EQ900 gives glimpse of what autonomous driving will look like

Push the "smart" button on the door and it asks your height and weight. It analyzes the data for a moment and then optimizes the position of the seat before you hit the road.

The engine cranks up but the inside remains calm. And when you step on the accelerator, it moves smoothly as if it slides forward on silk. Still, fasten your "mental" seat belt and brace for more, since these might be just the beginning of what you could experience from Hyundai Motor Co.'s newly-launched EQ900 flagship luxury sedan.

On Dec. 9, South Korea's leading carmaker Hyundai Motor launched the EQ900 with great fanfare, the first model that hit the market bearing the name of Genesis, its new luxury sedan brand.

Globally known for its low- and mid-priced models, Hyundai Motor has been seeking to break its age-old image by developing something that can compete in the premium sedan market mostly dominated by Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Living up to the expectations for the flagship model of a carmaker, the EQ900 boasts many up-to-date technologies and provides marked noise reduction, better driving performance, convenience and safety, and even autonomous driving features that cannot be easily experienced in other vehicles.

Hyundai Motor held a media drive test event last Thursday in which dozens of reporters had a chance to experience the EQ900 3.3 turbo model by driving it on bump-ridden urban roads and the 140 km highway from Seoul to Chuncheon.

The first thing that drew attention is how far Hyundai has gone in terms of controlling the level of inside noise. Wind noise was not heard until the car was running at a speed of 150 kmph.

The noise level was so low even when inside a tunnel at high speed that the driver's murmuring could be heard by a passenger in the back seat.

Behind the marked reduction of inside noise was a triple weather strip on its doors and sound insulation glass on the rear window that Hyundai Motor claims it applied for the first time among locally produced vehicles.

Its driving performance based on the turbo engine that produces a maximum of 370 horsepower and 52.0 kg-meters of torque was up to its flagship model status. The EQ900 accelerated fast with a strong sense of stability, giving trust that the driver can hold it anytime he or she wants.

Its high-quality leather seat modeled on a first-class airplane seat tightly held the driver's body, whose bio data had already been injected into the position analysis system developed jointly with Seoul National University, the country's most prestigious school.

The highlight didn't come until the EQ900 entered a highway when the highway driving assist system was activated. It started to maintain the car in the lane and adjust speed to keep it at a safe distance from the vehicle in front.

It did not deviate from the lane even when moving on a winding road. It was bizarre to experience the driving wheel moving by itself and the car's speed going up and down automatically in accordance with traffic conditions.

More surprising is that the embedded navigation uses real-time road information and slows the car down to below 30kmph when it enters a toll gate. The HDA is de-activated when the car exits a highway.

One catch is that you cannot keep your hands off the wheel forever, since it gives a warning to touch the wheel again after a certain period of time, a system designed to follow current safety regulations. "Technically, you could go all the way down to Busan depending on the HDA system," a Hyundai Motor official said.

It might take some time before you fully trust the HDA system, but once getting ahold of the autonomous driving system, it becomes really convenient for driving on a highway. The EQ900 surely provides a glimpse into what future autonomous driving will look like, and that future is not far away.

Armed with such high-tech features along with much-enhanced driving performance and well-controlled inside noise, Hyundai Motor is confident that the EQ900 can compete with the S-Class of Mercedes-Benz and the 7-series of BMW. It plans to unveil the premium luxury sedan in overseas markets next year under the name of G90.

"The EQ900 is a state-of-the-art premium sedan that we developed to target the global market," Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo said during a launch event held earlier this month in central Seoul.

"Born with all the technology that we have accumulated, along with top-notch performance and product quality, the EQ900 will compete squarely with global top-of-the-line luxury cars."

As Hyundai Motor officials put it, the response has been very favorable so far. The popularity has been stronger among relatively younger customers than its predecessor, the Equus, a change that Hyundai Motor might be anxious to see, as the image of the previous model is getting too old.

Company data showed that the average age of customers who have purchased the EQ900 stands at 55.1, down from the 57.3 for the Equus. In particular, the portion of those aged below the early 50s has increased by 10 percentage points. (Yonhap)