Semi-autonomous road tripping is here
How I learned to stop worrying and let Elon (Musk) take the ‘wheel!
Okay, so this revelation didn’t come to me while I was at the ‘wheel of a Tesla. In fact, I was driving a Kia Carnival. Let me explain. But let’s first dispel the notion that I don’t like driving. I’m an intrepid road tripper and adventurer; my daily driver is a Porsche Cayenne, which often brandishes a rooftop tent, a bicycle rack – or both. The German brand’s SUV is typically covered in dirt, because, as we’ve established, I like driving long distances, often on gravel.
Furthermore, let us dispel the notion that I don’t enjoy the cars themselves – I also have a 38-year-old Toyota Supra and a 46-year-old Chevrolet 4100 in my garage. Suffice to say I love cars, am quite at ease with manually shifting rear-driven six-pots and have lapped many a race circuit in anger. These are my qualifications, alas with a massive caveat… I’m also a raging nerd, a lover of technology and cinema, and thoroughly fascinated with the concept of a car that can drive itself.
So imagine my surprise and delight, when, on a recent 3 600-km round trip from Cape Town to Sun City, I was able to experience semi-autonomy at the helm of the latest flagship Kia Carnival.
Search for a used Kia Carnival here
About that word ‘semi’
Kia Carnival’s adaptive cruise control maintains a set distance to the vehicle in front and follows it.
Yes, semi-, as in partially, autonomous. That’s the key bit. A vehicle that can drive itself entirely (make ad-hoc route decisions and execute reactive manoeuvres) without ANY input from its occupant is still a prospect for the distant future – the legislation around this alone promises to be a nightmare. But, there I was, on a twisty section of the N1 beyond Rawsonville, with my feet well clear of the pedals and my hands in my lap, watching the ‘wheel carve out gentle arcs by itself.
Okay, a reality check: the Carnival is a luxurious, not-insubstantial MPV that costs about R1-million and it was tasked with transporting me and five others in supreme comfort. The more cynical among us may remark that Kia Motors SA’s flagship is still essentially a 2-tonne four-wheeled metal box carrying precious (and comparatively squishy) cargo… So, for this exercise, I was extra careful, but what the test unit’s technology demonstrated was nothing short of staggering.
First, I put the adaptive cruise control to work. Apart from maintaining a set speed, the function allows you to choose how many car lengths you’d like it to keep between your vehicle and those ahead of it (4 lengths maximum, 1 length minimum). A radar system prompts the Carnival to automatically slow itself down or accelerate to maintain that gap. This tech meant you could tuck your takkies deep into the footwell without fear of your car flying off the rails.
On a 1 000-km trip, any driving duties you can delegate to the artificial intelligence will have a real-world effect on your energy and concentration levels, so while you’re never quite a passenger when you’re at the ‘wheel of the Carnival, it’s some tedium to unsubscribe from. Still, on a particularly entertaining mountain pass, feel free to deactivate the androids and pedal it out yourself.
I’ve overlooked the most common and accepted AI (Artificial Intelligence, in case you’re unfamiliar with the abbreviation) of all, haven’t I? I mean the automatic transmission – a luxury item that has prevailed in over 90% of the test cars I’ve driven this year. We hardly even acknowledge them anymore, so dutifully do they perform their task – it’s hard to remember that, for a long time, petrolheads scoffed at the thought of the machine “rowing cogs” on their behalf.
The Carnival’s 8-speed auto is a gem – smooth and intuitive. It dips into the 2.2-litre 4-cylinder turbodiesel’s 148 kW and 440 Nm to ensure that, come hill or valley, the Kia maintains its cadence with grace. So why did I almost forget to mention it? Well, because the sign of a good auto ‘box is that it just quietly gets on with the job. Yes, behind the steering wheel there are indeed a pair of shift paddles, but I didn’t trouble the test unit’s ones. Still, I’ve left the best for last…
The pièce de résistance, it really steers itself
Lane-keeping assist tracks the lines on the road and keeps the Carnival navigating between them.
Now, bear in mind that the Kia is not meant to steer itself… it just can. In fact, if you remove both hands from the ‘wheel for too long, a prompt on the instrument cluster will instruct you to keep your digits on the rim. Most premium cars have enjoyed lane-departure warnings for a few years now, and the Carnival has this technology as well. It also has lane-keep assist (LKA) and lane-follow assist (LFA) and when you combine these technologies, well, magic happens. Kia’s flagship uses its cameras and sensors to essentially scan the road markings and lines, as well as observe the traffic ahead, and the payoff is a helm that is eerily good at steering itself, even at highway speeds.
Common sense still applies. Let me elaborate: if you steer your vehicle into a sharp bend at a ludicrous speed, you may not be able to avoid an accident even if you’re the world’s most gifted driver. In such an extreme scenario, the car’s bionic brain won’t be able to save you either. Similarly, if the road isn’t well marked (paint fades, after all, and markings are often swallowed up by massive potholes, of which there are many in Mzansi), there goes your AI’s ability to process lanes.
Yet, something quite wonderful happened during a flash storm that occurred on the road between Johannesburg and Kimberely during the trip with the Carnival. Visibility was very poor – in fact, dire – because the night sky was filled with stormy weather. The wipers were racing across the windshield at maximum velocity, auto-dimmers and fog lamps were deployed, but the green steering wheel icon was lit, indicating that the lane robots were present and able to assist.
Let me reiterate that point – in addition to my best efforts to overcome the treacherous driving conditions, the Kia’s lane technologies also had their “hands” on the ‘wheel, which provided me with just a bit more peace of mind… and that, ultimately, is the purpose of semi-autonomous driving technology. That the Carnival can “drive itself” for extended periods throughout your road trip, leaving you less stressed and fatigued, well, that’s practically science fiction.
Safety first
The systems are built primarily as safety systems, not to remove the driver from the system.
As entertaining as it was to observe these systems in action, they’re ultimately safety measures. Even though I am a seasoned driver, it felt reassuring to know that I could rely on them. Journeys with poor visibility on slippery roads are treacherous because even if you drive circumspectly, YOU may be the biggest hazard. Exhaustion, lapses of concentration – they don’t rear their ugly heads at convenient points of your journey and can happen sooner than you expect.
Every time we commandeer a motor vehicle – never mind its size and/or heft – we put our lives, as well as those of our fellow road users, at risk. Kia is but one of several automotive companies that have provided us with a rather extensive raft of electronic safety features in its vehicles, of which the Carnival is an apex example. These systems mitigate at least some of that risk we face as motorists and, best of all, without the annoyance of tugging and nudging drivers into submission (those early technologies were infamously meddlesome). With the Carnival, I experienced only the positive aspect of a self-driving car, but with the option to opt-out of the experience at the thumb of a button, if I felt like it. That, I appreciated!
