Understanding Kia Safety Features

Kia’s commitment to safety features is integral to the company’s vehicle engineering philosophy. Many systems and features work in your Kia to prevent collisions and protect passengers in a crash. The following separates them into groups and breaks down what each does.

Driver Assistance Technologies: Impact Prevention

Kia’s Drive Wise advanced driving assistance systems proactively prevent crashes and accidents by combining radar, camera, and automatic control technology. While these systems are impressively reliable, the driver is still the most important part of accident prevention.

  • Auto Emergency Braking: Depending on the type, this system automatically applies the brakes when it detects the vehicle will collide with a pedestrian, cyclist, or another car if it doesn’t immediately slow down.
  • Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist: This system automatically starts steering the vehicle back into its lane when it detects another object to the side of the vehicle during a lane change.
  • Highway Driving Assist: This advanced system augments Smart Cruise Control by automatically setting the coasting speed to the speed limit on supported roads.
  • Smart Cruise Control with Stop & Go: This system takes cruise control to the next level by automatically decreasing the coasting speed based on traffic speed. It can even stop and restart the vehicle if the situation arises.

Warning Systems: Alerting the Driver

Warning systems are clever technologies designed to alert the driver to problems on the road before they happen. Even the best, most attentive drivers have to split their focus on the simple premise that a human can only look in one direction at a time. These systems are a helping hand.

  • Blind-Spot Warning: They’re called blind spots for a literal reason: this system turns on a light when it detects a vehicle in your blind spots and sounds the alarm if you start turning into another occupied lane.
  • Forward Collision Warning: This system fires an alert if it detects a collision risk with another vehicle in front of yours based on the speed of both.
  • Lane Departure Warning: This system sounds the alarm if the vehicle drifts between lanes without the turn signal applied.

Passive Safety Features: Crash Protection

Unfortunately, even with all the advanced driver assistance features available today, we’re unable to prevent all crashes. The following features protect the occupants in a collision:

  • Airbags: Kia sedans, crossovers, and SUVs feature front, knee, curtain, and side airbags that deploy in a collision to prevent passengers from slamming into hard interior surfaces.
  • Lower Bumpers: This feature protects pedestrians in a collision. A lower bumper increases the odds that a pedestrian will suffer serious knee damage or go under the vehicle in a crash.
  • Ultra-high tensile steel body: Kia constructs its vehicles using a hot stamping method to reinforce the frame with lightweight, incredibly rigid ultra-high tensile steel. Combined with crumple zones, this frame absorbs as much impact force as possible.

There’s an expression that goes along the lines of: “the most important system in a car is the brakes,” which highlights how vital safety features are in a motor vehicle. While the engine likely comes to mind as the most critical system, because without one the car can’t move or doesn’t even fit the definition of an automobile, there’s no point in going somewhere if you can’t stop once you get there.

See us at Kia Towbin Las Vegas in Henderson and see the safety features in action today.