Almost everyone has a handphone nowadays so if you are unfortunate to have an accident, you can call for help from anywhere. But what if you are injured and cannot make the call? If you have a Hyundai Grand Starex from Hyundai Sime Darby Motors (HSDM), the vehicle will make that emergency call for you, thanks to the Telematics System which HSDM has installed as standard in every Grand Starex sold after May 1, 2021. The Telematics System comes with 6 services – Automatic eCall, Manual eCall, Breakdown Assistance, Service Assist, Connected Security Features/Stolen Vehicle Tracking.
eCall will bring emergency assistance
The Automatic eCall system, which has been required in all vehicles sold in Europe since 2018, is activated when a severe impact is detected by sensors, indicating that the vehicle has been involved in an accident. A SOS call goes on to the Secure Operating Centre (SOC) which will then attempt to contact the owner of the vehicle to check on the situation. Should there be no response, rescue services and the police will be notified to go to the location shown on the tracking device in the vehicle.
If the driver is not hurt, he or she can use the Manual eCall by just pressing the SOS button mounted on the console of the Grand Starex. Once this done, there will be a call from the SOC to find out the nature of the emergency and what sort of assistance is required.
The bCall service will bring breakdown support to where the vehicle is located and if the vehicle is stolen or lost, its location can be identified with the tracking system. Once the location is known, the SOC will coordinate with police and other personnel to recover the vehicle.
Vehicle location and tracking
The Telematics System also comes with a Mobile App that can activate a smart alarm to locate the vehicle with the sound of the horn and signal indicators. This is useful if you are in a large carpark and forgot where you parked the vehicle. If you do not have such a feature, here’s a tip: use your phone to take a picture of a sign nearby which shows the location. This will help you to find the spot or the carpark people will be able to take you there.
The Service Assist feature tracks the vehicle’s mileage via GPS and then sends a note to an authorised Hyundai service centre which will then offer an appointment to the vehicle owner (if a scheduled service is due). The concierge service also includes reminders for the renewal of insurance and roadtax.
Complimentary for 3 years
The Telematics System service is complimentary for the first 3 years. After this period ends, vehicle owners can opt to renew the service for RM380 per year. “Existing Grand Starex owners who are keen to have this system installed in their vehicles can approach any authorised Hyundai service centre to get the Telematics System installed at RM1,998,” said Low Yuan Lung, Managing Director of HSDM.
The 11-seater Grand Starex MPV is available in two variants, both with 2.5-litre turbodiesel engines and 5-speed automatic transmission. Prices start from RM165,888.00 (excluding insurance) in Peninsula Malaysia) and financing plans offered by HSDM have monthly instalments that start from RM1,348 (terms and conditions apply).
SEAT, the Spanish carmaker that is part of the Volkswagen Group, has unveiled the all-new Leon which will have its public launching in Geneva in March. Over 2.2 million units have been sold since it was added to the SEAT range in 1999 and, like the latest Volkswagen Golf 8 and Skoda Octavia 4, it sits on the Volkswagen Group’s MQB Evo platform.
“The SEAT Leon has been improving generation after generation being able to conquer new customers. In 2019, the Leon was the best-selling car for SEAT with more than 150,900 vehicles delivered, as well as being the best-selling car in Spain during the past 5 years,” said SEAT’s Executive Vice-President for Sales & Marketing and CUPRA CEO, Wayne Griffiths. “We have now created the best Leon ever. The new Leon has been designed keeping the ‘created in Barcelona’ spirit and at the same time being the safest, most connected and with the widest range of engines the brand has ever seen. We believe we have all the ingredients to make of the new Leon a great choice not only for private customers but also for corporate fleets.”
Evolutionary approach to design
The exterior design takes an evolutionary approach that enhances the volume and proportions of the vehicle, with the increased wheelbase which translates to 49 mm extra legroom for rear occupants, and length for both the 5-door and the Estate. The form was specifically developed to enhance overall efficiency with improved aerodynamics that have the drag coefficient (Cd) lowered by around 8% compared to the previous generation.
Typical of Spanish design philosophy, the car’s appearance has a lot of personality, with a stronger three-dimensional connection between the grille and headlights together. The headlights are set back, giving it deeper focus while making it instantly recognisable. The body surfaces have evolved, with stronger shapes creating more shift in the light and colour tone across the body, which together create a more elegant design.
The new Leon gets the latest in lighting technology, with the cold white light colour of the LEDs provide superior luminosity of up to 900 lumens, (standard LEDS provide up to 550 lumens), thanks to the packing of 22 LEDs per module. There is integration of all the dipped beam, high beam and daytime running lights. Dynamic indicators more clearly show car’s intended direction of travel when turning, apart from being eye-catching features.
