Nevada Grants Kia Motors Autonomous Driving License

Kia has taken another step forward into the future after it was granted a license by the US state of Nevada to test its autonomous driving technologies on public roads.

Along with sister company Hyundai, Kia plans to introduce a range of partially autonomous driving tech to its lineup by the end of the decade.

This will be the basis for its first fully-autonomous car, which will hit the market by 2030, and it will follow an initial stage of investment, made by Kia and Hyundai, which totals $2 billion, by 2018. The investment will allow the automakers to develop ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) technologies and to employ a larger number of engineers.

"Thanks to this license we will be able to accelerate the testing of our new autonomous driving technologies that are currently in the early stages of development, with particular emphasis on our alternative powertrain vehicles. We are confident that our latest innovations will ultimately make driving safer for all road users", said Hyundai Motor Group's VP of Central Advanced Research and Engineering Institute, Dr. Tae-Won Lim.

The latest production vehicles made by Kia, including the Sportage, Sorento and Optima, will be offered with the new technologies that will join the suite of features already offered by the automaker. The ADAS-equipped models will be "as safe and efficient as possible" and they will make driving safer and easier.

The ADAS System will allow vehicles to drive by themselves and will comprise three different modes, including "Recognition", "Judgment" and "Control". The technology will be co-developed with other suppliers and affiliated companies and it "can be circumvented by direct driver control, enabling closer control of the car as desired", according to the automaker.

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