Kia Self Driving Car Will Roam Nevada Road

Kia Motors has been granted license from Nevada state to test its self driving car on public road.

According to Automotive World, Kia Motor plans to introduce a range of partially-autonomous driving technologies by 2020, and is aiming to bring its first fully-autonomous car to market by 2030. KIA's parent company, Hyundai has invested $2 billion to develop a new Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) technologies.

ADAS is a technology that help driver increase safety and convenience in driving the vehicle. Safety enhancement will provide collision detection and alert the driver of potential problem and taking control of the vehicle. As for convenience in driving, ADAS provide lane guidance system, adaptive cruise control, automatic braking system, GPS and traffic warning integration, and also smartphone interconnection.

Currently, Kia Motors has installed its own parking assistance system that allow cars to park on their own without the driver presence onboard in selected cars. The new system will consist of a more advanced one, intended to replace the automatic parking system. It will be able to guide driver in highway and traffic jam, providing lane guidance and adaptive cruise control which able to maintain safe distance between cars and monitoring speed limit.

The system will be tested in Nevada public road in the city of Beatty, situated around 117 miles (188 km) northwest of Las Vegas.

Autoblog reported that drivers in Nevada might soon spot a Kia Soul EV that pilots itself on the road. Kia will test its ADAS technologies that consist of Traffic Jam Assist, Highway Autonomous Driving, Urban Autonomous Driving, an Emergency Stop System, and Autonomous Valet Parking.

In an official release as quoted by Autoblog, the Vice President of Hyundai Motor Group Central Advanced Research and Engineering Institute, Dr. Lim Tae-Won Dr. Lim said thankful for the license because, "we will be able to accelerate the testing of our new autonomous driving technologies that are currently in the early stages of development." Dr Lim also mentioned, "A great deal of research and rigorous product testing is being undertaken in order to make the 'self-driving car' a reality."

According to Vancouver Sun, Kia is the latest company to get a license from Nevada to test driverless car. The Canadian news also reported that Google, that has started its Google X project for self-driving car, is aiming for a new market in the United Kingdom. Over the past two years, the Britain's Department of Transport has met Google executives five times to discuss the possibility of bringing the driverless car to Britain.

Autonomous driving technology is one of the targets aimed by automotive industry, together with electric vehicle. Kia and Hyundai have now make one more step forward to self-driving car technology with the permission from Nevada state to test its system on public road.