Tesla legal letter over cracked FSD test; D1EV CEO refuses to retract

On November 11, 2026, IT之家 reported that Pang Yicheng, CEO of D1EV, said he had received a letter from Tesla's legal department following a livestream related to a smart-driving competition in Changsha. According to the letter Pang made public, the Tesla vehicle used by "D1EV Media" in the "Smart Driving Competition" published across multiple media platforms on November 8, 2026 had carried out unauthorized cracking and activation of Tesla's driver-assistance software FSD V14 through illegal means, putting into actual operation a Tesla driver-assistance function that should not have been used in specific Tesla vehicles within China, and publicly disseminating it to the public in the form of a "media livestream of smart-driving tests." Tesla's legal department stated that the conduct was suspected of violating the law and also breached in multiple respects the mandatory requirements of the Norms for Online Evaluation Activities jointly issued in June 2026 by the Cyberspace Administration of China and the State Administration for Market Regulation, covering evaluation credentials, testing standards, evaluation samples, and content authenticity. Tesla accordingly demanded that "D1EV Media" immediately cease all illegal conduct, immediately stop any cracking, activation, testing, evaluation, and dissemination of Tesla's driver-assistance function, refrain from continuing to carry out or assisting others in carrying out similar conduct in any form, and immediately delete all related content involving Tesla driver-assistance cracking evaluations on its own platforms, including but not limited to its official website, official account, WeChat video account, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Pang responded that he "will not take down the content." As of now, the incident has been reported only in the above account.