The 2015 Hyundai Genesis has broken barriers recently, becoming the first ever RWD luxury sedan to win the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick award.
This award seems well-deserved for the amount of safety features that Hyundai has packed into the 2015 model of the Genesis. AutoWeek reports, “To get the Top Safety Pick award, cars must earn “Good” ratings for occupant protection in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint test, no less than “Acceptable” in the small overlap test and at least a basic rating for front crash protection.” The Hyundai Genesis either met or exceeded all of these criteria, and even became the first RWD luxury sedan to receive a “Good” rating in the IIHS small overlap crash test. This is certainly a testament to Hyundai’s mission to deliver safe and reliable vehicles into the market. They have certainly achieved the perception they were trying to evoke from consumers. Consumers have returned the favors with their wallet. Market share for Hyundai-Kia was up to 8.6% in April 2014, up from 7.9% in March.
Making its debut in the Detroit Auto Show this year, the Genesis was immediately noted by the presence of many new safety features. Equipped to the Genesis are a blind-spot warning system, heads-up display, lane change assist, and rear cross-traffic alert. Perhaps the most advanced new feature equipped on the Genesis is its “sensory surround safety.” AutoWeek further describes this system as using “automatic emergency braking to help avoid a potential collision. The system uses the front radar from the smart cruise control system and the forward camera from the lane departure warning. The car’s lane keeping assist provides steering wheel vibration if you stray over the lines.” This system is a more active approach to the research that UMTRI is conducting right now.
We saw first-hand the safety features on the cutting edge of the auto industry, and now we are seeing these features make their debut in the market. It will be interesting to see how this technology spreads throughout the industry now that it is being heavily marketed and recognized by the industry. It would appear that more manufacturers will begin to integrate these systems in order to keep their vehicles on the cutting edge, but time will tell how the industry will treat these technologies.
Sources: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140509/CARNEWS/140509864
So if this technology is a more active version than UMTRI’s do you see this becoming the future rather than the radar type technology?
The Genesis is the top of the line, and these features may be an option rather than standard. So you are correct in wondering how long it may take for such things to migrate into “ordinary” cars. It is however a proof of concept, and a chance to see whether drivers view (for example) a heads-up display as valuable. Others have played with this as an option, and to my knowledge no one sells many.