KIA Niro Incident

On [XXX], the customer called Kias Customer Care Center regarding her 2024MY Kia Niro, indicating that her daughter had a malfunction with the drivers lane assist on the vehicle. The customer reported that her daughter got off the highway and forgot to turn off HDA and picked up cyclists as veh[REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION]. The vehicle started following [REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION] to the right with lane detection, but when [REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION] went to turn off, she was unable to and it forced my veh[REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION] to hit a tree in a ditch. She reported that her daughter was transported to the hospital after the incident and had sustained bruises, limited mobility, and stitches to the back of her head. She requested the black box for the vehicle. In addition, the customer suggested that before the accident, her daughter had taken the vehicle to a Kia dealership with a concern about the HDA and the dealership identified no concerns. The subject Kia Niro is equipped with Highway Drive Assist (HDA), LFA, and SCC. LFA is a supplemental system that helps to detect lane markings and/or vehicles on the road and assists the driver's steering to help keep the vehicle between lanes. The functionality of LFA is contingent upon several outside factors and it is always the responsibility of the driver to safely steer the vehicle and to maintain the vehicle in its lane. Kia confirmed that Smart Cruise Control (SCC) and Lane Following Assist (LFA) were active from approximately 19 seconds to 7 seconds prior to the collision. At 7 seconds pre-collision, LFA was disengaged. Kia is currently working to obtain additional information to evaluate this incident.