Hi, good review of the Kia's driver assist. I have a Hyundai Ioniq 6 and I have found that I can moderate some of the voice notifications and speed alerts: 1. In Bluelink I have set the time delay for speed alerts to 4 minutes. Strange thing is this only seems to equal maybe 4-5 seconds, but it is still enough that I rarely get the 'bong's before I have realised myself that I am over the limit. 2. The voice command that annoys me the MOST is the 'school zone ahead' especially when well outside any school times. I think this has been quelled by getting into settings > navigation > voice alerts and turning it down to 1. Seems to have worked to silence them fully outside of school times. Warnings of speed cameras ahead are very handy, but the system seems to go berserk if you are driving in a school zone out of school time AND there is a fixed speed camera for the normal speed limit ahead! If you are doing 55 in a 60 zone, it flashes the speed red and bongs loudly as if the speed camera was set to 40, which it is not (outside of school times). Also re lane-follow, I use this a LOT on country main roads and it works a treat on mountain winding roads (like up the 1 in 20 into the Dandenongs or the Black Spur). It is not a perfect lane-follow all the time, after all hand-free driving is not legal in Australia. But I can certainly feel the difference in that it helps guide me around the (often tight) bends with ease. Big thumbs up for this for me. On freeway bends and even tighter 90-degree turns it handles that all very fine.
The chimes and turning on every time you start are legal requirement in UK and Europe and I guess the manufacturer doesn’t want to have to develop software for different regions. At least Kia allows you to turn them off via short keys or buttons on the steering wheel. Unlike some manufacturers which don’t or you have to go deep in to the menus. But this applies to all manufacturers. Maybe not Tesla as law to themselves. HDA2/3 is ideal for motorways/highways and especially relaxing on long journeys taking the strain out of the journey. In my opinion I don’t use it for short not motorway journeys.
Chris would love to see you review the route planning on the EV9 with charging. A really good (but long) video to watch is the Electric Family SUV Race To Vegas and from Vegas by Out of Spec Motoring. There have been so many videos on efficiency on long road trips. But these two videos took the different route of determining which in-car navigation would be able to optimise a route for the best charging. As you have mentioned many times before, cars have different charging curves and usually it's best to drive a car down to a low percentage, then charge up to around 80%. A recent record trip across the US went even further by never charging more then up to 50% to get the fastest speeds from charging. Unfortunately in the out of spec video, the Kia EV9's route planning was absolutely atrocious and had the car charging too frequently and too early. It couldn't take advantage of the faster charging speeds (which were shown to be far less than advertised). Not to spoil.... but one manufacturer in the comparison had such good route planning, it was not difficult to win. There was a close second. But the Kia failed miserably in the comparison.
I would love to do this but I might be in Kia's bad books for damaging their Kia EV9. Short version:.I broke the front sunroof. Gave it back to them with it stuck open.
One thing I will totally agree with though is the seats in the EV9 (GT Line specifically) are god like. I haven't felt such a good seat in any other car. The electronic side mirrors and electronic rear are gimmicky. The rear is good for confirmation because it's is MUCH wider, but the focal length required for focusing varies. So normally you would look into the distance ahead, and into the distance in the rear vision mirror. But switching to electronic rear, you have to focus close. Build quality is top notch. But the price is top notch as well. You could purchase two RWD Tesla Model Y's and have $20,000 left over to match the price of GT Line EV9. And to get below LCT for a lease, you have to go with an EV9 that even has manual seats, no surround view or blindspot monitor (essentials on such a large vehicle).
Air spec does have blind spot warning/indicator, just not camera feed to dash. 8 way power seats in Air model as well. No fancy massage function. Perhaps check the specs sheet at back of brochure online if not sure….
Chris I have the Volvo XC40 with the adaptive cruise control/ lane assist, I find that all the 40 km zones near schools are taken as permanent 40 zones and therefore you get a flashing speeding sign at night ,weekends and holidays. Does this car account for this.
The real question is; who takes responsibility for any accident that takes place using this transitional distraction from monitoring the driving environment ?. KIA ?.
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Hi, good review of the Kia's driver assist. I have a Hyundai Ioniq 6 and I have found that I can moderate some of the voice notifications and speed alerts:
1. In Bluelink I have set the time delay for speed alerts to 4 minutes. Strange thing is this only seems to equal maybe 4-5 seconds, but it is still enough that I rarely get the 'bong's before I have realised myself that I am over the limit.
2. The voice command that annoys me the MOST is the 'school zone ahead' especially when well outside any school times. I think this has been quelled by getting into settings > navigation > voice alerts and turning it down to 1. Seems to have worked to silence them fully outside of school times.
Warnings of speed cameras ahead are very handy, but the system seems to go berserk if you are driving in a school zone out of school time AND there is a fixed speed camera for the normal speed limit ahead! If you are doing 55 in a 60 zone, it flashes the speed red and bongs loudly as if the speed camera was set to 40, which it is not (outside of school times).
Also re lane-follow, I use this a LOT on country main roads and it works a treat on mountain winding roads (like up the 1 in 20 into the Dandenongs or the Black Spur). It is not a perfect lane-follow all the time, after all hand-free driving is not legal in Australia. But I can certainly feel the difference in that it helps guide me around the (often tight) bends with ease. Big thumbs up for this for me. On freeway bends and even tighter 90-degree turns it handles that all very fine.
The chimes and turning on every time you start are legal requirement in UK and Europe and I guess the manufacturer doesn’t want to have to develop software for different regions. At least Kia allows you to turn them off via short keys or buttons on the steering wheel. Unlike some manufacturers which don’t or you have to go deep in to the menus. But this applies to all manufacturers. Maybe not Tesla as law to themselves. HDA2/3 is ideal for motorways/highways and especially relaxing on long journeys taking the strain out of the journey. In my opinion I don’t use it for short not motorway journeys.
Chris would love to see you review the route planning on the EV9 with charging. A really good (but long) video to watch is the Electric Family SUV Race To Vegas and from Vegas by Out of Spec Motoring.
There have been so many videos on efficiency on long road trips. But these two videos took the different route of determining which in-car navigation would be able to optimise a route for the best charging.
As you have mentioned many times before, cars have different charging curves and usually it's best to drive a car down to a low percentage, then charge up to around 80%. A recent record trip across the US went even further by never charging more then up to 50% to get the fastest speeds from charging.
Unfortunately in the out of spec video, the Kia EV9's route planning was absolutely atrocious and had the car charging too frequently and too early. It couldn't take advantage of the faster charging speeds (which were shown to be far less than advertised).
Not to spoil.... but one manufacturer in the comparison had such good route planning, it was not difficult to win. There was a close second. But the Kia failed miserably in the comparison.
I would love to do this but I might be in Kia's bad books for damaging their Kia EV9. Short version:.I broke the front sunroof. Gave it back to them with it stuck open.
One thing I will totally agree with though is the seats in the EV9 (GT Line specifically) are god like. I haven't felt such a good seat in any other car.
The electronic side mirrors and electronic rear are gimmicky. The rear is good for confirmation because it's is MUCH wider, but the focal length required for focusing varies. So normally you would look into the distance ahead, and into the distance in the rear vision mirror. But switching to electronic rear, you have to focus close.
Build quality is top notch. But the price is top notch as well. You could purchase two RWD Tesla Model Y's and have $20,000 left over to match the price of GT Line EV9.
And to get below LCT for a lease, you have to go with an EV9 that even has manual seats, no surround view or blindspot monitor (essentials on such a large vehicle).
Thanks for this info! Great car just a bit expensive
Air spec does have blind spot warning/indicator, just not camera feed to dash. 8 way power seats in Air model as well. No fancy massage function. Perhaps check the specs sheet at back of brochure online if not sure….
Nice demo of the Kia ADAS, Chris.
Thanks Michael!
Chris I have the Volvo XC40 with the adaptive cruise control/ lane assist, I find that all the 40 km zones near schools are taken as permanent 40 zones and therefore you get a flashing speeding sign at night ,weekends and holidays. Does this car account for this.
nothing yet is better than the orginal, and Tesla autopilot is still king. Its a good attempt though
The real question is; who takes responsibility for any accident that takes place using this transitional distraction from monitoring the driving environment ?. KIA ?.
The driver should always be aware and in control so same in an accident
And if you don't accept that don't use it. Nobody's forcing you!