(ConcernedPatriot.com) – Due to the company’s easy-to-steal vehicles, Hyundai and Kia have agreed to a $200 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit involving numerous car thefts.
Hyundai and Kia have agreed to a $200 million settlement to a class-action lawsuit involving a slew of car thefts due to the company’s easy to steal vehicle. https://t.co/YHOKMhmhQM
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 19, 2023
Due to the lack of electronic immobilizers, a standard feature on most modern automobiles, theft rings of “Kia Boyz” have shown that both carmakers’ models are much easier to steal than other models.
This research was motivated by a popular social media challenge on the China-owned app TikTok.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the “Kia Challenge” on the Chinese app TikTok inspired hundreds of people to steal cars nationwide, resulting in at least 14 recorded crashes and eight fatalities.
According to a report by The Verge, the thieves, known as “the Kia Boyz,” would upload instructional films on TikTok and Google’s YouTube explaining how to easily bypass the vehicles’ security system utilizing tools.
The cars were simple to steal because many Kia and Hyundai vehicles produced between 2015 and 2019 lacked electronic immobilizers, which prevent thieves from breaking in and turning off the ignition.
These Hyundai and Kia automobiles lack a function that is standard equipment on almost all other cars produced at the same time.
According to a Reuters story, the settlement includes up to $145 million in out-of-pocket expenses for customers who had their cars stolen and covers almost 9 million owners in the U.S.
Hyundai and Kia provided free software updates earlier this year to increase the duration of an alert from 30 seconds to one minute and make it necessary to insert a key into the ignition switch to turn on a car.
Jason Erb, chief legal officer at Hyundai Motor North America, said, “We appreciate the chance to offer additional help for our owners who have been affected by rising and persistent criminal behavior targeting our vehicles. “Client security continues to be a top priority.”
Although the actual number of Hyundai and Kia automobiles stolen is yet unknown, Milwaukee police have reported 469 Kia and 426 Hyundai vehicles stolen in 2020. The following year, those figures skyrocketed to 3,557 Kias and 3,406 Hyundais.
The recent automobile robberies are the most recent example of how the Chinese software TikTok disturbs American society.
https://twitter.com/PhillyScoopz/status/1658259684346716160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1658259684346716160%7Ctwgr%5E21d5fc0aa5ca05d16890e443266f9e02f4c592e9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FPhillyScoopz2Fstatus2F1658259684346716160widget%3DTweet
TikTok, which the government views as a threat to national security and has thus banned the app from government-owned devices, is also well-known for endangering children and teenagers by disseminating another internet “challenges” that can lead to hospital visits and, in some cases, fatalities.
In the meantime, TikTok’s parent business, the Chinese internet firm ByteDance, has repeatedly been exposed as spying on journalists in the U.S. and the U.K.
ByteDance employees obtained American journalists’ confidential user information, as Breitbart News reported. Recently, it was uncovered that a Chinese business traced a U.K. journalist using her cat’s TikTok account, which didn’t even include her name.
The following are the most stolen cars in America right now, according to the July 2022 “Hot Wheels” report from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). This list represents 15% of all stolen vehicles in the United States during 2021:
- Chevrolet Pickup
- Ford Pickup
- Honda Civic
- Honda Accord
- Toyota Camry
- GMC Pickup
- Nissan Altima
- Honda CR-V
- Jeep Cherokee/Grand Cherokee
- Toyota Corolla
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