The 2020 Hyundai Palisade Luxury is a SUV packed with healthy amount of technology in it. Let’s start with the safety aspects of the vehicle:
- You get autonomous emergency braking which will bring the Palisade to a stop if it detects an object in front of it, and you take no action to avoid said object. But it will also do the same thing if you are backing out of a parking space and you don’t react to a rear cross traffic alert.
- Blind spot monitoring is included. Not only does it warn you when you are about to do an ill advised lane change, but it also alerts you based on distance and relative speed. But you get one other feature that I will get to momentarily.
- Rear cross traffic alerts as well as rear parking sensors present to make either parking or reversing out of a parking space easier. If you don’t react to an alert quick enough, the Palisade will stop itself.
- One real highlight is that lane departure warning and assist functionality is included. It is one of the better systems that I have tested lately and I say that because any steering corrections that it makes are gentle and does not freak you out while doing so. Plus if it has to make an audible warning, it does so in a way that doesn’t freak out you or your passengers.
- There’s an attention assist feature which monitors your driving and will suggest that you should take a break if it thinks you are getting tired.
- You get automatic headlights so that you never forget to turn the headlights on or off. Speaking of the headlights, they are nice, bright, white LEDs that are very easy on the eyes, and go a fair distance down the road and cover the left and right sides of the road. On a country road they are bright enough that you’ll be able to see any animals like deer and moose that may be coming from your left or right side.
- Adaptive Cruise Control with traffic stop and go is on board and I used it to make stop and go traffic situations far more bearable as it will almost stop and go on its own. The only exception is if the Palisade has been sitting stationary for a bit which requires you to tap the accelerator to get going again.
Now, the cool tech starts with this:
When you activate the turn signal, the Palisade will use the left or right side camera on the mirrors to display what is in your blind spot in the center console between the two gauges. That way you can make safer lane changes. It’s a very cool feature that will make driving safer.
The Palisade has the ability to warn those who are exiting the vehicle if there’s a potential threat from a passing car, bike or human. I tested this in downtown Toronto and it worked insanely well as it was able to even detect joggers who were running close to the Palisade. This is going to help keep people safe.
This birds eye view camera system makes parking the Palisade incredibly easy. Pair that up with the front and rear parking sensors and parallel parking is going to be a none issue.
Other tech includes:
- Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are included. It gets served up on an 10.25” screen which is extremely sharp, has great contrast and is viewable in all lighting conditions. The infotainment system user interface was easy to navigate and didn’t display any lag whatsoever. That was completely in line with other Hyundai products that I’ve tried recently. One other note is that I observed that info such as song names from Apple CarPlay showed up in the center TFT screen which was cool as not many car makers have that.
- In terms of the factory infotainment system, there’s hard buttons for functions like the phone, radio, navigation etc. That also helps to make this system easy to use. Plus the graphics have been updated and navigation through the infotainment system is quick and easy. You can also do a limited amount of tweaking to make it suit your use case.
- There’s a 630 – watt harman/kardon audio system that sounds incredibly good as I had no complaints when I was listening to radio or tunes from my iPhone. My current audio torture playlist which includes LookLA, Ruelle, Snoh Aalegra, SAHED, Astrud Gilberto, Jorja Smith, Kali Uchis, 10,000 Maniacs, Death Cab For Cutie, Chicago, Röyksopp, Sofi Tucker, Art d’Ecco and Thutmose & NoMBe sounded great. You can also serve up AM,FM, audio from your phone via USB (which will also charge your phone) or Bluetooth, or SirusXM Radio.
- This vehicle comes with Hyundai BlueLink, You can use it to remote start, cool down, heat up, or do a number of other things remotely to the Tucson using your smartphone.
- Parents will be happy to know that there’s an in-car intercom system with the ability to pipe the driver’s voice over the in-car audio system so that you can speak to your kids.
- Parents will also be happy to know that there’s a quiet mode that cuts off the audio system to the second and third rows so that your can sleep while you listen to music.
- Finally, parents will be happy to know that that the Palisade will prompt you to check for occupants or items in the rear seats which is a great safety feature.
The final part of this review will tie up some loose ends and I’ll give you my closing thoughts on the 2020 Hyundai Palisade Luxury. Stay tuned for that tomorrow.