Earlier this month, a German court confirmed it would ban Tesla's use of the phrase 'Autopilot' for its semi-autonomous self-driving technology, stating that the way it was marketed and the components are "misleading commercial acts".
Now, another country has joined in the fray — South Korea. It's been confirmed by a transport ministry official that the nation is launching a safety probe into Tesla vehicles.
Things are a little murky from here, but among the few specifics known to be under the spotlight is Autopilot, as well as connected braking and steering systems. Tesla is cooperating with the investigation, which is expected to take between six months and a year to complete.
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Reuters, who reported on this story overnight, noted that Tesla achieved its best sales to date last month in South Korea with the Model 3 — outselling its most significant market rival, the Hyundai Kona EV.
Hyundai's push for EV technology in its home market has recently ramped up. It's recently confirmed that it was add two new production lines solely for the manufacturing of EVs. One will be ready next year, and both will be in full action by 2024.
Along with the two separate stories of investigations into Autopilot and confirmation it would be taking legal action against Rivian, Tesla has also been the subject of plenty of positive press lately. Most recently, Audi CEO Markus Deusmann conceded in an interview with German media that Tesla was two years ahead of the curve.
“Currently, Tesla has larger batteries because their cars are built around the batteries. Tesla is two years ahead in terms of computing and software architecture, and in autonomous driving as well," he said.