State AGs Demand Recall Of Theft-Prone Hyundai, Kia Cars

State AGs Demand Recall Of Theft-Prone Hyundai, Kia Cars

Written By: Linds Cheim; Reporting by Emily Field; Editing by Alex Hubbard

Re-Posted from Law360 (April 20, 2023, 5:48 PM EDT) — Eighteen state attorneys general asked federal auto safety regulators Thursday to recall certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles vulnerable to theft, a flaw that social media users exploited and popularized in a nationwide TikTok trend that they say has caused an alarming surge in stolen cars.

The 18 state attorneys general, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sent a letter asking the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to step in and officially recall various Hyundai and Kia vehicles lacking standard anti-theft devices. The state AGs contend that the recent voluntary software updates issued by Hyundai Motor America and Kia America Inc. aren’t enough to stem the vehicular crime wave.

In fact, Hyundai and Kia’s failure to adopt industry-standard immobilizer technology – which ensures that car ignitions cannot be started without their keys — means the companies’ cars don’t comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and pose an unreasonable public safety risk, according to the state AGs.

“Instead of taking responsibility with appropriate corrective action, these carmakers have chosen instead to pass this risk onto consumers and our communities,” Bonta said in Thursday statement. “Kia and Hyundai have failed to appropriately address these safety issues, ignoring urgent requests from states, law enforcement, and car buyers. We now ask the federal government to require these companies to correct their mistake[s] through a nationwide recall and help us in our continued efforts to protect the public from these unsafe vehicles.”

The letter cites double-digit percentage increases in thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles in cities such as Los Angeles, Milwaukee and Minneapolis since last year, after users of TikTok and other social media shared viral videos offering tips and techniques to easily break into Hyundai and Kia vehicles using just a USB cable.

Many videos showcased teenagers and young adults joyriding and recklessly speeding or performing wild stunts and causing numerous crashes, contributing to at least eight deaths, the state AGs said in the letter.

The letter was also signed by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

They contend that the car thefts have siphoned off scarce resources from local law enforcement and first responders, which have had to increase patrols, respond to thefts, distribute anti-theft devices such as steering wheel locks and alert the public to the dangerous trend, according to the letter.

The car theft trend has triggered mounting legal headaches for Hyundai and Kia. Seattle sued the companies in January. And other cities soon followed with lawsuits of their own, including the Ohio cities of Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, as well as Madison and Milwaukee in Wisconsin, St. Louis, and Buffalo, New York.

In March, 22 state attorneys general called on Hyundai and Kia to do more to confront what they described as the “shocking” surge in car thefts. The companies are also facing a number of product liability and consumer lawsuits that have been consolidated as the Kia Hyundai Vehicle Theft Litigation.

Major insurance companies such as Liberty Mutual, American Family and others have also filed suit in California federal court alleging Hyundai and Kia upped the risk of property claims by not installing immobilizers or other anti-theft tech or designs on certain trim models, skirting federal standards in the process.

Hyundai Motor America said in a Thursday statement that it’s committed to ensuring the quality and integrity of its products, and has expedited the rollout of the free anti-theft software upgrade for affected vehicles. The company explained that only a subset of Hyundai vehicles on the road in the U.S. today, primarily “base trim” or entry-level models, are not equipped with push-button ignitions and immobilizing anti-theft devices.

“It is important to clarify that an engine immobilizer is an anti-theft device and these vehicles are fully compliant with federal anti-theft requirements,” Hyundai said. “Thieves discovered a specific method by which to bypass the vehicles’ security features and then documented and promoted their exploits on TikTok and other social media channels.”

Hyundai said it’s made engine immobilizers standard on all vehicles produced as of November 2021, fully rolled out a free software upgrade to prevent the method of theft involved two months ahead of schedule, introduced a program in partnership with AAA insurers to offer insurance options in most states for eligible affected Hyundai customers and initiated a program to reimburse affected customers for their purchase of steering wheel locks.

“Hyundai is committed to continuing our efforts in completing the software upgrade for all affected vehicles in the most effective manner possible,” it said. “We are communicating with NHTSA on our many actions to assist our customers.”

Kia America said in a Thursday statement that it “remains very focused on this issue, and we continue to take action to address the concerns these Attorneys General have raised. We are committed to working with them and law enforcement agencies across their respective states to combat car theft and the role social media has played in encouraging it.”

“To address these crimes, we continue to roll out a free, enhanced security software upgrade to restrict the unauthorized operation of vehicle ignition systems and we are also providing steering wheel locks for impacted owners at no cost to them,” Kia said. “To date, Kia has contacted over two million owners and lessees of Kia vehicles to let them know of the availability of the software upgrade, and more than 165,000 eligible customers have already had the upgrade installed.”

Furthermore, in addition to supplying more than 39,000 free steering wheel locks to over 275 law enforcement agencies across the country for distribution to impacted Kia owners, the company has shipped nearly 8,000 locks directly to impacted owners as well.

NHTSA has said it will continue to monitor the issue, spread awareness of further updates to local authorities and lend its expertise in efforts to strengthen motor vehicle safety.

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