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Minnesota attorney Keith Ellison was suing car manufacturers (Kia and Hyundai) because lots of "young people" were stealing them. Instead of, you know, just mak

Minnesota attorney Keith Ellison was suing car manufacturers (Kia and Hyundai) because lots of "young people" were stealing them. Instead of, you know, just making crimes auto-theft, crime again.

miltonlost 1mo ago
Why were so many people stealing Kia and Hyundais though? "By failing to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, Hyundai and Kia unleashed a wave of auto thefts that cost Minnesotans their cars, their hard-earned money, and sometimes even their lives," Ellison wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "In short, they put their profits ahead of people’s safety." As part of the settlement, Hyundai and Kia pledged to equip all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with industry-standard, engine immobilizer anti-theft technology, which prevents thieves from starting a vehicle’s engine without its “smart” key. So, 1. Grand theft auto was already and still is a crime. 2. The car companies were being cheap and not adhering to industry-standard feature for basic anti-theft. You should be thanking Keith Ellison for enforcing regulations that keep humans safe. |https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/kia-and-hyundai-agree-to-car-theft-settlement-after-suit-led-by-minnesota-ag-keith-ellison/ar-AA1StJ1k https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/kia-and-hyundai-ag...
- PaulHoule 1mo ago
  Auto theft was perceived as a crisis in the 1970s so cars added features like locking steering columns and immobilizers. I'd say by 1990 I had no idea how to steal a contemporary car [1] although I had a friend who owned a 1970s "boat" that didn't have a key to start it but instead had to be hot wired every time. The real impact might not have been that big, I mean you get a few dollars a year discount from your car insurance for having an immobilizer, but people basically forgot that car theft was a problem and backed away from solutions in the 2010s, like I'd hear all these stories about telematic tricks to get cars started by making a fake key fob, relaying the signal from a key fob in your house, etc. [1] I found out later that if you had "The Club" on your steering wheel that was advertised on The Rush Limbaugh Show somebody could use it as a lever to break your locking steering column!
lenerdenator 1mo ago
There's a doctrine in the legal world called the "attractive nuisance" doctrine. The proverbial example is a landowner has a pool on their property. A child, maybe just one in the neighborhood, sees it and wants to go swimming, so they hop in. The child isn't a good enough swimmer to do so unassisted and drowns. The parents file a lawsuit. The landowner expects their insurance provider to help aid in the defense and any judgment made against them. The insurance provider will then look at the pool. Was it surrounded by a fence? Did the fence have a locked gate? Was there any kind of alarm to indicate that someone was in the pool? If the answer to any of those questions is "no" (particularly to the fence and gate parts) then the insurer might very well decline to cover the claim. Why? Because it's not unreasonable, at least not to many people who sit on juries, to expect someone to have ways of keeping children out of pools due to the threat of drowning. I'm not a lawyer, but you can sort of make that argument with the cars Hyundai was manufacturing. People on a jury might think it's not unreasonable to expect auto manufacturers to make their vehicles more difficult to steal, especially if doing so is common across the industry. It's the most expensive thing most people own and its theft can harm both the owner of the vehicle and the community they live in since stolen vehicles are often used in other crimes. The person stealing the car is still liable, but if they're targeting your vehicles because you didn't want to put a relatively inexpensive part in the car to boost your profits on each vehicle sold, some people think you're liable too.

Minnesota attorney Keith Ellison was suing car manufacturers (Kia and Hyundai) because lots of "young people" were stealing them. Instead of, you know, just making crimes auto-theft, crime again.

miltonlost 1mo ago

Why were so many people stealing Kia and Hyundais though? "By failing to include industry-standard anti-theft technology in their vehicles, Hyundai and Kia unleashed a wave of auto thefts that cost Minnesotans their cars, their hard-earned money, and sometimes even their lives," Ellison wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "In short, they put their profits ahead of people’s safety." As part of the settlement, Hyundai and Kia pledged to equip all future vehicles sold in the U.S. with industry-standard, engine immobilizer anti-theft technology, which prevents thieves from starting a vehicle’s engine without its “smart” key. So, 1. Grand theft auto was already and still is a crime. 2. The car companies were being cheap and not adhering to industry-standard feature for basic anti-theft. You should be thanking Keith Ellison for enforcing regulations that keep humans safe. |https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/kia-and-hyundai-agree-to-car-theft-settlement-after-suit-led-by-minnesota-ag-keith-ellison/ar-AA1StJ1k https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/kia-and-hyundai-ag...

PaulHoule 1mo ago
Auto theft was perceived as a crisis in the 1970s so cars added features like locking steering columns and immobilizers. I'd say by 1990 I had no idea how to steal a contemporary car [1] although I had a friend who owned a 1970s "boat" that didn't have a key to start it but instead had to be hot wired every time. The real impact might not have been that big, I mean you get a few dollars a year discount from your car insurance for having an immobilizer, but people basically forgot that car theft was a problem and backed away from solutions in the 2010s, like I'd hear all these stories about telematic tricks to get cars started by making a fake key fob, relaying the signal from a key fob in your house, etc. [1] I found out later that if you had "The Club" on your steering wheel that was advertised on The Rush Limbaugh Show somebody could use it as a lever to break your locking steering column!

lenerdenator 1mo ago

There's a doctrine in the legal world called the "attractive nuisance" doctrine. The proverbial example is a landowner has a pool on their property. A child, maybe just one in the neighborhood, sees it and wants to go swimming, so they hop in. The child isn't a good enough swimmer to do so unassisted and drowns. The parents file a lawsuit. The landowner expects their insurance provider to help aid in the defense and any judgment made against them. The insurance provider will then look at the pool. Was it surrounded by a fence? Did the fence have a locked gate? Was there any kind of alarm to indicate that someone was in the pool? If the answer to any of those questions is "no" (particularly to the fence and gate parts) then the insurer might very well decline to cover the claim. Why? Because it's not unreasonable, at least not to many people who sit on juries, to expect someone to have ways of keeping children out of pools due to the threat of drowning. I'm not a lawyer, but you can sort of make that argument with the cars Hyundai was manufacturing. People on a jury might think it's not unreasonable to expect auto manufacturers to make their vehicles more difficult to steal, especially if doing so is common across the industry. It's the most expensive thing most people own and its theft can harm both the owner of the vehicle and the community they live in since stolen vehicles are often used in other crimes. The person stealing the car is still liable, but if they're targeting your vehicles because you didn't want to put a relatively inexpensive part in the car to boost your profits on each vehicle sold, some people think you're liable too.