“Hello Kia”.

That’s a phrase Kia consumers may soon want to get used to when getting behind the wheel of a new Kia Motors vehicle. Not that it’s a bad thing. In fact, it could be the next step that will bring the automotive industry up to par with consumer products on the market today. This kind of shift was no more evident than during the Consumer Electronics Show. In a world of social distancing, Kia Motors is starting to focus on purpose-built vehicles akin to those the automaker demonstrated in a shared short film between the Hyundai Motor Group and Lyft during the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show. Last year, during the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, we got a glimpse at upcoming technology for operating vehicles, the first stage of which has already made its way into the Kia lineup.

If unfamiliar with the Kia Seltos compact SUV, then start learning, because this is the most advanced Kia Motors vehicle to date. The Kia Seltos, initially tested in India before making its way to North America, is the first vehicle to come with an intelligent personal agent. Over time, the automotive industry catches up with consumer tech, and smart devices are starting to become the next big thing. Several automakers have signed contracts with Amazon for use of Alexa services in their vehicle or vehicle accessories, and others of course have signed with competitor Google for Android-based services. The Kia Seltos has its own smart device.

Consumers may be already familiar with come voice commands, such as making phone calls or answering texts. The intelligent personal agent in the Kia Seltos compact SUV can understand multiple commands at once and perform several functions. These include search for locations of interest in real-time, providing up-to-date information on the weather, provide the date and time, make phone calls, of course, control the car’s media and navigation, and operate in-car climate controls to adjust the A/C. That’s all done with voice commands. During the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, Kia took things a step further with the world’s first virtual touch-type gesture control technology. Consumers would one day be able to use finger gestures to operate parts of the vehicle, but we’re not quite there yet.

Currently being tested in India, the Kia Motors Intelligent Personal Agent may make its way beyond the Kia Seltos. Now available as an update to the UVO infotainment system, Kia Motors has a new voice assist wake up command – “Hello Kia”. This command will wake up a virtual agent within the infotainment system and then, just like when talking to Amazon Alexa or Google Home, the consumer can give a command – except with Kia, consumers can give more than one command at once. It’s a pretty neat addition to the infotainment system, and it’s going to put Kia Motors ahead of the game for quite a bit.

Seriously, no one else has an infotainment system they can talk to while driving. That’s a thing now. With Kia Motors. Check it out on the 2020 Kia Seltos.

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