37.起亚问题

Passage Thirty-Seven

The Kia issue

起亚问题

【1】TikTok, a Chinese-owned social-media platform where users post short videos, is a fount(source) of useful information. Type “Kia” into its search bar and the helpful autosuggest adds “boys tutorial(course)”.

中国公司旗下的抖音国际版TikTok是一个供用户上传短视频的社交平台，是各类有用信息的来源。在搜索框内输入“Kia（起亚）”一词，它就会自动添加“少年教程”作为建议内容。

【2】Click through and the most-liked result is a video explaining how to steal a Hyundai car. A gloved hand pulls the plastic off the steering-wheel housing and then jams a screwdriver into the ignition switch and wrenches it aside.

点进去后，点赞最多的搜索结果就是一个解释如何盗窃一辆“现代（Hyundai）”牌汽车的视频。视频中，一只戴了手套的手把方向盘外壳上的塑料剥开，接着用螺丝刀插入点火开关，再猛拧到一边。

【3】Over rap music a computerised voice says: “this is why you should not buy Kia or Hyundai.” The hand attaches a usb cable onto an exposed(uncovered) socket, and twists, and the car starts up. The video has over 415,000 likes. It is one example of a viral internet trend led by “Kia Boys”, adolescents who steal cars to joyride them and post the videos on social media.

背景音乐是一段说唱，还有一段自动配音说道：“这就是不要买起亚或现代的理由。”视频中的手把一根USB接线接入到裸露在外的插座上，再旋钮一下，汽车随即启动。该视频已有超过41.5万点赞。这段视频是“起亚少年”引领的网络热潮的一个例证，“起亚少年”指那些盗窃汽车后兜风并上传视频到社交媒体上的青少年。

【4】On August 24th the City of Chicago announced it had filed a lawsuit against the American subsidiaries of Kia and Hyundai, two South Korean car manufacturers. The lawsuit alleges that the firms did not include simple immobiliser technology in some of their cheaper vehicles, making them extraordinarily(very) easy to steal.

 8月24日，芝加哥市宣布已经对韩国两家汽车制造商起亚和现代在美国的分公司提起诉讼。诉讼内容是这两家公司在一些较为廉价的汽车中并未使用简易的防盗技术，使得这些汽车极易被盗。

【5】In 2022, over 8,800 Kias and Hyundai cars were stolen in Chicago, making up two-fifths of the 21,000 vehicle thefts recorded. So far this year, they account for more than half—and the total compared with this point last year has doubled. The result of the failure to install immobilisers, said Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s left-wing mayor, is a “nationwide(countrywide) crime spree”.

2022年，芝加哥有超过8800辆起亚和现代汽车被盗，占记录的21000辆被盗车辆的2/5。今年到目前为止，起亚和现代的失窃数已占据车辆总失窃数的一半多，车辆失窃总数与去年同期相比也翻了一番。芝加哥左翼市长布兰登·约翰逊表示，未安装防盗系统导致了一场“全国范围的犯罪狂欢”。

【6】Mr Johnson’s critics accused him of trying to abrogate(escape) responsibility for crime. Raymond Lopez, a conservative-leaning alderman, told Fox News the move was from a “socialist playbook”. Yet Chicago’s lawsuit is one of seven to have been filed by cities against the manufacturers so far this year, as car theft has soared(surged) across America.

约翰逊市长的批评者指责其试图逃避对于犯罪频发的责任。偏保守的市政议员雷蒙德·洛佩兹与福克斯新闻网谈到，市长此举来自于“社会主义手册”。但由于全美范围内的车辆盗窃案激增，今年目前为止已有七个城市起诉了这两家汽车制造商，芝加哥市只是其中之一。

【7】Baltimore, New York and Seattle are among the other cities to also be suing. Last year, over 1m vehicles were stolen, the highest figure since 2008, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, a trade association. Kias and Hyundais were among the most-stolen cars. A class-action lawsuit by owners was settled by the firms for $200m earlier this year.

