Home, Jae: Riding Kia’s autonomous driving vehicle

GRAPHICS aside, the Kia Soul AV looks very similar to the standard Soul Electric Vehicle.

Driving is fun. It’s exciting. Just not in any major city center, and certainly not anywhere in Metro Manila. The enemy here is congestion and heavy traffic, and where will you even park? Enter autonomous, aka self-driving, vehicles.

Widely touted by technology companies such as Google, fully autonomous vehicles will be arriving in showrooms by 2030.

That’s also the prediction of the engineers at Kia Motors. They foresee autonomous vehicles in nearly every market segment that they participate in, in about 15 years’ time.

Kias, as well as cars from rival manufacturers, will be able to drive to their destination on their own. They will be able to cruise efficiently on the highway, as well as tackle unpredictable urban scenarios.

Here and now, Kia demonstrated the extensive capabilities of its Soul EV autonomous vehicle (AV) at its sprawling California Proving Grounds. With an engineer behind the wheel, we climbed into the front passenger seat. The engineer pushed a button on the steering wheel spoke, where you might expect to find the audio controls. This enabled the car to execute its autonomous driving program.

With the engineer’s hands off the wheel and feet on the floor, the Soul EV AV rolled away from the parking lot.

On the grounds, Kia set up five scenarios where autonomous driving will prove useful.

YOU CAN recall the Kia Soul AV from its parking space by using your smartwatch.

A section near the grounds’ main offices was set up as a typical city block. At a four-way junction, the Soul AV recognized traffic lights and dutifully stopped at red, proceeding to turn left on green.

It also came to a full halt at a stop sign. When the car encountered unexpected situations, such as a pedestrian stepping into the street, or another vehicle suddenly driving out into an intersection, the Soul was able to promptly stop.

Emergency stop

Our human driver pretended to fall asleep at the wheel while at speed on the Ground’s main oval. The car monitors the driver’s head movement using a camera behind the steering wheel.

With the driver motionless, the Kia Soul AV gradually slowed down. It was able to identify a safe place to stop when it spotted some orange barriers at the side of the “highway.” It then pulled over at the shoulder.

LOOK MA, NO HANDS (AND FEET) The Soul AV safely keeps up with highway traffic, even with unexpected stops along the way.

The Soul AV can be instructed to follow another vehicle. In the case of the incapacitated driver, a rescue worker can push a button on the steering wheel to activate this mode. The AV then trails the rescue vehicle, while maintaining a safe distance.

When the AV encounters an obstacle that it must avoid, such as another car stopped on the street, it is capable of calculating its own path.

Highway autonomous driving

This is the most impressive of the Kia Soul AV’s capabilities. The Soul AV can follow a set speed on the highway. The car reads lane markings to follow the correct path.

THE KIA Soul AV can find its way through an urban environment. It is mindful of pedestrians and other cars, and obeys traffic lights.

When driving in a group of other cars, the AV can switch lanes to overtake a slower car. The human driver or front passenger can also instruct it to switch lanes by pushing a button on the instrument panel.

When you reach your destination, you can hop out of the Kia and instruct it to find its own parking space. It then searches the surrounding spaces and parks itself. You retrieve the car using your smartwatch. It then rolls out of the parking space by itself to pick you up.

The Kia Soul EV AV doesn’t look too different from the standard Soul. Its nose is distinctive, with Kia’s Tiger Grille filled in with a solid block of plastic. This is the housing for the Soul AV’s radar and LIDAR, or laser sensor.

THE KIA Soul autonomous vehicle can drive safely and efficiently on the highway, even in dense traffic.

The cockpit features a LED display in place of conventional gauges, and another large display screen on top of the dashboard.

Kia sees autonomous driving technology as beneficial for consumers by reducing the number of accidents, helping traffic to flow faster, and also cutting pollution. The most important benefit for many will be the ability to do tasks other than driving.

The following day at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Kia launched its autonomous driving technology under the new sub-brand Drive Wise.

Kia plans to have partially autonomous cars on the road by 2020, and launch fully autonomous vehicles by 2030.

Tae-Won Lim, senior vice president of Central Advanced Research and Engineering Institute of Hyundai Motor Group, commented: “Kia is undergoing a very promising and gradual process of introducing partially and fully autonomous technologies to its vehicles.”

“Although the first marketable fully-autonomous car from Kia will not be available in the immediate future, the work our R&D teams are currently doing to develop our range of Drive Wise technologies is already improving on-road safety and driver assistance. The innovations presented at this year’s show demonstrate the future direction we are taking,” Lim added.

Certainly promising

The benefits for drivers in advanced economies such as North America and Europe are certainly promising, but how relevant is autonomous driving to our corner of the Third World? Can AV technology cope with our substandard roads, often with no or confusing road markings? What about intersections without any sort of stop sign, or when a traffic cop overrules the traffic lights, which are still left on?

CHANGING lanes on the Kia Soul AV is just a button push away.

Concerns remain, even for the writers coming from the United States and Canada. Some of them found the Soul AV’s urban driving too cautious. One said that the way the car stopped for three full seconds at a stop sign is a sure way for the Soul to be rear-ended.

The engineers conceded that right now, the Soul is programmed to drive conservatively and cautiously. They are confident that progress will be rapid, and that the 2030 timeline for full autonomy can be met.

There’s no question that AV technology will be beneficial to even us who live in more chaotic environs. With their sophisticated sensors and machine reflexes, autonomous cars will be able to detect danger and avoid crashing better than any human driver.