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In recent years, Hyundai and Kia vehicles have become easy targets for car thieves, thanks to a social media “challenge.” The two automakers have since been giving out steering wheel locks across the country. Now, Hyundai is out with a new software update the carmaker hopes will be even more effective.
“The software package specifically addresses the type of theft from social media, and those are 2011 through 2021 key-turn-to-start Hyundai vehicles,” said Hyundai vice president Dave VandeLinde.
The software is available for free from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Commanders Field in Landover, Maryland, as well as the Montgomery County Public Safety Headquarters on Edison Park Road in Gaithersburg.
“We couldn’t make it easier,” said VandeLinde about the approximately 20-minute process.
When it’s over, your car has what can essentially be described as two-factor authentication to start.
“For a customer that has a key-turn-to-start, they have a fob and that fob has a ‘lock’ and ‘unlock’ and typically a ‘panic’ button on it,” VandeLinde said. “So they use their existing fob and when they lock the car not only does it lock now, but it also turns the software package on — the immobilizer solution — and then conversely ‘unlock’ is software off, and unlock the car.”
He described it as a simple way to use existing technology to protect drivers, rather than adding extra steps to access their vehicle.
“We just integrate the technology into their existing door lock mechanism,” he said.
Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz said the county is just now finally starting to a see a decrease in stolen Hyundais, after 2022 and 2023 saw an enormous amount of them.
“So we think these things are working,” Aziz said. “And this is going to help us even more. There is no panacea to a criminal who decides to take your vehicle whether for play or to commit another crime. … But these things matter. It matters that we’re putting in this solution.”
He calls it a positive disruption, noting how reliant people are on their car in everyday life, whether it’s driving their kids somewhere or getting to work.
“Anytime a vehicle is stolen, you’ve disrupted the economic lifeblood of a whole family,” Aziz said. “And that right there means we have to do something about it.”