Kia joins autonomous race

Kia Motors have plans to introduce intelligent vehicles that will partly drive themselves. The marque plans to manufacture the cars by 2020, with an aim to have a fully autonomous vehicle on the market by 2030. To achieve that goal, Kia will have to develop a vehicle-to-everything communications system, which the marque says “must be fully integrated into real-life driving environments and be able to react as a human driver can”. The range of driver assistance systems featured in the vehicles will include highway and urban autonomous driving, autonomous valet parking and traffic jam assist. An emergency stop system will also feature in correlation with the marque’s driver status monitoring, which ensures that the driver’s attention does not stray from the road for too long. If needed, the system can direct the car into a side lane and come to a stop. Inside, Kia will introduce its human machine interface functions, where touchpads and gesture controls are used to operate the car. The car will be able to recognise the individual driver based on their fingerprint or smartwatch, and then automatically adjust settings including music and heating to their preferences. Kia has invested NZ$30 billion to fast track development of the technology. It will be tested in a modified Soul EV on public roads in the US, following approval from the state of Nevada.