Functionality, minimalism and sleekness
Inside, the evolutionary theme continues with a clear emphasis on functionality, minimalism and sleekness. The smooth-surfaced, slim yet wide dashboard gives the appearance of lightness and appears to float. The effect is created with the help of the decorative mouldings that surround the dashboard and continue through into the front doors.
The cabin has been ergonomically designed to increase comfort, with everything within decluttered, reducing the number of physical buttons to a minimum, with a focus on the main infotainment screen, which includes gesture recognition, providing all key interaction and commands from the occupants.
Interior light is an important feature of the all-new Leon. It includes a wraparound dashboard light that covers its entire width and continues through the doors. It’s not only an ambient decorative light, but it also provides a number of key functions including blind spot detection.
A fully connected car
The Leon is declared as the brand’s first fully connected car, interfacing extensively with the more digitalised world. At the heart of the interior is the SEAT Digital Cockpit which brings together a high-resolution 10.25-inch configurable driver instrument cluster and 10-inch infotainment system. Its ‘diagonal’ graphic design positioning gets inspiration from the Diagonal avenue of Barcelona, the home city of the company. It’s also the first time that the design interface has been created at the new SEAT Digital Lab.
A new voice recognition system enables a natural understanding of language to allow the user to interact with the infotainment system using natural commands, making corrections and referencing previous commands. With the Full Link system, the occupants can connect their smartphones and access their digital data no matter what device they use – either wireless Apple CarPlay (based on Bluetooth or WLAN) or Android Auto using a cabled connection.
The built-in eSIM delivers the eCall service which has been required on all new cars since April 2018. This service directly contacts emergency services should an incident occur. At the same time, the system transmits vital data to the emergency services such as the car’s location (based on GPS data), engine type, and number of passengers.
Car2X connectivity is a cloud-based technology that enables drivers to receive advanced warning on the status of upcoming traffic lights or an incident on a motorway further up the road, with traffic information appearing in real-time on the screen.
Wide range of powertrains
Besides petrol (TSI) and diesel (TDI) engines, customers can also have mild-hybrid (eTSI) and plug-in hybrid (eHybrid) powertrains. Transmissions available are both 6-speed manual or a 7-speed DSG (direct shift gearbox) transmission. The DSG automatic transmission now benefits from shift-by-wire technology. The system is designed so that the gear selector is no longer mechanically connected to the gearbox, instead using electronic signals to indicate a shift.
The petrol engines are all direct-injection, turbocharged units with outputs between 110 ps and 190 ps. These include a 1.0-litre 3-cylinder unit as well as a 1.5-litre TSI 4-cylinder unit. Both engines use a Miller-cycle combustion process and variable geometry turbocharger to ensure performance and efficiency, as does the integrated Active Cylinder Management.
There are 2 diesel powertrain options, both 2.0 litre TDI units, with outputs of 115 ps and 150 ps. The turbodiesel engines introduce a new Selective Catalytic Reduction system that includes dual AdBlue injectors to significantly reduce NOx emissions compared to previous generation diesel engines.
As for the Mild Hybrid (eTSI) powertrains, these employ the 1.0 TSI and 1.5 litre TSI petrol engines which are mated to a 48V starter-generator, with energy from a lithium-ion battery pack. The car can coast (no pedal input from the driver) with the engine switched off (while retaining all key electric functions, such as power steering), harvest energy under deceleration and provide electrical torque assistance during acceleration.
The eHybrid variant is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and this uses a 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine with the electric motor, a 13-kWh lithium-ion battery pack and 6-speed DSG transmission. The system output is 204 ps and recharging a totally empty battery pack to 100% is said to take less than 3.5 hours. The PHEV Leon can run on electric power only with a claimed range of 60 kms.
Highly-developed assistance systems
The latest Leon is the safest vehicle the brand has ever developed, the carmaker declares. The safety systems see more of its surroundings and react to obstacles on the road or sudden movements by other drivers, thanks to the integration of a suite of updated and completely new advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The new technologies continually sense the environment to offer the optimum protection whatever the scenario.
Predictive Adaptive Cruise Control (PACC) and Emergency Assist 3.0 protect the vehicle and its occupants while driving or stationary. PACC uses feeds from GPS data delivered from the navigation system and input from the front-mounted camera and Traffic Sign Recognition, allowing it to proactively adjust the cruising speed depending on the road layout ahead (bends, roundabouts, junctions, changes in speed limits and built-up areas). This reduces the requirement for driver input and also sudden speed changes and manoeuvres.
Production of the new model has started at the SEAT factory but prices are unlikely to be announced till March. However, like Skoda, SEAT products would be slightly cheaper than equivalent Volkswagen models.
According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank in December 2018, Malaysia has the third highest fatality rate from road traffic accidents in Asia and ASEAN. In spite of various efforts to change this, the rate has not changed since 2007. The government’s approach has been the conventional ones – stricter enforcement of laws and all sorts of safety campaigns. It hopes that through education and safety awareness, the numbers can drop but that will take a long time.
