Dubbed ‘DRIVE WISE’, the new sub brand was revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas as the brand revealed its latest developments including Highway Autonomous Driving – which enables Kia models to stay in their lane, Urban Autonomous Driving – which uses GPS and sensors to navigate through densely congested city environments while responding to live traffic updates, and the Preceding Vehicle Following enhanced lane-keeping system. Other developments in progress include the Emergency Stop System, Traffic Jam Assist and a new Autonomous Parking & Out function.

Tae-Won Lim, senior vice president, Central Advanced Research and Engineering Institute of Hyundai Motor Group, commented: “Kia is undergoing a very promising and gradual process of introducing partially and fully autonomous technologies to its vehicles. Although the first marketable fully autonomous car from Kia will not be available in the immediate future, the work our R&D teams are currently doing to develop our range of DRIVE WISE technologies is already improving on-road safety and driver assistance. The innovations presented at this year’s show demonstrate the future direction we are taking.”