Car manufacturers Kia and Hyundai are releasing a free software update for millions of vehicles following a nationwide surge of car thefts across the country. That’s after a viral social media trend showed how to take advantage of defects in certain vehicles, making them easy to steal.
The defect occurs in certain Kia and Hyundai models, those that require a physical key to start instead of a push button.
The viral trend took off in 2021, showing young teens using only a screwdriver and a USB cord to break into and steal cars in just around 30 seconds. One video on Youtube, titled “I Stole a Kia With a Tik Tok Hack,” has nearly 3 million views. On the social media app TikTok, the hashtag “Kia Boyz” currently has over 33 million views.
The trend sparked a rash of car thefts across the country last summer, which Stephanie Fryer with the Madison Police Department says continues to this day. She says that, in July and August last year, around 45% of all stolen cars in Madison were either Kias or Hyundai.
“We saw a 270% increase in the number of stolen Kia or Hyundai brands from 2021 to 2022,” Fryer says. “That’s a pretty drastic number, and we weren’t the only ones dealing with this. That’s just the number here in Madison.”
Last month, Police Chief Shon Barnes said that the overall number of cars stolen last year decreased by 12%, but said that he was still concerned about how many of those car thefts are committed by young people.
“(I) went to the JRC and spoke with young people who were in there for stolen cars,” Barnes said. “I spoke to one young man who admitted to me of stealing over 100 cars.”
Fryer says that, by the end of the summer, the number of stolen Kias and Hyundais steadily dropped. She says that in October of last year, only around 9% of stolen vehicles were Kia or Hyundai.
“Right now, we are still seeing these makes and models of vehicles stolen,” Fryer says, “(but) it’s not at the alarming rate that we saw over the summer when videos were going viral showing how easy it was to steal these vehicles. We are still having people reach out, reporting that their Kia or Hyundai was stolen, reaching out to see if they could get a wheel lock from us, and reaching out frustrated that this was still a problem and an issue for them months after the summer.”
Because of how easy it is to break into and start the cars, Fryer says that the MPD has focused on preventing the thefts with steering wheel locks and community outreach.
“We went to apartment complexes and worked with property managers to encourage people who have a Hyundai or Kia to get a wheel lock or park it in a secure place,” Fryer says. “We did a wheel lock giveaway at our national night out where we basically got 100 (wheel locks) from the automakers and provide them to people in our community. And we did a lot of door-to-door stuff, (like) if we saw someone who had one of the impacted (vehicles) in front of their house or on the street, we just would try to find the owner or driver and notify them of this problem.”
Multiple states and municipalities have filed lawsuits against both Kia and Hyundai over the thefts, saying that those companies are responsible for the design flaws that lead to the thefts.
CNBC reported in September that 12 states have filed class action lawsuits against the car manufacturers. CBS58 in Milwaukee, where over two thirds of all the vehicles stolen in 2021 were either Kias or Hyundais, reports that Wisconsin’s largest city is currently reviewing their legal options.
Earlier today, city attorney Mike Haas released a resolution to hire outside counsel to represent the city in a lawsuit against Kia and Hyundai. According to the resolution, which will be introduced to the Common Council at their meeting next Tuesday, the city would join other affected cities by filing suit against Kia and Hyundai to abate the costs sustained by the city in responding to the rise of car thefts. Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is the sole sponsor on the resolution.
Last month, Hyundai announced that the anti-theft upgrade would be available for Elantra model vehicles made between 2017 and 2020, Sonata vehicles made between 2015 and 2019, and Venue vehicles made between 2020 and 2021. Upgrades for the remaining affected vehicles are expected to be available by June.
In the meantime, Fryer says that it is important for those with either Kia or Hyundai vehicles to reach out to their dealership and get the security upgrade.
“If you have one of those Kia or Hyundais that qualify for this upgrade,” Fryer says, “contact your dealer, get these cars upgraded so that we can hopefully make you feel better. I know Hyundai is giving a sticker to people , and basically that sticker will alert would be thieves that ‘hey, you aren’t getting away with my vehicle.’”
That upgrade is free to all Kia and Hyundai owners, but is not considered a recall.
Photo courtesy: George Bakos / UNSPLASH
