thursday more than doubles that mark in under two months, and that pace is a big part of why lawmakers want the safety rules written down.

Until MOLIT opens that door, Korea’s FSD story stays a two-lane road: U.S.-built cars under the FTA keep rolling, and the China-built Model Y majority that put Tesla atop Korea’s sales charts keeps waiting.