technology. The trim level I bought does not have it, which is one of the reasons I chose the base LX trim. I didn't want to pay for the automatic features I was sure I wouldn't use.
So, I've been on a KIA Soul forum since I bought our first Soul back in 2012. The 2020 models have their own subsection of the forum. A lot of folks have been talking about those safety features, which some call "nannies." The avalable features on various trim levels include Lane Keeping Assist, Front Collision Warning/Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Alerts, and Smart Cruise Control, which adjusts speed to match traffic on busy roads. The last feature is only available on the two top trim levels.
It wasn't long before people started reporting issues with these "safety nanny" features.
The first complaints came from the Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) feature. Several owners complained that the car often tried to steer when there was no reason for an adjustment. After more people mentioned the circumstances, it turned out that each time, it was because lane marking lines were obscured in some way, or missing. The LKA nanny reacted by trying to correct the car's direction. Fortunately, owners can adjust the actions of the LKA and can turn off the actual steering assist function. Pretty much everyone has done that, after being annoyed or alarmed that their car was trying to take control.
Next, the Front Collision Warning and Emergency Braking nanny started getting comments. One driver reported that his Soul suddenly came to a stop in freeway traffic, for no apparent reason. After discussion, it appeared that the car was on a upgrade, approaching an overpass, just past the high point on the road. The Front collision system saw the overpass as a stationary object in the lane and brought the car to a stop. The driver had to press the disable button for that feature to continue driving. Others have reported similar sudden stops on tight curves, where the system mistook a car in another lane as a stopped car in the current lane.
Smart Cruise Control, too, had its share of issues, most having to do with the system mistaking cars in other lanes as being in the lane the car was in and adjusting speed for a car that was in another lane. Again, this tended to occur on curvest.
I haven't seen any complaints about the blind spot warning thing on the Souls, but a Ford Flex I rented recently kept alarming on a freeway, almost every time I overtook a car or a car overtook me in an adjacent lane. I had to disable the feature to keep from going nuts.
The KIA Soul has adjustments to these features the owner can make, buried a couple of menus deep in the computer system, so you can customize how the features behave and how much control you allow them to have. Having done some of those custom setting in other areas, I can say that they aren't easy to get to in the car's computer, and you really need to have the owner's manual at hand to navigate making such changes.
As I said, I chose the base trim level for my own car to avoid having those features. Only one automated feature is on my LX trim model. That is the Automatic Stop and Go feature. It shuts the engine off at stop signs and traffic signals, and restarts it when you take your foot off the brake. I don't care for it at all, since it delays me at the stop for a second or two. There is no way to disable the feature permanently, but you can turn it off, which I do, every time I start the car, before beginning my drive. When I do forget, the first time it shuts the engine off, I push the disable button and it instantly restarts the engine and disables the feature until the car is turned off. Why isn't there a setting to shut this off as the default? Because the feature adds a mile per gallon of economy in city driving, and regulations don't allow the mileage claims if the owner can set it off as a default. That's the word from KIA, anyhow.
Autonomous vehicles have far, far more computer controlled features, of course. But, the issues people are experiencing with the simple safety automated features in KIAs and other cars tells me that we're not there yet with automation.
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