Illinoisans Initiate Class-Action Suit in Jeep Cherokee Steering Hack

By Beth Dalbey | Patch Editor

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which last month called back 1.4 million vehicles over concerns hackers could take control of steering and other functions, faces a potentially massive class-action lawsuit initiated by Illinois residents.

Harman International, which manufactures the Uconnect dashboard in the millions of Chrysler vehicles that had the security flaw, was also named in the lawsuit. Plaintiffs are three Jeep Cherokee owners from Belleville, IL, who accuse the two companies of fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and breach of warranty.

Harman International has operations in Farmington Hills, and Chrysler Fiat’s U.S. operations are headquartered in Auburn Hills, MI.

Related:

• 1.4M Vehicles Recalled; Hackers Could Take Over Steering Wheels
• Fiat Chrysler Recalls 2.2M Trucks Over Faulty Air Bags
• Fiat Chrysler to Pay $105M for Recall Handling

The three plaintiffs – Brian Flynn and George and Kelly Brown – hope to build a class, and have invited others with vulnerable Uconnect systems to join in the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. A class, which must be certified by a judge, could include as many as a million plaintiffs, WIRED magazine reports.

The plaintiffs argue the companies knew of the defect as early as 2014 after information security researchers Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller showed in a demonstration for WIRED how they could wirelessly hack into a 2014 Jeep over the Internet to hijack its steering, brakes and transmission.

Valasek and Miller subsequently worked with Fiat Chrysler and Harman to develop a software patch for the Uconnect issue. However, the plaintiffs argue in their lawsuit the fix the automaker mailed to affected customers on a USB drive didn’t solve the underlying design and system architecture problems.

“This is not a software issue,” according to the complaint, which asks the court for an injunction requiring Fiat Chrysler and Harman to “conduct a proper recall where the actual issue is addressed,” Michael Gras, attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in an email to WIRED.

Gras told the magazine it’s “way too early to have any idea what kind of damages the class has suffered.”

“Right now, we’re just focusing on trying to make these vehicles safe,” he wrote.

WIRED said Harman didn’t respond to its request for comment, and Chrysler declined to comment.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s unprecedented $105 million civil penalty against the Italian American automaker over its handling of 23 recalls of 11 million defective vehicles. The sanctions also required Fiat Chrysler to buy back half-a-million vehicles and submit to rigorous federal oversight.

Here’s the petition filed in U.S. District Court: