Kia Cars Can Be Stolen Via USB

In movies, stealing a car is usually child’s play, because you only need to take two cables to short it and you can quickly drive. In today’s reality, of course, that’s not so easy – at least if it’s not Kia or Hyundai. Because in the US, the so-called “Kia Challenge” has been spreading for a while via TikTok and YouTube.

This is essentially about stealing cars from the above two Asian manufacturers. The special thing is that theft can happen in a fairly banal way because in principle you only need a USB cable to start the car. As insider reports, a true scene has arisen around these thefts, with the mostly young perpetrators calling themselves “Kia Boys”. There are now also social media accounts dedicated to posting related videos.

Claw and destroy

Because part of the challenge, at least for some of the “USB thieves“, is to scrap the stolen vehicles in the most spectacular way. It is also partly about causing accidents with cars. The dubious trend apparently started in the US city of Milwaukee, and it seems to be a focal point of this criminal challenge to this day.

Kia and Hyundai models now account for two-thirds of all thefts there, which is a 2,500 percent increase when you compare these two manufacturers’ numbers to the time before the challenge. There is also a rapid increase in other parts of the U.S. in the event of theft and accidents.

Apparently, this has already had several tragic consequences, as there have already been several incidents in which spectators and bystanders have been seriously injured and even killed. Kia and Hyundai have issued statements that they are aware of the incidents and that, it will no longer work on new models.