KIA K5 Incident

The owner (father of the driver) of a 2024MY Kia K5 contacted Kia's Customer Care Center on 12/5/2023 indicating his son was driving the subject vehicle when the traffic slowed down suddenly and was involved in an accident. The father was not a passenger or witness to the accident. The father reported his son was traveling approximately 60-65mph when a "Ford Explorer may have cut him off, [REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION] he had no time to brake, and hit the [REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION]". The "car did [REDACTED, MAY CONTAIN CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION] alert or brake" prior to impact. The father indicated his son did not remember if he had hit the brakes. The subject Kia K5 is equipped with Highway Driving Assist (HDA), Lane Following Assist (LFA) and Smart Cruise Control (SCC). HDA is a supplemental system that helps maintain a set distance and speed from the vehicle ahead when driving on a highway and helps keep the vehicle between lanes while driving. HDA may not be able to recognize all traffic situations and may not detect possible collisions due to limitations of the system. LFA is also 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. LFA does not operate at all times and it is the responsibility of the driver to safely steer the vehicle and to maintain the vehicle in its lane. The father reported that HDA and LFA were engaged but SCC was not. It is unclear whether HDA was in fact engaged since the father reported SCC was not. Kia is currently working with the father to retrieve the vehicle's ACU but has no further information at this time. *10-Day Update* After Kia's 1-Day report was submitted, the customer provided Kia with photos of the vehicle. Kia has no further update at this time. *1/16/2024: Monthly Update* On 12/18/2023, ODI engineer Joseph Teitelman requested some additional information regarding the vehicle. Kia responded on the same day. The ACU for the subject vehicle was shipped to Kia America on 1/11/2024 and is currently in transit. Once received, Kia will download the EDR and provide to Joe Teitelman per his request via the provided SLFTS link. *2/15/2024: Monthly Update* On 1/23/2024, Kia submitted the requested EDR report to Mr. Teitelman via NHTSA's SLFTS portal. *3/15/2024: Monthly Update* Kia engineer reviewed the EDR data previously submitted to NHTSA and identified the following: 1) Vehicle was travelling 111-112 kph pre-crash (69-70 mph) 2) Smart Cruise Control was off during the entire 5 seconds pre-crash and was not being operated in L2 mode during this time 3) Driver pressed brakes at 0.5 seconds pre-crash in conjunction with FCA providing braking force which activated ABS 4) Forward Collision Avoidance Assist provided Level 1 warning from -0.8 to -0.7 seconds before the crash 5) FCA provided Level 2 warning from -0.6 to 0.0 seconds before the crash and 6) Brake pressure was recorded at 154.2 bar at 0.5 seconds pre-crash. The vehicle systems appear to have operated as designed.