On June 11th, 2024, we discovered a set of vulnerabilities in Kia vehicles that allowed remote control over key functions using only a license plate. These attacks could be executed remotely on any hardware-equipped vehicle in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it had an active Kia Connect subscription.
These sound like “value-add module purchased at or after time of sale” reasons.
In short, they’re features and not requirements.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with whether there are good reasons to have them at all.