Ian Fogg watched his car being driven away on his video doorbell, tracked it briefly with an Apple AirTag, and had access to the manufacturer's own live location service. But more than three months later, the vehicle is still missing.
Fogg, a technology analyst at FDM CCS Insight, told the BBC his Kia was stolen from outside his house in March. Thieves broke in without the keys and disconnected his phone via the entertainment system – an unsecured process designed to make it easier for new owners to take over. He saw the car depart on his doorbell camera and initially tracked it using an AirTag hidden inside, until the thieves located it and discarded it because it was making a noise, a feature Apple introduced to combat stalking.
“Ian Fogg's Kia was stolen in March; Kia refuses live tracking citing UK law, leaving him unable to retrieve it.”
For a short while he could still access the Kia Connect app, but after his phone was disconnected, he no longer had access. The company told the BBC that UK law prevented the Connect function from being used to live track vehicles, advising customers to use it for "convenience" rather than security. On its website, Kia Connect tells customers to contact it in the event of a theft. But when Fogg did so, he was told he would have to fill in a form every time he requested the location of his car. He did this eight times, and each time he did not receive the location until 24-48 hours after the car had been recorded there.
"This car was incredibly easy to hack but incredibly difficult to track," Fogg told BBC News. "It shouldn't be this easy to nick a car when they cost an order of magnitude more than a phone and have similar radio technology."
Kia told the BBC: "Kia Connect is a customer convenience feature, not a certified security vehicle tracker. Therefore, it does not provide live‑tracking functionality for stolen vehicles. Release of location details of a vehicle via Kia Connect is possible, however this must be done in full compliance with all applicable laws, in particular GDPR, and the authorities to minimise risk to the customer."
Car safety firm Thatcham Research said there was a "genuine and growing gap" between consumer expectation and the technical reality of so-called connected car features. Fogg's story is a cautionary tale of how tech can promise security but cannot necessarily be relied upon in the event of a crisis. His car remains unrecovered.