巴尔的摩、纽约、西雅图都位列起诉的城市之中。据行业协会国家保险犯罪局的数据，去年有超过100万辆汽车被盗，是2008年以来的最高数量。起亚和现代汽车的被盗量位居前列。今年早些时候，汽车所有者对这两家汽车公司提起了集体诉讼，以两家公司赔付2亿美元结案。

【8】It is unclear what chance the cities have in the courts. They all argue that, by selling cars which are so easy to steal, the two firms wasted police time and enabled other crimes. Kia says its vehicles were compliant with the law, and the lawsuits are “without merit(value)”.

目前还不清楚各市政府在法庭上胜诉的几率有多大。原告方表示，两家汽车公司销售易盗窃的车辆，会浪费警察时间，并促使其他犯罪发生。起亚公司表示自己生产的车辆符合法律规定，市里提起的诉讼“毫无价值”。

【9】Unlike those in Europe or Canada, regulators in America do not require vehicles to be fitted with immobilisers, which usually work by demanding a code from a radio key fob to start a car. The firms have also offered software updates which make it less easy to steal the affected cars. All new Kias and Hyundais sold now have immobilisers fitted.

不像欧洲或者加拿大，美国的监管方并不要求车辆配有防盗系统，该系统通常需要用无线电遥控钥匙发出的信号来启动车辆。两家公司同时也提供了软件更新，使容易被盗的汽车失窃的难度更大。所有新售的起亚和现代汽车都安装了防盗系统。

【10】Yet in 2015, 96% of new cars sold by other manufacturers did come with immobilisers, which cost at most a few hundred dollars. For Kia and Hyundai vehicles, the figure was just 26%. Todd Henderson, a legal scholar at the University of Chicago, says that on the face of it, the cities suing might have a case.

然而在2015年，其他汽车生产方销售的新车中，96%都安装了防盗系统，其成本至多为几百美元。对于起亚和现代汽车来说，其安装比只有26%。芝加哥大学法学学者托德·亨德森表示，从表面来看，提起诉讼的城市或许是有论据的。

【11】It would rest, he says, on the argument that when a simple and cheap technology is available that can radically(fundamentally) reduce the chance of a product causing enormous(huge) damage, “the non-inclusion makes the product defective(disabled).” A car that is so easily stolen might be analogous(similar) to an iron that does not automatically switch off, and so burns down a house.

这与一个论点有关，他说，即一种简单且便宜的技术能为人所用，并能极大降低产品产生巨大损害的可能性时，“不使用该技术就会让产品有缺陷”。极易被盗的汽车或许类似于一个无法自动关闭并因此烧毁房屋的熨斗。

【12】Graham Farrell, a criminologist at the University of Leeds in Britain, says that car theft is a “keystone crime”. He argues that the dramatic decline in car theft in the 1990s—in America, annual thefts peaked at 1.7m in 1991—was in large part due to cars being fitted with immobilisers.

英国利兹大学的犯罪学家格拉哈姆·法拉尔称，汽车盗窃是一种“基础性犯罪”。他表示，上世纪90年代汽车盗窃案出现下滑（在美国，汽车年失窃数量于1991年达到170万辆的顶峰），很大程度上是因为汽车安装了防盗系统。

【13】Stolen cars directly enable other crimes. It is hard to do a drive-by shooting without wheels. But especially easy-to-steal cars may have even more deleterious(harmful) effects by, in effect, creating new criminals. A study Mr Farrell published in 2020 argues that car theft is a gateway drug into criminality: young boys who begin by stealing cars go on to have more extensive criminal careers.

失窃汽车直接促使其他犯罪。没有汽车，就不会发生驾车射击案。但是，容易被盗窃的车辆或许会通过创造新的罪犯而带来更不利的影响。法拉尔2020年公布的研究表明，汽车盗窃是其他犯罪的“敲门砖”：盗窃车辆的少年之后会进行更为广泛的犯罪活动。

【14】If so, that ought to worry American cops and politicians. The enormous spike in violence that began in late 2020 seems to be ebbing. So far this year, murder rates in a majority of American cities have fallen sharply compared with last year. But car theft continues to rise. The risk is that the “Kia Boys” may just be getting started.

如果是这样的话，这足以引起美国警方和政界人士的担忧。始于2020年年末的暴力犯罪激增似乎有所减缓。到今年目前为止，大部分美国城市的谋杀率同去年比已骤降。但是汽车盗窃。案仍持上涨态势。风险在于，“起亚少年”或许才刚刚开始。