The lack of safety of Kia and Hyundai vehicles could have legal consequences for the manufacturer group. The Attorney General of Minnesota is now also concerned with the consequences of the numerous thefts.
For years, large numbers of cars had been delivered in the USA without the electronic immobilizer, which had actually long been standard. In conjunction with other weaknesses, it then became fairly easy to crack the cars. Ultimately, this led to young people in particular encouraging each other to steal cars via the social media platform TikTok and sharing the videos of the subsequent trips.
“The sharp rise in Kia and Hyundai vehicle thefts continues to threaten public safety and seriously harm our communities,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, according to a report in the New York Times. The matter contributed significantly to the fact that the number of car thefts has increased massively, contrary to the general crime trend. The number went up by 21 percent last year compared to 2021 in 30 major cities surveyed.
The manufacturer has meanwhile released a software update and the owners of the vehicles were asked to have this installed in their workshops. Furthermore, the company has distributed large numbers of steering wheel claws to police authorities in the USA, which can be given to concerned car owners free of charge. However, all of this only helps to a limited extent in the short term, since the mass of actively used vehicles is reached much too slowly.
Individual cities are already trying to sue Hyundai for damages in court. Because the high number of thefts puts a noticeable strain on municipal resources. Because the stolen vehicles are often left somewhere by the perpetrators after a jaunt and have to be towed away. Most of them show clear signs of vandalism, and some of them end up as accident vehicles. City towing services and truck stops in some regions have already reached the limits of their capacity to accommodate such vehicles and their owners often have to wait for days before they can get their cars back and have them repaired at their own expense.
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