Future Kias could feature technology to change your mood

Kia is developing new technology that will enable its cars to monitor a driver’s emotional state and tailor the interior environment to create a more enjoyable experience.

The Real-time Emotion Adaptive Driving (READ) system will be unveiled as part of Kia’s ‘Space of Emotive Driving’ exhibit at the 2019 Consumer Electronic Show.

It will focus on a future where autonomous driving is the norm and the priority is given to improving the human mobility experience.

READ was developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Affective Computing group.

It can optimise and personalise a vehicle cabin space by analysing a driver’s emotional state in real-time through artificial intelligence-based bio-signal recognition technology.

The technology can alter conditions relating to the human senses within the cabin, creating a more enjoyable mobility experience.

“We have developed READ System to create an interactive future mobility in-cabin space by converging cutting edge vehicle control technology and AI-based emotional intelligence. Consequently, READ System will enable continuous communication between drivers and vehicles through the unspoken language of ‘emotional feeling’ thereby providing an optimised human senses-oriented space for drivers in real-time,” said Albert Biermann, president and head of research and development division at Kia Motors.

Kia’s CES exhibit will also feature several other advanced in-car and mobility technologies focused on the brand’s ‘emotive driving’ concept, with more detail to be announced in the build-up to the 2019 event.

CES 2019 takes place on Tuesday January 8 to Friday January 11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.