"Turn it off!": This annoying Kia and Hyundai safety feature is enough to drive you spare! | Opinion

It's fair to say that I am easily annoyed by noise. Piercing phone alarms, birds with high-pitched squawks outside my window at 5am, car alarms, or people watching videos on their phones without using earphones. All of these things, and more, do my head in.

I have been a motoring journalist for more than a decade now, so I am used to cars making noises, like alerts, beeps, chimes and dings that are almost always a part of a vehicle's safety suite.

Change lanes when another car is in the adjacent lane and you'll get an alert. Reverse from a car space when a car is crossing your path at the rear and you'll get an alert. Drive through a school zone and you'll get an alert.

A lot of these features are there for a reason. And they have undoubtedly prevented a lot of crashes, and as a result, prevented injury and death. I think the proliferation of safety equipment such as auto emergency braking and lane-keeping aids across more affordable models is a win for consumers.

But I drove two cars late last year - the updated 2023 Kia Seltos and Hyundai Palisade SUVs - that both had a safety feature that could have sent me off the deep end - a speed limit warning.

Both the Palisade and the Seltos are excellent cars. I've driven the Seltos extensively since it landed in Australia in late 2019 and while I've spent less time in the Palisade, I found it to be equally as impressive.

However, the speed limit warning in both cars was maddening. In the Kia, it's called the 'overspeed warning' and it's part of the car's Intelligent Speed Limit Assist system. That's the Hyundai name too.

While I’ve spent less time in the Palisade, I found it to be equally as impressive.

Basically, the system detects the speed limit using cameras scanning traffic signs. If you exceed the speed limit that the car has detected, both models will emit a rather unpleasant audible alert. In the Palisade it is a flashing speed sign in the digital instrument cluster and four loud beeps.

Unlike some other active safety systems, you can't adjust the volume or severity of the warning in either car.

Also, rather than giving some leeway and kicking in at 5km/h over the detected limit, it kicks in 1-2 km/h over the limit. No matter how cautious a driver you are, you're naturally going to exceed the limit by a couple of kilometres every now and then.

One issue is that the speed sign recognition software is far from flawless. And that's not just the system that Kia and Hyuindai use. I'm yet to drive a car from a manufacturer that has perfected this tech.

That means the Kia and Hyundai detect a speed based on the signs on the road, but it doesn't take into account variable limits like school zone signs. It just sees the number and runs with it. So you could be driving at the speed limit, let's say 60km/h, but the system has detected a school zone sign of 40km/h, when it's not in the timeframe of the school zone. It then starts beeping away at you because it thinks you're exceeding the limit.

To make matters worse, the annoying alert doesn't just go off once and it's done. It pauses and continues to beep if you're still over the limit. Again by 1-2 km/h. And it is so loud!

What's super frustrating about this is that the speed limit warning defaults to 'on' every time you get in the car. Why can't it be an opt-in system rather than opt out?

So why don't I just turn the speed limit alert off and stop complaining? Well, to do that in the Kia, you have to go to the main menu of the touchscreen, hit 'Settings', then the vehicle icon, then either go into another menu or use the diagram of a car on the display and hit 'Speed', then hit 'Off'. That's far too many steps. And it's every time you get in the car!

It would be less infuriating if you could quickly turn it off with a switch or button on the dash or steering wheel, similar to the stop-start controls in many cars.

In the Kia, it’s called the ‘overspeed warning’ and it’s part of the car’s Intelligent Speed Limit Assist system.

Clearly Kia knows the system will annoy people. At the recent media launch of that car, Kia had included a laminated sheet in each Seltos press car detailing how to turn the system off!

A Kia Motors Australia spokesperson said there hadn't been any complaints from owners yet, but it was aware of frustration from motoring journalists. But some owners have started a petition calling for the alert's removal. There have also been complaints from Kia's European outpost too.

Hyundai hasn't received any complaints from owners either yet, but is also aware of frustrations over the system. But I have spoken to plenty of people that have driven these cars - including some people within Kia and Hyundai - and everyone has had the same complaints.

Reps that I spoke to from both brands suggested that the system may have been included as standard due to Euro NCAP regulations, and it was a decision made on high for global models, rather than specifically for Australian-spec models.

A look at the current 2023 Euro NCAP protocols state that the speed limit warning must default to 'On' each time the car is started. So unfortunately Kia and Hyundai can't change that given the strict protocols.

However, nowhere in the Euro NCAP guidelines does it state it must be an audible warning. Instead it states: "The warning shall be a flashing traffic sign used to communicate the speed limit or an additional visual signal adjacent to the traffic sign."

So a flashing sign is all that's required! No sounds!!

A Kia Motors Australia spokesperson said there hadn’t been any complaints from owners yet, but it was aware of frustration from motoring journalists.

And in Australia, the ANCAP protocols state that the warning is not required to default to 'on', and that it must be visible. Of course, carmakers can add these functions if they wish, but clearly it wasn't necessary for this super annoying warning.

It's worth noting that ANCAP is working on some minor updates to reflect changes made by Euro NCAP, but it's unclear what those changes will be.

You could also argue that a safety system that is so annoying adds to driver frustration and doesn't make the driving experience any safer.

But for now, it appears that at the very least, the infuriating and incessant beeping of the speed limit warning isn't necessary.

Please Kia and Hyundai, for the love of God, get rid of it!