Ian Fogg was abroad in March this year when his phone pinged to say he no longer had access to the Kia Connect app. Thieves had broken into his car 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 watched the car drive off from outside his house via his video doorbell.
For a short while he was able to track it using an Apple Airtag hidden inside, until the thieves located it and discarded it because it was making a noise – a feature introduced by Apple to combat stalking. But despite the manufacturer being able to view the vehicle’s live location through the Kia Connect service, Fogg has been unable to retrieve his car.
“Stolen car owner Ian Fogg says Kia's app could see his car's location but UK law blocked live tracking.”
Kia told the BBC that UK law prevented the Connect function being used to live track vehicles, advising customers to use it for “convenience” rather than security. The company added: “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 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.”
When Fogg contacted Kia after the theft, 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.”
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.
As a technology analyst at FDM CCS Insight, Fogg knows the industry inside out – yet his own experience has exposed a frustrating disconnect between the capabilities carmakers advertise and what they can actually deliver when a vehicle is stolen.