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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Carjacking is rampant in large part because of what Kia did, which really ought to land that company in a lake of civil liability. Carjacking, at least as it's practiced in Chicagoland, starts with a burner car that rolls up on the victim to disgorge the armed robbers. Kias, which can be hotwired with a broken USB cable, offered carjackers a literal citywide fleet of burner vehicles.

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"Toyotas and Hondas were the most commonly stolen car make in the District in 2022, with 501 Toyotas and 413 Hondas reported stolen. Hyundai and Kia were the third and seventh most commonly stolen, respectively, with 355 Hyundais and 192 Kias reported stolen last year.

By comparison, D.C. police data show 1,468 Hyundais and 806 Kias were stolen between Jan. 1 and July 20 of this year, accounting for more than half of the nearly 4,000 car thefts in the District. An I-Team analysis shows that, on average, a Hyundai or Kia is stolen in D.C. every two hours and seven minutes."

Though, people are more worried about armed carjacking which is manufacturer agnostic

The targets of carjackings aren't Kias. Why would you carjack a Kia? You can just pick them up off the street. Carjackers use Kias to steal other kinds of cars.

Isnt carjacking by definition armed? Or at least "pretend to be armed"? Why would the victim not just drive away if the assailant isnt armed?

That's a fascinating argument then Kia's weakness is an explainable phone to an access other otherwise secure cars.

That isn't carjacking. That's auto theft. Carjacking is when a criminal takes over a running car, oftentimes via threat of violence. No interlock is stopping that.

Reread the comment and you'll see it's about how easy auto theft enables carjacking.

If that were the case, carjacking numbers would be up wherever Kias circulate, which is clearly not the case. Criminality is rampant not because there are opportunities to commit crime, but because there are people willing to commit them.

They are in fact up where Kias circulate!

Selection bias. Kias circulate in Europe. No carjacking here.

First: you brought up the stat, not me. Like, literally one comment ago. So: super weird rebuttal.

Second: Kias in Europe and Canada have interlocks. They famously do not in the US. You cannot steal a European Kia with an iPhone charger.

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