Kia Sorento's latest safety feature

Thursday, 17 September 2020

Kia has revealed its new-look for the Sorento SUV, inspired by the small Seltos that has just arrived in New Zealand.

The fourth-generation Kia Sorento which has debuted in the New Zealand market this week features an innovation in side-impact occupant protection.

Developed by Hyundai for a full range of both new Hyundai and Kia models, the ‘Front Centre Side Airbag’ provides additional protection by separating the space between driver and front passenger.

Mercedes-Benz has recently confirmed a front centre side airbag is standard in the next generation S-Class luxury saloon and Isuzu’s new D-Max will get it as well.

The additional airbag is one of seven to be fitted as standard across the full line-up of 2021 Kia Sorento models and is also expected to feature across all new-generation Hyundai passenger models.

**READ MORE:

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* Kia confirms new Sorento SUV landing here this year

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You wouldn’t know it but there’s a whole airbag hidden in between the front seats.

When deployed the new airbag fills the space between the driver and passenger seats to mitigate head injuries for front-seat occupants.

The centre airbag is installed inside the driver’s seat and if there is no one seated in the front passenger seat, the airbag will protect the driver from side collisions coming from the left side (in RHD vehicles).

All in all, the Sorento is shaping up to be one of the safest SUVs on the market.

Research shows the Front Centre Side Airbag system is expected to diminish head injuries caused by passengers colliding with each other by 80 per cent.

New technology has allowed the weight and size of the central airbag to be minimised. Its design includes an internal tether which allows the airbag to maintain its form and withstand the passenger’s weight.

Thanks to the smaller size of the airbag, the vehicle design teams will have more flexibility in the type of seat design for future products.

Increasingly stringent EuroNCAP crash testing protocols will include measurement of occupant-to-occupant impacts and the new airbag is expected to work favourably in such evaluation.

Safety technology figures as a key attribute of the 2021 Sorento with a further extension of Kia’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems programme.

On deluxe and premium models there is a new blind-spot view monitor (BVM), which Kia describes as ``a second pair of eyes’’ to enhance the driver’s rearward vision either side of the vehicle.

BVM is linked with the vehicle’s turn signal and displays a high-resolution video feed on the left or right side of the 12.3-inch digital supervision cluster if the driver indicates a lane change or turn, with another vehicle, or cyclist, hidden in their blind spot.

The video image briefly takes the place of either the speedometer or tachometer dial display (the vehicle’s current speed is still shown). The wide-angle, high-resolution cameras are located in the door mirror housings and provide a wider viewing angle than the mirrors themselves.

Sorento Premium also features remote smart parking assist (RSPA), allowing the driver to move the vehicle autonomously out of a parallel parking space with the key fob remote control.

This makes it easier for passengers to get in and out of the car in tight parking spaces or if another driver parks too close to access the doors. RSPA also applies the brakes automatically if it detects another car, cyclist or pedestrian behind the vehicle.

All but the entry-level Sorento LX feature an 8.5-inch head-up display which projects driving information onto the base of the windscreen in the driver’s line of sight - including alerts from the car’s driver assistance technologies, vehicle speed and turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

Kia’s latest forward collision-avoidance assist technology - with pedestrian, cyclist and vehicle detection - now detects oncoming traffic even when making a turn at a junction.

This ‘junction view’ technology detects other road users on more acute angles and helps the driver to safely navigate situations where vehicles cross paths. It applies the brakes if it detects danger.

Another Sorento first is lane follow assist, which uses the front camera to detect lane markings and vehicles to keep the vehicle centred in its lane.

And should a new Sorento be involved in an accident, the new multi-collision brake system automatically applies vehicle brakes when the airbags have been deployed to reduce the severity of secondary impacts.