Safe Exit Assist In New Kia Telluride Just One Of Many Family-Friendly Features

Kia presented its new Telluride three-row SUV to a packed meeting at the headquarters of the New England Motor Press last night. The Telluride is a rugged, boxy, tough-looking, but luxurious new crossover SUV from Kia with an almost shockingly-low price point for its capabilities and features. Starting at just $33K and topping out under $47K, the Telluride will offer Honda Pilot, Subaru Ascent, and Chevy Tahoe shoppers a very tempting option when they choose their next family vehicle.

Among the many family-friendly features we expect to see in such a vehicle, like USB ports in every row, and all the usual active safety and driver assist systems, Kia is adding a great new child-safety system we could relate directly to.
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Called Safe Exit Assist it prevents a child (or adult) from quickly exiting a rear seat without checking for an approaching vehicle, bicyclist, or other hazards. You author just toured three states and five national parks during the busy school vacation week with an 8-year old in the back of a crossover. At every attraction, our little one was eager to jump out to either see the attraction, hit the gift shop, or skiddadle straight to the bathroom. The problem was, parking was tight everywhere and tired parents were doing everything they could to get parked with quite a bit of distraction and hazards to manage. With darkened windows now standard in every SUV, seeing if anyone may be about to exit a parked vehicle just as one pulls into a spot is near impossible.

Safe Exit Assist automatically watches for hazards behind the vehicle and will prevent a rear door from opening if a hazard is approaching. The system then puts the rear door opening in the control of the driver. This allows a parent to use the side and rear view mirrors, in addition to a careful look over a shoulder, to ensure that opening that second-row door is safe. Watch the video (from Hyundai) below for a perfect understanding of how the new Kia Telluride's system works.

Other family-friendly features the Telluride features that we like are the Rear Occupant Alert, Android Auto, Quiet Mode that silences the audio in the second and third rows, and spare tire. Kia clearly knows how to create an appealing family vehicle parents will appreciate. We look forward to a full week of testing the new Telluride and to bringing you a full review.