Again highlighting its global excellence, Kia has confirmed plans to launch partial autonomous driving technology by 2020 amongst a raft of new driver assistance technologies being developed as part of a $US2 billion investment.
Kia’s first fully-autonomous vehicle is planned for 2030.
Already Kia is working with suppliers to develop Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) as the first step to autonomous driving.
These include:
- New sensors to detect other vehicles and hazards and to read the road ahead
- Computing system to enable the vehicle to make decisions based on those ADAS sensors
- Active electronic and mechanical systems so the vehicle can respond to those decisions
Already close to production is Kia’s Highway Driving Assistant (HAD) which combines advanced smart cruise control and lane guidance systems.
And, as a derivative Kia is developing Traffic Jam Assist (TJA) which uses sensors to maintain a gap to the car in front and also to keep the Kia vehicle in its lane – so you can relax when behind the wheel in peak-hour congestion.
Also in the pipeline is a development of the current Smart Parking Assist System called Remote Advanced Parking Assist System (RAPAS) which will see Kia vehicles park themselves via a smart button on the key fob (within a certain range you can just stand and watch your Kia park itself).
