Hyundai and Kia to stick with over-exuberant safety systems

Korean sister bands Hyundai and Kia have declared they will stick with their over-zealous safety systems going forward, citing European compliance regulations, head office directives and customer feedback.

Both brands have been criticised by the media – including carsales – for the intrusive and overbearing nature of safety functions like speed sign recognition and driver attention monitoring.

Unlike the problematic lane-keeping systems in vehicles from some Chinese brands including Chery and GWM-Haval, the issue with some of Hyundai’s and Kia’s driver-assist systems is not poor calibration but overly-intrusive audible and visual warnings when drivers exceed the speed limit and/or take their eyes off the road – and the fact they default back to their factory settings (maximum alert) every time the vehicle is turned on.

The reason for this, according to Kia Australia product planning general manager Roland Rivero, is our market’s alignment with Europe in terms of automotive safety regulations and specifications, and the fact Australia only makes up about three per cent of Kia’s global production output.

“It’s not the brand that is persisting, but more so the GSR [Global Safety Regulation] for Europe that requires it [effective July 2022], which has therefore been implemented on vehicles like Seltos PE, EV9 and more recently Sorento PE,” he said.

“Australia is deemed by R&D as being similar to Europe, given a majority of our ADRs [Australian Design Rules] are derived from European ECEs.

“From a manufacturing complexity perspective, HQ decided that for efficiency’s sake, the software logic for Europe be carried over to Australia.

“Australia is less than three per cent of global output and, as such, it is not easy to command unique development for our humble little market.”

Hyundai Australia public relations general manager Bill Thomas outlined similar regulatory constraints for Hyundai vehicles locally, but also referenced consumer preference for the systems via feedback from the brand’s dealer network.

“We have had some feedback – from automotive media especially, and a relatively small number of customers – that the systems are too intrusive,” he said.

“But we are also aware that many customers like and appreciate the systems and consider them handy driving aids.

“It’s always a matter of striking the right balance for the majority of our drivers.”

Both executives confirmed that while the safety systems and their strict parameters were here to stay, that didn’t mean refinements and changes hadn’t or wouldn’t be made in future, and that any media or customer feedback was relayed to global product teams.

All current Hyundai and Kia products are fitted with at least one, usually two, ‘favourites’ button that can be configured as a shortcut to roughly a dozen key vehicle and infotainment functions, one of which is the vehicle settings menu via which you can access driver aids.

“Kona Electric [and now IONIQ 5 N] has included a set-up in the menu whereby you can keep the road sign recognition system active, while turning off the audible warnings,” Thomas said.

“In non-EV Konas, you lose road sign recognition when you turn off the audible warnings [you can’t leave one on and the other off].

“That extra option to keep the speed sign recognition active without an accompanying audible warning, giving drivers that functionality, is worthwhile in the context of the negative feedback we’ve received.”

Meantime, Rivero said the volume of the audible speed warning in the Kia EV9 had been reduced by three decibels since the large electric SUV’s launch and that a similar update would be applied to the 2025 Seltos. The facelifted compact SUV was the first model released with this new armada of stringent driver aids in late 2022.

“Kia Australia has been consistently raising this matter with global HQ as we are mindful of our customers and even the feedback coming through from our motoring media mates,” he said.

Likewise, Thomas said Hyundai Australia wasn’t ignoring the negative feedback, describing vehicle improvement as a constant process.

“Engineers and planners in South Korea are always very receptive to our requests and ideas, and fully respect that the criticism is important and valid, but it will always take time to implement changes if they are considered necessary.”

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