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Kia blind spot monitoring and crash avoidance wins 2020 Autoblog Technology of the Year Award

The Autoblog 2020 Technology of the Year winner is Kia’s blind spot system. We judged the combination of blind spot monitoring and active blind spot crash avoidance on the 2020 Kia Telluride as the best in the industry. The Kia blind spot system won with 204 points, beating the Mercedes E-Active Body Control (189), Subaru DriverFocus (182) and Ram Multifunction Tailgate (139). AutoblogÂ’s editorial staff extensively tested the technologies last fall in Michigan. Three main questions were asked, and editors assigned point values out of 10 based on how well these technologies answered them. The questions were: What is its purpose? Does it work? Does it advance the industry? KiaÂ’s system starts with a traditional blind spot warning light in the side mirror. When equipped with the available head-up display, thereÂ’s a second warning light beamed onto the windshield in your line of sight adjacent to other information. This lets you know if thereÂ’s a car in your blind spot without even turning around to look. It isnÂ’t a feature exclusive to the Telluride (Mazda does something similar), but Kia takes it a step further. The next level of warning is slightly more intense. If you activate the turn signal while the car senses something is in your blind spot, the steering wheel begins to gently vibrate. ItÂ’s not a violent or distracting buzz, but itÂ’s enough to grab your attention. A warning chime is also activated at this time. 2020 Tech of the Year Winner.00_12_25_10.Still030 View 24 Photos The cherry on top is something Kia calls the “Blind Spot View Monitor.” It uses a system of cameras to display a live camera feed of either the left or right blind spot in the central digital portion of the gauge cluster when the turn signal is activated. Hyundai uses a similar system in the Palisade and new Sonata. The monitor in the cluster allows you to see your blind spot from the ground up in the gauge cluster without having to turn your head. The view is dependent upon road conditions, but itÂ’s a nicely integrated blind spot camera feed – the resolution is solid, and itÂ’s still useful to a degree at night. We find KiaÂ’s implementation to be superior to HyundaiÂ’s, where the camera feed takes over the digital speedometer or tachometer when you flip on the turn signal. Kia sets the camera feed in the center screen where the trip computer normally displays.

Hyundai, union reach tentative labor deal

According to Reuters, South Korea's labor unions may have reached a tentative deal with Hyundai following a compromise between the two sides on wages. Workers have staged a number of stoppages since August 20, which have cost the South Korean giant 1.02 trillion won - around $1.1B US. It also represents just over 50,000 units of production. That vehicle total sounds like a lot, but it's a small enough figure that Hyundai can apparently catch up with weekend and overtime shifts. We'd wager that this is why US inventories haven't been hit quite so hard aside from the battering already taking place. The proposal will now go before the union's rank and file.
If ratified, the new agreement will see workers getting a 5.14-percent raise in base salaries, along with 8.5-million-won (roughly $7,800) bonuses. Those concessions are a far cry compared to what the union was initially demanding, though. Early proposals included a 56.25-gram gold medal for each employee (worth about $2,400) and a 10-million won bonus (about $9,100) for employees whose children chose not to attend college. The union also sought a bonus worth two months' salary for workers that have been with the company for over 40 years, but this was negotiated down to a flat rate of six-million won ($5,464).
Based on Reuters' report, the work stoppages must have taken a real toll on Hyundai - its domestic sales dropped 20 percent last month, while exports were down nine percent. Those startling figures must have put some fire under the Hyundai bargaining team.

Kia wants to keep Stinger fresh with frequent variants

Kia is apparently feeling confident enough in the early sales figures of its new Stinger sedan to be mulling ideas for future variants of its GT-inspired fastback. The brand's North American product planner tells AutoGuide it wants to keep the nameplate's lineup fresh with frequent updates and additions. "The reaction has been phenomenal to (the Stinger)," Orth Hedrick, Kia North America product planner, told AutoGuide. "We're doing great, we have a very high mix of buyers, a lot coming from Optima, so we're looking to see if we can grow that. And I think there might be other opportunities down the road." He added that it was still early in the product's lifecycle and that the brand will wait to amass more data from consumers before building out the Stinger lineup. "We're going to be very aggressive for the lifecycle of this vehicle," Hedrick added, "we're going to be very aggressive with the colors. It's a fashion statement. You have to keep the car going with powertrain variants and other stuff coming down the road." Through March, Kia has sold 3,920 Stingers in the U.S., including 1,555 in March alone and not including the 843 it sold in late 2017. That's a fraction of the 50,645 vehicles Kia sold overall during the month, and it puts Kia on pace to sell nearly 16,000 for the full year. It's hard to independently assess whether that should be seen as a successful mark for a performance sedan that starts at $32,795 for the standard 255-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder, much lower than many of the German competitors it's established as benchmarks. Hendrick last year told Wards the Stinger was intended to increase both sales and brand recognition and was aimed squarely at auto enthusiasts. Its U.S. sales are slightly above those of the Alfa Romeo Giulia, which has sold 3,085 through March (this Stinger owners forum thread also offers some interesting guesstimates). And as long as Kia is pleased ... Anyway, if Kia wants to release variants, we're totally cool with that. It's already announced the limited-edition Atlantica, and we're down with more colors and maybe a manual transmission. And while they're at it, why not borrow the 5.0-liter V8 from the Korean version of the K900? Related Video: