Just about every automotive company is getting into self-driving cars. This time it’s Kia, claiming that it will have 100 percent automated vehicles by 2030.
The vehicles will be powered by something the company is calling “Drive Wise”, replacing their current ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) platform.
The vehicles are said to not need any assistance from the user at all, and can drive even without someone inside. Imagine, you could load a vehicle to a friend by sending it to their address via a smartphone app…
Kia says we should also expect partially autonomous vehicles to start using the Drive Wise brand by 2020. A test model based on a Kia Soul model is already approved for public road use in Nevada. The cars will include features like automatic parking and advanced cruise-control (similar to Tesla).
The company also says that by 2020 “drivers will be free of the burden of driving”, which isn’t usually something that you’d hear from a car maker…
Other car manufacturers, such as Ford, Volvo, Tesla and many more are already developing their own self-driving vehicles. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley tech giants such as Google are also testing their own systems. And Apple has been rumoured for at least a year to be developing its own autonomous vehicle.
SOURCE: Kia.
Larry Banks is a keen follower of technology and finance. He has worked for a variety of online publications, writing about a diverse range of topics including mobile networks, patents, and Internet video delivery technologies.