A social media trend, dubbed the “Kia Challenge,” has appeared to compound the automakers’ problems in recent years, with people posting videos showing how to steal Hyundai and Kia cars. At its height, the Kia Challenge was linked to at least 14 reported crashes and eight fatalities, according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
About 9 million vehicles have been impacted by the rash of thefts, including Hyundai Elantras and Sonatas as well as Kia Fortes and Souls. Hyundai and Kia earlier this year agreed to pay $200 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by drivers who had their vehicles stolen.
Technology is helping foil car thieves making life miserable for owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles.
Hyundai and Kia upgraded their cars’ anti-theft tech in early 2023. Vehicles equipped with the enhanced software will only start if the owner’s key, or an identical duplicate, is in the ignition.
The rate at which the Korean automakers’ cars are stolen has fallen by more than half since the companies upgraded their anti-theft software, according to new research from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). Hyundai and Kia thefts have soared in recent years after criminals discovered that certain car models lacked engine immobilizers — technology that has long been standard in other vehicles.
Does this update cover the new issue where the keyless cars can be broken into?
https://insideevs.com/news/724328/hyundai-kia-ioniq-5-gameboy/
I wasn’t going to get a new car any time soon. And my next car was going to be a Kia Soul. But I went with another brand. The Kia/Hyundai brace is hot right now. Crackheads and thieves aren’t trying to figure out if your car is affected, you still end up with an inoperpable car. Maybe in a few years it will die down.
Here’s my simple solution: drive a super old car. My car:
- isn’t worth stealing
- is immune to popular TikTok attacks because the tech is too old
- drives just fine
There are some downsides, but at least I don’t have to deal with this nonsense.
I went from an 07 Escape to a 2023 RAV4. The thing just won’t shut the fuck up. Mike any kinda of parking the detection beeps. Console software is annoying.
Miss my relatively dumb car.
My wifes genesis is the same. Beeps if you do something beeps if you don’t beep beep beep beep. All the telemetry bullshit and bad ui combined with cheap hardware and latency. It sucks …
The legal requirement that cars just beep within zero seconds if you start them without a buckled seatbelt is just actively harmful to safety. It trains you to despise and ignore all safety alarms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alarm_fatigue
Here’s my simple solution: be unable to operate a car.
Bonus: If it’s old enough and you get into a collision, your car will be fine and just tear through the other one like a hot knife through butter.
Nah, newer cars are much bigger than mine, I’m pretty sure they’ll tear through me regardless.
That is painfully untrue. Check out this video of an old Bel Air vs an 09 Malibu. Both cars get fucked up, but only one of those drivers has any chance of walking away from the accident, and it’s sure as fuck not the one in the classic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U&si=zJ7tDE4RrMWlaCOt
Clearly that car isn’t old enough.
Try this one:
Despite the fixes, theft claims for the affected Hyundai and Kia models continue to exceed industry norms, including for vehicles equipped with the upgraded software, according to HLDI. One reason could be that the software-based immobilizer only activates if the driver remembers to lock the vehicle with a fob, while many people are in the habit of using the switch on the door handle.
If ever there were a problem that is ripe for fixing with the first version of the software upgrade, not a future one, this was it.
You would all lough to your grave if you would see how shit is the immo system in these cars are. To add a new key to a car you have to read immo data of the car and than decode it to get a password to make the key. In these cars you just sit in the car, make the car go into add key mode and than just touch the key to antena, and thats it, no passwords no immo data reading.
Your “make the car go into add key mode” statement is doing a ton of heavy lifting here, cryptographically speaking.
No its not, you just send a comand, there are no crypto, passwords, pins, secret comands or special tool. Thats why i sayed its shit and you would lough to your grave.
Well they don’t call it a CAN’T bus! Lmao I can’t even imagine how stupid the executives that signed off on this trash are.
My 2013 Forte wasn’t eligible for the upgrade :(
I just had to purchase a vehicle. My insurance company basically asked me not to buy a KIA or Hyundai and warned that the premiums for those makes were super high.
It’s funny that even though theft rates have plummeted since the mass software upgrade, premiums have stayed high. They have savant-level mathematicians (actuaries) evaluating risk and even with compelling data showing otherwise, they choose to keep labeling these cars high risk and continue to charge exorbitant premiums.
The whole “insurance price is determined by geniuses” thing is just bullshit. They benefit greatly from perpetuating the myth but never really demonstrate competence. Their calculations are very non-specific. For example determining risk by ZIP code in places where one side of the tracks/street/infrastructure built with structural discrimination in mind is just not granular enough. Another example would be that some model of vehicle came with optional emergency braking, but taking the option doesn’t change insurance calculations at all, but having the feature as standard for all models reduces the price for those models.
“Insurance actuaries are sevants” is just an extension of the lie that “free” markets are 100% efficient and always correct.
Well I mean actuaries are like savants. Years ago in uni my calc III college prof was one. Amazingly sharp dude. Do I think insurance companies over-generalize their risk assessments? Yupp. Do insurance companies likely ignore their actuaries and set premiums to make outrageous profit? Probably.
Disclosure: I hate insurance companies. Also that professor was super weird
Well, the cars do not get stolen, but the windows sure as hell get smashed to check if it works. This costs money as well.
Same. I was looking at cars and told my insurance, who then said, “If you get a KIA, you never have to worry about losing your car keys, since you can search online on how easy it is to break in.”
That throwaway joke threw me into the rabbit hole of the Kia challenge. Definitely a shit show.
You’ll still get a broken window and steering column because the thieves can’t tell if the car has had the update or not and will still attempt to steal it.
Can confirm. Happened to a friend within the past month. Theirs wasn’t even on the list of affected models.
I have a Kia and got the software upgrade; they put a little red sticker on your windows saying the vehicle is equipped with anti-theft software.
But something tells me most thieves aren’t checking for a sticker before they smash the window…
