Kia Adds New UVO Connected Car Features In Europe

New features include last-mile navigation, valet mode and transferrable user settings

• UVO Connect updates for European markets throughout 2020 as part of Phase II rollout.

• Kia promises better online navigation with better traffic prediction.

• New last-mile navigation to sync with Google Maps on smartphone if Kia owners park between 200m and 2km from input destination.

• Valet mode is also a new feature for owners to monitor their vehicle when someone else is driving.

Kia’s range of connected car technology is clubbed under the umbrella of UVO Connect. This technology has been offered on the Seltos since the brand entered India. The carmaker will be adding more features to its services in a series of updates throughout 2020 called UVO Phase II, starting with Kia cars in Europe.

The updated UVO ecosystem will offer better online navigation with more accurate traffic prediction based on cloud-based real-time and historical traffic data. A new ‘Last Mile Navigation’ feature sends a notification to the UVO App on the user’s phone if their input destination is between 200m and 2km from where the car has been parked. It accesses Google Maps to navigate the final mile on foot and also offers an Augmented Reality function which uses the phone's camera and blends the image with AR turn-by-turn directional arrows.

Another new feature for UVO Connect will be the ability to transfer user profiles between UVO-enabled Kia cars. It allows a user to store their preferred vehicle settings like navigation and or radio and Bluetooth preferences via the cloud and transfer these settings from one Kia to another which is handy for fleet drivers or households with multiple Kia cars.

The carmaker also mentioned adding a new ‘Valet Parking Mode’ feature in Phase II UVO Connect system allowing owners to monitor their vehicle remotely with details like location, driving time, distance covered and top-speed. It can also lock out any personal navigation data saved on the onboard system.

Currently, the Kia UVO Connect on the Indian models comes with 37 connected car features for navigation, remote car functions including engine start, safety notifications, vehicle telematics and conveniences like AI voice command and smartwatch connectivity. The Seltos SUV offers free UVO Connect services for 3 years from the higher-spec HTX variant onwards while the Carnival only gets it in the top-spec Limousine VIP 7-seater variant. It remains to be seen when these additional features would make it to the Indian market.