Across the Asian region, public policies and priorities have been devised and revised in pursuit of enhanced road safety. Policies need to address current and future traffic issues, which will require extensive study of the anatomy of road accidents. “The collaboration of multiple sectors such as the government, automotive industry, and the academe will ensure long-term collection of more comprehensive data, nationwide reach, reduced costs, and unbiased analysis, as well as further recommendations,” said Martin Hayes, Regional President of Bosch Southeast Asia.
Understanding why accidents occur
As one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers, Bosch believes that improving traffic safety will be greatly served by fully utilizing crash data to develop and implement life-saving measures based on facts, rather than intuition. Accident research takes all available data into consideration, as it seeks to understand the root causes of vehicular crashes in order to prevent them in the future.
For Bosch and its multidisciplinary team of mathematicians, physicists, and automotive and mechanical experts at Bosch Accident Research, a vehicular accident is much more than just two objects colliding. Worldwide, driver and rider error or misbehaviour is the leading cause of road accidents, but other circumstances also come into play: bad weather, poorly lit or damaged roads, lack of road signs, animal or pedestrian crossings, and vehicular flaws, either by design or improper maintenance, among many other factors.
Bosch recommends an end-to-end approach to look at the impact of crash statistics, where information gathered from crash scene investigations are analyzed to determine key contributing factors. The root causes, severity, and statistics of accidents are then summarized, along with an estimation of the benefits from preventive actions.
Thomas Lich, senior expert at Bosch Accident Research, explains that “this methodology derives insights that will help bring about safer vehicles and aid government agencies in developing measures that enhance infrastructure, enforcement, and emergency response.”
One such example of this is the Road Accident Sampling System of India (RASSI), a joint accident research project led by 13 members from vehicle manufacturers, research agencies, and automotive suppliers, including Bosch. Since 2009, RASSI has been able to successfully document nearly 4,000 road accidents and paved the way for infrastructure improvements on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, increased driver and rider safety awareness, as well as countermeasures like the installation of advanced vehicle safety systems.
More motorcycles = need for greater vehicle safety
Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing markets for motorized two-wheel vehicles in the world. In the same report published by WHO, riders of motorized two-wheelers, along with pedestrians, are unfortunately also at most risk of road crashes, comprising nearly half of those who die in road accidents.
Since 2005, the data collected and analysed by Bosch Accident Research reveals that majority of riders of motorized two-wheelers do not know how to react in emergency situations. This seems to be a common theme in three countries: Germany (33%), India (35%), and Thailand (43%). In all three countries, the second-highest reaction is falling down due to a lack of brakes, followed by a lack of braking power.
Further research concluded that around one out of four accidents with injuries involving motorized two-wheelers could be prevented if these vehicles were equipped with ABS, assisting the rider in critical situations by reducing the risk of a rider falling.
In India, RASSI results are used to identify effective safety measures, including the potential of Active Safety systems such as a combined braking system (CBS) or antilock braking system (ABS).
Accident research also contributes to the development of state-of-the-art safety technologies. One example is emergency call or eCall for powered two-wheelers. Mandatory for all new passenger cars in the European Union (EU) since April 2018, the technology for powered two-wheelers is still being studied. To technically realize eCall for powered two-wheelers, the significant differences between passenger cars and two-wheelers need to be taken into account, including accident and injury severity. These key factors will then form the baseline for new safety systems.
Collective commitment
The cooperation between stakeholders to complete the circle of social responsibility is key to increasing road safety. Fortunately, a growing number of organizations in Southeast Asian countries are now working with Bosch Accident Research to assess local accident situations. Accident analysis is being explored in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, while Thailand is focused on establishing on-the-spot accident investigation.
Thailand’s on-the-spot accident research is focused on incidents with personal injuries. The aim is to train researchers on collecting on-the-spot crash data using a similar methodology from other projects. This will equip researchers with the know-how in surveying pre-crash situations, such as road conditions and traffic management systems and analyse post-crash situations to identify root causes, such as driver reactions and vehicle road-worthiness.
They will also be trained to determine efficacy of emergency response. This will be then the baseline for future research to come up with countermeasures to improve safety on Thailand’s roads, as experienced from other countries.
While the causes of road accidents are often universal, research will draw out unique circumstances where a differing action should be instigated. “A holistic approach based on accident research enables all parties to identify hot spots in infrastructure that need to be prioritized, along with the technology needed to improve emergency and rescue services,” added Lich.
Bosch believes that the first step in achieving road safety is an accident research initiative – one that is nationwide in scope and jointly driven by multiple sectors of society. The findings from the research will provide much-needed insights that will serve as the scientific basis for more effective road safety policies, ultimately resulting in millions of lives saved each year.