Software upgrade to combat car theft - by Hyundai & Kia

KUALA LUMPUR: Almost 8.3 million cars in the United States will benefit from software upgrades that aim to prevent increasing car theft. Offered by Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp the said upgradation targets vehicles without push-button ignition and immobilizer anti-theft devices.

As per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the latest software upgrade will cover 4.5 million Kia and 3.8 million Hyundai cars in the US. Also, the agency stated that this effort by the car makers was in response to a social media challenge that was popularized on an app called TikTok. Resulting in at least 14 reported crashes and eight fatalities"

On the same lines, Hyundai also said its latest effort includes the introduction of “a free anti-theft software upgrade to prevent the vehicles from starting during a method of theft popularized on TikTok and other social media channels."

The concerned Hyundai car owners will also be provided with a window sticker which will alert the thieves about the vehicles’ anti-theft protection attribute.

Prior to this Hyundai introduced an initial upgrade too which covered a million cars including - the 2020-2021 Venue, 2017-2020 Elantra, and 2015-2029 Sonata.

A little about the Hyudai and Kia latest anti-theft software upgrade -

• It extends the theft alarm sound from 30 seconds to one minute
• A key is now required in the ignition switch to start the car

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