SEAT has unveiled its 2020 Leon, fitted with new AV technologies to make it the Spanish brand’s safest car.
The fourth-generation Leon entered production this month (January 2020), and according to SEAT safety is at the heart of the new model.
The new Leon has been designed to see more of its surroundings and react to obstacles on the road of sudden movements by other drivers through the integration of a suite of updated and new advanced driver assistance systems.
It brings together predictive adaptive cruise control (ACC) and Emergency Assist 3.0 to protect drivers and occupants.
Predictive ACC uses feeds from GPS data delivered from the navigation system and input from the front-mounted camera and traffic sign recognition to proactively amend cruise speeds depending on the road layout, such as bends, roundabouts and junctions.
The driver must continually monitor the system and surroundings, keeping at least one hand on the steering wheel.
If the vehicle senses the driver has taken both hands off the wheel for more than 15 seconds, they will receive audible and visual warnings.
A braking jolt can be given and if the driver continues to fail to respond, Emergency Assist 3.0 can bring the car to a complete stop.
Axel Andorff, executive vice president for research and development at SEAT, said, “The all-new SEAT Leon has been designed and developed to be the most innovative product the brand ever made – besides its online connectivity it also offers state-of-the-art driving assistance systems. It inspires passion and awakens something inside people when they look at it; you just have to watch and let the vehicle convey its essence.”
