A Korean-American woman has filed a class action lawsuit against automaker General Motors (GM).
The woman alleges that her vehicle was stolen due to a defect in the “smart key”, which has functions such as ignition and locking. This is the first time GM has been sued over a defective key fob. The case will be watched for its potential to result in large-scale accusations to become the second Kia-Hyundai lawsuit.
The complaint was filed in April in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and the plaintiff is now requesting a jury trial on behalf of the class.
According to the complaint, Judy Cho had her Chevrolet Camaro stolen from her home in Irvine around 1 a.m. on March 14 while it was parked in front of her home.
“An unknown thief was able to hold up a device to the front door to transmit the key fob’s signal to a cloning device, which was subsequently used to trick the car into thinking the authentic key fob was nearby,” the plaintiffs alleged in the complaint. ”This resulted in the thief being able to gain entry and start the car without detection,” it said.
Cho reported the theft to the Irvine Police Department, but the vehicle had not been recovered by the time of filing.
The plaintiffs filed six counts against GM in violation of: the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act (SBCWA), breach of implied warranty, fraudulent concealment, and unjust enrichment.
“Defendant has known of this Defect and failed to prioritize advancing the security of the Class Vehicles,” the plaintiffs said. ”Defendant has remained silent and failed to act or even notify the public of the safety risks.”
In the complaint, the plaintiff pointed out that the ease of stealing vehicles equipped with smart key features was widely publicized on social media, which led to a significant increase in car thefts across the county, and numerous consumers nationwide were targeted for the thefts.
The plaintiffs cited the statistics from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and media articles to support their claims.
The LAPD data presented in the complaint shows that this year alone, the number of Camaro thefts due to smart key hacks in the Los Angeles area increased by 1,285% year-over-year.
Cho purchased the vehicle in October 2022 from a local Chevrolet dealership in Costa Mesa. The plaintiffs alleged that every Chevrolet Camaro sold between 2010 to 2023 that utilizes keyless entry technology was designed with a hackable key fob.
“If the consumers had known of the Defect, they naturally would consider it an important and material fact in deciding whether to purchase or lease a Class Vehicle,” the plaintiffs allege in the complaint. ”Defendant has likely conducted numerous customer surveys and fielded thousands of complaints and warranty claims from consumers and was aware that ordinary reasonable consumers generally expect defect-free automobiles when they make a substantial investment to purchase or lease,” it added.
Cho pointed to GM’s failure to take action based on such information and beliefs.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant could have made such information known to the plaintiff and consumers easily through measures such as interactions with the dealership, affixed warnings, mail, or email.
Kia and Hyundai also came under fire for failing to install anti-theft devices, which led to a spike in vehicle thefts, which subsequently led to a massive nationwide class action lawsuit. The court ordered Kia and Hyundai to pay a $145 million settlement to class members.
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
