Kia will present a potential solution for smart-city mobility at CES 2019 with its SEED Car concept. The SEED Car is a four-wheel electric cycle with a range of 100 km (62 miles) based on a pedal-electric hybrid system, requiring pedal input from the driver but with a high degree of electric power assistance to make it effortless.

The concept has been designed to make urban driving easy, fun and safe, while exploring how Kia could make the final mile of any journey possible with a personal mobility device.

For longer journeys, the SEED Car is housed within the BIRD Car—an autonomous shuttle vehicle capable of travelling further than the four-wheel cycle’s range capabilities. Once within 100 km of its final urban destination, the SEED Car is dispersed to complete its journey.

Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving. Also at CES 2019, Kia is unveiling its new Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving (READ) system—an emotional AI-based optimized and interactive in-cabin space centered on human senses.

The READ System can optimize and personalize a vehicle cabin space by analyzing a driver’s emotional state in real-time through AI-based bio-signal recognition technology. The technology monitors a driver’s emotional state using sensors to read their facial expressions, heart rate and electrodermal activity.

It then tailors the interior environment according to its assessment—potentially altering conditions relating to the five senses within the cabin, creating a more joyful mobility experience. AI deep-learning technology enables the system to establish a baseline in user behavior, and then identify patterns and trends to customize the cabin accordingly.

Kia considers the interactive cabin a focal point for future mobility, and the READ System represents a convergence of cutting-edge vehicle control technology and AI-based emotional intelligence. The system enables continuous communication between driver and vehicle through the unspoken language of feeling, thereby providing an optimal, human-sense oriented space for the driver in real-time.

—Albert Biermann, President and Head of Research & Development Division of Hyundai Motor Group

The READ System will be revealed alongside V-Touch—a virtual touch-type gesture control technology. V-Touch employs a 3D camera to monitor users’ eyes and fingertip, allowing occupants to manage several in-car features via an unobtrusive head-up display. Through simple finger gestures, all vehicle occupants can make changes to the cabin environment, including lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) and entertainment systems, eliminating the need for buttons or touch screen.

Kia will have specially-designed experiential modules installed at its CES booth to demonstrate the potential of the READ System.