As part of its commitment to expand the automobile industry, the American electric vehicle maker Tesla has revealed today that it is planning to develop its own vehicle diagnosis system for the first time and apply it to all Tesla models sold in South Korea from October next year.
Tesla’s Self-diagnostic Technology
According to the EV giant, instead of going through mandatory safety checks conducted by the local authority, drawing concerns among the public as Tesla could hide fatal technical glitches on purpose.
With this development, Tesla will now adopt an internally developed vehicle diagnosis system to avoid offering onboard diagnostics data to KTSA.
The KTSA has been physically inspecting Tesla vehicles. As a result, verifying things like the numbers on the dashboards and the integrity of the electrical wiring. A KTSA official has stated that they will randomly choose a Tesla car to conduct a spot inspection as long as Tesla refuses to pass up the pertinent data.
Additionally, Tesla is now delaying providing vehicle diagnosis data to regulators in China, Japan, and Europe. Industry experts predict that Tesla will first install its self-diagnostic technology in Korea before expanding to other international markets.
Experts Admonish Compromise Work For Safety Inspections
Speaking on Tesla’s self-diagnostic capability Kim Pil-soo, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim University, said it sounds innovative, but considering the complicated safety inspections for electric vehicles in general due to possible issues with the high-voltage battery pack, therefore admonished Tesla to work on a compromise with the local authority.
In his words: “OBD data works as a significant yardstick to check the vehicle’s condition, including if the motor properly exerts power. For consumers’ safety, it is necessary for authorities to receive related data from Tesla.”
On the other hand, another industry insider admonished the EV giant to find a fair, credible way to guarantee vehicle safety instead of relying on its technology, citing the ‘2015 dieselgate’ by Volkswagen, in which the German carmaker manipulated exhaust emissions to pass the test.
The OBD System
An automobile’s computer system, known as OBD, does a self-diagnosis and reports on emissions, the engine, the brakes, and safety features. The KTSA receives and stores pertinent data so that officials can use it while conducting routine inspections. Since 2009, an OBD system has been standard equipment on all locally produced and imported electric vehicles.
Only Tesla, one of Korea’s 26 automakers, has resisted implementing the OBD system since 2018, citing concerns about security flaws in the software for autonomous driving.
Tesla’s Sales So Far
In 2021, Tesla sold a total of 17,828 automobiles in Korea, up roughly 50% over the previous year. Tesla ranks fourth among foreign automakers in terms of sales of electric cars in the nation, after Mercedes-Benz (76,284), BMW (65,682), and Audi (25,626). Likewise, the company’s Model 3 was the third best-selling EV in the first half of this year.
