The world is becoming increasingly rushed and pressurized. Many people commute long hours to and from their workplace and sometimes the journey home takes place at night after a long and tiring day at work. For those times that your concentration is not optimum, a car that’s equipped with advanced safety and driver-assist features could actually mean the difference between life and death.
The 2019 Kia Optima offers impressive standard and available safety and driver-assist features. Standard features offered across all trims include vehicle stability management, electronic stability control, hill-start assist, and a tire-pressure monitoring system. Kia also boasts Kia DriveWise technologies, which are advanced driver-assist systems that’ll alert you of potentially hazardous situations and hopefully minimize the damage if an accident should occur. Here is some information on the various technologies included in Kia’s DriveWise suite.
1. Forward Collision Avoidance Assistance
The forward collision avoidance assistance system is a standard feature included across all trims of the 2019 Optima. It will provide you with a visual or audible alert when it detects that you’re approaching a potential hazard ahead of you, even if you cannot see it. The system may even automatically apply brakes if no appropriate reaction from the driver takes place, in this way reducing the possible impact.
2. Lane-Change and Lane-Departure Warning
Two systems are offered here and both are included as standard equipment with the Optima. Lane-change assist will notify you of vehicles approaching from the rear when you’re trying to change lanes, while lane-departure warning will help you stay in your lane by alerting you when you stray outside the perimeters of the lane.
3. Blind-Spot Monitoring System
The blind-spot monitoring system makes use of radar sensors that will alert you with either visual or auditory signals when it detects potentially hazardous objects or other vehicles located outside of your field of vision. The system also incorporates rear cross-traffic collision warning, which will assist you when backing up. All trims of the 2019 Kia Optima are equipped with this system.
4. Smart Cruise Control With Stop & Go
With smart cruise control your car will maintain a preset distance from a preceding vehicle, automatically slowing down and accelerating as need be. The system can even bring your Kia to a complete standstill, while a single tap on the accelerator will restart the car and bring it back to a desirable speed.
5. Dynamic Bending Light
This system consists of low-beam assist and high-beam assist. When taking a corner at night time, low-beam assist will adjust the direction of the headlights according to the angle of the steering wheel and the speed you’re traveling to afford you better visibility. High-beam assist automatically adjusts your high beams by turning them down for oncoming traffic and then readjusting them when there is none.
In the technological age in which we live, there is no reason not to invest in advanced technologies that do not only afford driver’s a more comfortable driving experience, but could also potentially save lives. To try these driver-assist technologies, pop in at Huffines Kia Denton and take a 2019 Kia Optima for a spin.
Kia Optima Plug-in via Flickr by Guillaume Vachey. Used with permission via CC0 1.0 / cropped from original