As Hyundai enters the luxury brand game for real with the new Genesis marque, the old Hyundai Equus is gone and the Genesis G90 is here to replace it. The new car isn’t just a big luxobarge with a bargain price like the last one. Hyundai claims the G90 is “all-but autonomous.” Is it really?
Not every G90 (sold in South Korea as the EQ900, pictured here) gets the not-quite-a-Google-car claim. You need to pick the Genesis Smart Sense package for it.
Automotive News reports that this package bundles together active cruise control and lane-keep assist. There is also “Highway Driving Assistance” that seems to work just like active cruise control, slowing and speeding up to avoid collisions, but Hyundai curiously notes that this is restricted to the Korean market only.
Hyundai’s full press release on the car is kind of vague, referring also to “ a combination of newly developed technologies,” but it doesn’t elaborate what they do other than maintain the car’s speed, lane, and following distance.
Beyond this, the car also gets Smart High Beam Assist, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Pedestrian Detection, Active Blind Spot Detection, Driver Attention Alert, and a full view monitor assisted by a one megapixel rear camera.
So the car can dip your high beams for you, brake for pedestrians for you, keep you at a safe following distance from other cars for you, and stay in your lane for you.
“This combination of newly developed technologies create a first-class, all-but autonomous driving experience,” is how Hyundai put it.
These technologies may be newly developed from Hyundai, but they are all technologies that are already available on the market today, particularly from Mercedes, which started offering this smart cruise/lane keep bundling on the S-Class last year. We reviewed that car, and while it was somewhat spooky and self-driving, it was a long way from “all-but autonomous.” (Bear in mind the G90 will be considerably cheaper than an S-Class, which is kind of the point.)
We are still not at the point where we can take our hand and eyes off the wheel, take a nap, and arrive at work some time later.
That being said, this new Genesis does look comfy.
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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