Designing concept cars seems kind of like being back in grade school, when kids are encouraged to dream up things like a bedroom with a bouncy-house floor or a spaceship with an ice cream machine on board. At least concept cars have a chance of making it to production at some point, even if that timeline is a long way off. At Kia's EV Day in Barcelona, Spain in March, the brand unveiled a new modular electric van it's calling the Platform Beyond Vehicle (PBV). The PV5 is the first in the automaker's plan, with four variants: Cargo, Passenger, Crew, and a Wheelchair Access Vehicle option. The designers pushed that a little further with the PV5 WKNDR concept, an EV made for camping and overlanding.

Kia is finally sharing some specs for the EV9 electric SUV, and they may be good news for families planning road trips. The three-row EV will now include Level 3 self-driving (that is, the car drives itself in some situations but may need you to take over) in some countries when you spring for the GT-line trim. The planned Highway Driving Pilot will use LiDAR and other sensors to let you "take a break" from driving, where conditions allow. The EV9 might also deliver more range than you'd expect for an SUV this size. Kia claims the RWD Long Range model with a 99.8kWh battery will offer up to 336 miles of range, based on WLTP testing.

Much as Hyundai did yesterday, Kia has announced an electrification roadmap at its 2022 Investor Day, promising to have 14 fully electric models by 2027 and sales of 1.2 million EVs by 2030. It also revealed that its EV9 SUV, unveiled in concept form last November at the LA Auto Show, will be the first to use autonomous driving tech it calls "Automode." Kia's roadmap builds on its "Plan S" development strategy announced early in 2021 that included new branding and a plan to introduce of seven EVs by 2027. Now, the company plans to double that with 14 BEV (battery electric vehicle) models available by 2027 and total EV sales of 1.2 million by 2030. It also projects to sell 4 million vehicles annually by 2030, so EVs would make up just over a quarter of that -- while automakers like Mercedes-Benz plan to only sell BEVs by 2030. The strategy is still ambitious, as it's starting with 160,000 BEV sales this year and plans to ramp that up by five times to 807,000 units in 2026 and 1.2 million by 2030.

We got our first good look at the EV6 last March and, nearly a year later, finally got to sit in it, drive it, and push every button in the cabin last week during a day-long press event in Northern California. It's the first Kia vehicle to be produced under the company's new Plan S electrification strategy and is expected to be joined by nearly a dozen other new EV models by 2026 - with Kia noting that "All dedicated Kia EVs will begin with the'EV' prefix, followed by a number that indicates the car's size and position in the lineup, not its chronological place in the launch cadence." And that's just vehicles built on the Hyundai Group's (which owns Kia) E-GMP battery-propulsion platform. When the EV6 arrives in all 50 states later this spring, it'll be going up against the likes of the Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Volkswagen ID.4, the Tesla Model Y, the Ioniq 5 and Nissan's Ariya -- not to mention Kia's own Niro EV and its brother from a Hyundai mother, the Kona EV -- also probably the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra when they eventually arrive as well. The EV6 will be made available in three trim levels: Light, Wind, and GT-Line.

The days of drivers sneaking dangerous downward glances at directions on their phones may soon come to an end. Automakers are poised to introduce technology on new cars, trucks and SUVs that projects directions onto the windshield and draws a circle around pedestrians or deer on the roadway. Depending on the vehicle, these augmented reality windshields may also display vehicle information, identify ice patches and, eventually, serve as a screen for entertainment purposes when self-driving cars become a reality. Brands poised to debut the technology include Kia, Hyundai, Cadillac and Audi. Advocates say that the windshields show how technology can be used to reduce driver distraction, keeping drivers' eyes on the road instead of darting toward an infotainment screen or phone.

Brands of all stripes have tried to capitalize on the rise of chatbots, coming up with everything from beauty advice and cocktail recipe bots to financial assistant bots. But given the sheer volume of inquiries brands get on their social channels, these automated interfaces have perhaps been most useful for brands' customer service initiatives. "Brands can use deep learning algorithms on top of their customer service logs through these chatbots to provide personalized responses in real-time," said Mikhail Naumov, president and co-founder at DigitalGenius. "Chatbots are very useful for customer service when done right." We asked four brands to share their biggest takeaways from using chatbots for customer service. Kia Motors Kia launched NiroBot in November 2016, tied to the introduction of its hybrid utility car, the 2017 Niro.

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors on Tuesday announced a plan to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based, Internet-connected car to create a new future lifestyle with a "driving, high-performing computer". The driving computer means a car will become a high-performing computer itself as the car, to be developed by Hyundai and Kia, will self-drive based on AI and connect to electronic devices while driving based on internet connectivity, Xinhua cited a joint statement as saying. The main concept of the project is a "hyper-connected and intelligent car", which means an interaction between cars home as well as home and office in addition to AI-based self-driving. To achieve the goal, the automakers will focus on four major themes, intelligent remote-controlling support service, perfect self-driving, smart traffic and mobility hub. The remote-controlling support service aims to check and examine cars on a real-time basis to detect potential emergency situations in advance.

Seoul: South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors on Tuesday announced a plan to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based, internet-connected car to create a new future lifestyle with a "driving, high-performing computer". The driving computer means a car will become a high-performing computer itself as the car, to be developed by Hyundai and Kia, will self-drive based on AI and connect to electronic devices while driving based on internet connectivity, Xinhua cited a joint statement as saying. The main concept of the project is a "hyper-connected and intelligent car", which means an interaction between cars home as well as home and office in addition to AI-based self-driving. To achieve the goal, the automakers will focus on four major themes, intelligent remote-controlling support service, perfect self-driving, smart traffic and mobility hub. The remote-controlling support service aims to check and examine cars on a real-time basis to detect potential emergency situations in advance.

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors on Tuesday announced a plan to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based, Internet-connected car to create a new future lifestyle with a "driving, high-performing computer". The driving computer means a car will become a high-performing computer itself as the car, to be developed by Hyundai and Kia, will self-drive based on AI and connect to electronic devices while driving based on internet connectivity, Xinhua cited a joint statement as saying. The main concept of the project is a "hyper-connected and intelligent car", which means an interaction between cars home as well as home and office in addition to AI-based self-driving. To achieve the goal, the automakers will focus on four major themes, intelligent remote-controlling support service, perfect self-driving, smart traffic and mobility hub. The remote-controlling support service aims to check and examine cars on a real-time basis to detect potential emergency situations in advance.

At least this is what R Balki's Ki & Ka tries to establish: In this world, women behave like men, and men are already men. Delhi-based Kabir Bansal (Arjun Kapoor) is in line to inherit his father's multi-crore business conglomerate. Are you also reminded of the AIB Roast? Yes, Arjun Kapoor is playing a North Indian, again. Kabir wants to be like his mother because he believes being a housewife is nothing short of being an artist.