US: Kia to test driverless cars in Nevada

The US state of Nevada has granted Kia manufacturer permission to test autonomous driving technologies on public roads. The firm made full use of the privilege, by letting loose their Soul EV on the aforementioned roads. The prototype is equipped with Kia’s Advanced Driver Assistance System(ADAS), which is still currently being developed. The firm is expected to blow up to US$2 billion investment by 2018 to develop autonomous vehicle technology, with the aim of partially-autonomous driving technologies by 2020. The ADAS system comes with a suite of technological assistance, including Traffic Jam Assist (TJA), Highway Autonomous Driving (HAD), Urban Autonomous Driving (UAD), Emergency Stop System (ESS), and Autonomous Valet Parking technologies. Any command can be overwritten by the driver as he/she deems fit. These new technologies will join the long list of features already offered by Kia on its latest production vehicles, which include Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS), Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS), Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Auto Emergency Braking (AEB) and Advanced Smart Cruise Control (ASCC).