Tiger Woods crashed a Genesis GV80. What exactly is that? We explain

The SUV Tiger Woods was driving when he crashed was a Genesis GV80 loaned to him by Genesis USA as part of its sponsorship of the golf tournament Woods was involved with, but not participating in. It is apparently common for Woods to drive himself in such tournament courtesy cars.

We've seen an uptick in traffic regarding the GV80 since the crash and specifically regarding its safety ratings. Although frequent visitors to Autoblog may be well aware of what it is, the Genesis brand and the GV80 especially haven't exactly entered the public consciousness. In that spirit, Genesis is the relatively new luxury brand offshoot from Hyundai. Their relationship is comparable to Lexus and Toyota. The GV80 is the brand's first SUV, a midsize crossover available with three-rows. Should you want to dig further into it, you can find our full GV80 review here. 

Many people have been trying to search what crash ratings the GV80 has received, but unfortunately, neither the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (aka the federal government) nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have tested the GV80. However, both the Genesis G70 and G90 sedans received the IIHS best-possible Top Safety Pick+ award, while most other vehicles in the Hyundai-Kia-Genesis group received at least Top Safety Pick awards. These are determined by a given vehicle's crash worthiness, the performance of its accident avoidance tech (see below) and headlight quality. 

What safety features does it include? Standard on every GV80 are the usual complement of airbags: front, front side and full-length side curtain. However, it stands out by offering several airbags that are not typical: driver knee airbag, a front center airbag and second-row side airbags. Also included are the usual stability control and antilock brake systems with brake assist (the L.A. County sheriff reported there were no skid marks, indicating that Woods made no attempt to brake). Advanced driver assistance and accident avoidance technologies are also standard: lane-departure and lane-keeping assist, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, evasive steering assist and driver inattention warning.

A full report on the crash won't be available for some time, but given what we know, including the road, the lack of skid marks and lack of other vehicles involved, it seems unlikely that any of the above driver assistance systems would've been much help in this instance. At the very least, hopefully you now know what a Genesis GV80 is and which safety features are included.

By James Riswick