The Kia Challenge is a viral

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

trend attributed to a series of

motor vehicle theft Motor vehicle theft (also known as a car theft and, in the United States, grand theft auto) is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. Nationwide in the United States in 2020, there were 810,400 vehicles reporte ...

s targeting

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

and

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

vehicles in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

manufactured between 2011 and 2021. The trend, which began in October 2022, has led to eight fatalities, according to the

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rela ...

Background

Absence of immobilizers (2011–2021)

Until 2011, most

vehicles were manufactured with

immobilizer An immobiliser or immobilizer is an electronic security device fitted to a motor vehicle that prevents the engine from being started unless the correct key (''transponder'' or '' smart key'') is present. This prevents the vehicle from being " ...

s—electronic security devices that prevent the engine from being started unless a proper key is inserted—a system present in most

vehicles until 2016. In

Kia Sportage The Kia Sportage is a lineup of sport utility vehicles manufactured by the South Korean manufacturer Kia since 1993. Since 2004, the Sportage has been categorized as a compact crossover SUV, while previously it occupied the compact SUV class. It ...

models manufactured in 2010, the immobilizer system comprised a transponder in the

ignition key A car key or an automobile key is a key used to open and/or start an automobile. Modern key designs are usually symmetrical, and some use grooves on both sides, rather than a cut edge, to actuate the lock. It has multiple uses for the automobile w ...

, an antenna coil in the key cylinder, and a SMARTRA unit. Kia vehicles manufactured from 2011 to 2021 and Hyundai vehicles manufactured from 2016 to 2021 that use a steel key, in comparison to a

key fob A keychain (also key fob or keyring) is a small ring or chain of metal to which several keys can be attached. The length of a keychain allows an item to be used more easily than if connected directly to a keyring. Some keychains allow one or bo ...

and a

push-button start A smart key is an electronic access and authorization system that is available either as standard equipment, or as an option in several car designs. It was first developed by Siemens in 1995 and introduced by Mercedes-Benz under the name "Keyless- ...

mechanism, lack immobilizers.

Kia Boys and thefts (2021–2023)

In February 2021,

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

began experiencing an increase in reckless driving and car thefts, particularly cars manufactured by Kia and Hyundai. In response, the

Milwaukee Police Department The Milwaukee Police Department is the police department organized under the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The department has a contingent of about 1,800 sworn officers when at full strength and is divided into seven districts. Jeffrey B. Norm ...

began offering free

steering-wheel lock A steering-wheel lock is a visible anti-theft deviceSeelhorst, Mary"Think It's New? Think Again!" March 2002.''Popular Mechanics'', Retrieved 8 February 2017. that immobilizes the steering wheel of a car. Also known as a crook lock, or club loc ...

s to owners. A Traffic Safety Unit was formed in March. In June, a 16-year-old was killed and five other teenagers were injured following a police pursuit. The perpetrators of these car thefts remained isolated until a video circulated in August showing an unidentified driver nearly striking pedestrians at John Marshall High School, when some began using hashtags identifying themselves as members of the "Kia Boys" or "Kia Boyz". Members of the Kia Boyz were depicted in a documentary uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in May 2022; the video depicts a stolen red 2021

Hyundai Elantra The Hyundai Elantra, also known as the Hyundai Avante ( ko, 현대 아반떼), is a compact car produced by the South Korean manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai since 1990. The Elantra was initially marketed as the ''Lantra'' in Austra ...

from

Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

. Police identified the driver as 17-year-old Markell Hughes and arrested him in June. A video was posted on TikTok on July 12, 2022, where the author uses a

USB connector The initial versions of the USB standard specified connectors that were easy to use and that would have acceptable life spans; revisions of the standard added smaller connectors useful for compact portable devices. Higher-speed development of t ...

on a naked key slot and successfully starts a car. This vulnerability exists on a type of ignition switch used in many Kia/Hyundai cars sold until 2021, which are not equipped with an

system. The video was taken down on July 25.

Incidents

United States

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, the trend has been linked to an 85% increase in thefts of Kia and Hyundai vehicles in 2022 compared to 2021. In

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, thefts of the affected vehicle models increased by over nine times, and children as young as 11 were reported to have participated in these thefts.

New York

On October 23, 2022, six teenagers aged 14 to 19 stole a

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. Four of the teenagers were killed when they subsequently crashed the stolen car. The Buffalo Police Department linked the incident to the Kia Challenge.

Australia

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, two Kia cars were damaged by Kia Challenge participants in failed attempts to steal the vehicles.

Responses from involved companies

TikTok has committed to removing pertinent videos uploaded by Kia Challenge thieves from the platform. Kia and Hyundai have both expressed awareness of the increased thefts of their vehicles, with Kia also noting that new vehicles starting with their 2022

model year The model year (sometimes abbreviated "MY") is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured. ...

now come with

s installed. Starting February 14, 2023, Hyundai introduced a free anti-theft software patch for some models of vehicle, and by June 23, all remaining eligible vehicles will have a patch that can be installed at a Hyundai dealership. Some models are unable to be upgraded, and instead customers will be reimbursed for steering wheel locks. To settle a

class-action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

in the United States against Hyundai and Kia, the two brands agreed to pay about US$200 million, of which up to $145 million would offset out-of-pocket losses that car owners had incurred. The settlement was announced on May 18, 2023, and requires approval by a federal judge.

References

Citations

Works cited

* * TikTok October 2022 crimes in the United States 2022 crimes in Australia Motor vehicle theft {{crime-stub