Modern cars are crammed with electronics that give the owner a lot of nice features. But at the same time, according to statistics, electronics is the most common cause of problems. The “happy” owners of Korean Kia and Hyundai cars made sure of this from their own experience, which began to massively steal using a regular USB cable.
As funny as it sounds, the car theft boom started with TikTok. It was there that videos were first published, the authors of which remove the cover under the steering wheel of Kia and Hyundai, and then effortlessly start the engine via a USB cable from the phone. The process turned out to be so simple that many users decided to repeat it: some on their own machines for the sake of interest, others for criminal purposes.
The videos went viral so much that the Kia Challenge was born – start the car with a cable and put it on TikTok. The result of the challenge was a fantastic 2,500% increase in Kia and Hyundai car thefts in the US compared to last year. And the newly minted car thieves do not sell cars as much as ride them, arrange races, provoke accidents and break them.
Manufacturers, by the way, are aware of the vulnerability and have long since eliminated it in 2022 models, but older machines continue to suffer. These are Kia 2011-2021 and Hyundai 2015-2021 models. They are the ones most often stolen, so the owners should be on their guard, but we can only be surprised at how easily media content can provoke crime.
