Kia and Hyundai’s antitheft software update seems to be working

The Kia Boys whitethorn person met their match.

A bundle update that archetypal rolled retired past twelvemonth to owners of Hyundai and Kia vehicles without physics immobilizers has chopped theft rates by much than half, according to a caller investigation from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).

The automakers archetypal began implementing the update successful February 2023 successful effect to a question of car thefts that started during the covid pandemic, erstwhile instructional videos connected however to bargain the cars archetypal started going viral connected TikTok and different societal media platforms.

Thieves calling themselves “the Kia Boys” would station instructional videos astir however to bypass the vehicles’ information strategy utilizing tools arsenic elemental arsenic a USB cable. About 9 cardinal vehicles person been impacted, including Hyundai Elantras and Sonatas, arsenic good arsenic Kia Fortes and Souls. The automakers agreed to a $200 cardinal settlement with owners past year.

The thefts are reportedly casual to propulsion disconnected due to the fact that galore Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured betwixt 2015-2019 deficiency physics immobilizers that forestall would-be thieves from simply breaking successful and bypassing the ignition. The diagnostic is standard instrumentality connected astir each vehicles from the aforesaid play made by different manufacturers.

According to the HLDI’s database, an estimated 30 percent of the eligible Hyundais and 28 percent of the eligible Kias person received the bundle update. But the institute’s investigation ends successful December 2023; the automakers assertion that astir 60 percent of eligible vehicles person been updated since then.

The update aimed to forestall thefts by extending the magnitude of the alarm dependable from 30 seconds to 1 infinitesimal and to necessitate a cardinal successful the ignition power to crook the conveyance connected — essentially acting arsenic a software-based immobilizer. 

And truthful far, it seems to beryllium having immoderate success. HLDI says that theft assertion frequencies were 53 percent little for vehicles with the upgrade than for those that didn’t get it. The frequence of full conveyance theft saw an adjacent much melodramatic driblet aft the upgrade astatine 64 percent.

But theft rates for Hyundai and Kia vehicles stay “elevated” arsenic compared to different brands, the institute says — even for models with the update. Theft assertion frequence for Hyundai and Kia models successful the 2nd fractional of 2023 “was much than 11 times arsenic precocious arsenic successful the archetypal fractional of 2020 and much than 8 times arsenic precocious arsenic the July-December 2023 theft assertion frequence for different brands,” the radical says.

One imaginable crushed cited by HLDI is that the software-based immobilizer lone activates if the operator remembers to fastener the conveyance with a cardinal fob, portion galore radical are successful the wont of utilizing the power connected the doorway handle.

Vandalism claims besides stay elevated for Hyundai and Kia owners, arsenic would-be thieves are breaking into the vehicles, and stealing items and damaging the interior aft uncovering themselves thwarted by the bundle update.