Kia launches Drive Wise autonomous technology brand

These include the ability to automatically handle an emergency brake, used if the system detects that the driver has nodded off at the wheel. Other systems will be aimed at keeping the vehicle moving safely, whether that is in fast-flowing motorway traffic or in stop-start city jams. The technology will help keep a sensible distance from all other traffic. When the car arrives it will be able to self-park.

Humans do actually have some involvement with all this, via the Human Machine Interface, so the driver can make things happen by waving a hand, and the machine can recognise the driver from fingerprint recognition. By the time the driver has got into the vehicle it will have recognised him or her and load up their preferences for infotainment and possibly more in the future.

Kia hopes to change ‘the ways in which owners interact with their vehicles’, by making it safer and more interesting to drive or be driven. The American state of Nevada will soon see some Kia Soul cars, suitably equipped, driving round its road system. The future keeps getting closer.