This is Technology Bytes, episode 110 for April 13, 2025.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bites on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So it is a new week, but I’m still stuck on the technology of my Kia EV6, and this week I want to talk about the 360-degree camera that is part of that technology package that the car has.
First, it is really cool.
It shows you the surrounding of your car, what’s around it, what you might be close to, and it shows it in fairly good detail.
It’s always weird to me.
It’s almost mind-blowing.
People that I’ve shown it to that haven’t seen it, it’s probably in other cars too.
This is the first one I’ve had, but when people are in my car and I’m showing it, one of the first things I do is say, hey, look at this, and it says, here is my vehicle in this space, and it shows, you know, like when I was at my in-laws, the garage door in front of me.
It shows my father-in-law’s truck beside me.
It shows my car, and it shows the concrete wall on the other side, and I don’t understand how it does that, and then I turn the car off and turn it back on, and the headlights come on because it’s dark, and now the 360-degree camera shows headlights shining on the garage door, and if I open a door, it does not update real-time, so there’s some kind of capture that’s happening in the moment, but if I do open a door and turn it off and turn it back on again, then it shows the door open.
It’s really interesting, and I don’t exactly know how they do it.
Some who have seen it have asked me if I have a satellite that just follows me around because I bought the car.
I wish that was true.
That would be really neat, but somehow, with all the sensors and the cameras that they put on this car, they have made a way to, I guess, generate a 360-degree view of the vehicle that is very accurate.
So, when does this camera activate?
So, I think on the Kia, I’ve got four cameras.
I’ve got one that faces forward.
I’ve got one that faces backward, and then I’ve got two that turn on when I turn on my blinker, so they’re somewhere on the mirror in that vicinity that shows me the side of the car and what’s beside me when I’m turning a given direction.
And so, activation of the 360-degree camera happens in a couple ways.
Always when you go in reverse.
It always turns on your rear-facing camera, so you see what you’re backing into.
It gives you the normal things that other cars give you, stripes on the road, the view behind your car with little grids that kind of show you how your car is going to go.
In the 360 view, it actually shows your full vehicle and what you might be getting close to, so that, again, is really neat and very nice when you are close to something or in a tight spot.
And so, there’s an option on the car that’s called Parking Assist, and I just turn it on.
And so, it monitors every corner and side of the vehicle so that when you are pulling into a parking spot or pulling out of a parking spot and it feels like you’re getting close to something, another vehicle, a wall, a curb, then the camera automatically turns on and shows you the position of your car in that space.
Again, not sure how they do it, but it’s very accurate.
The cars beside me or the objects beside me are really weird because they’re very, very tall.
And my car looks normal, but it’s almost like the wheels of the car beside me are like eight feet tall or something.
So, I don’t quite get that, but it’s very helpful when you are in tight spaces to see exactly what’s happening.
And so, any time, some might be bothered by it, but I’m a technology nut, so I’m going to use it.
But any time you’re getting close to something and the car wants to show you that, it just takes over the screen, whether you’re using CarPlay or whatever else is on that screen.
It just takes it over and turns it into the camera world and it shows you the sensors.
It turns things green because you’re far enough away or yellow or red if you’re really super close.
And I find it very helpful.
And then just because, and I don’t know, it might be useful, you can actually activate it remotely.
So, there have been times where I’m charging my car at work and so it’s behind a second building away from my place of business.
Sorry about that.
And so, I can, from my phone, activate the 360-degree camera and then it shows me what’s around my car.
So, there are four charging stations, two charging stations, but four cords where I charge and it’s free.
It’s kind of cool.
I think I’ve mentioned it before that I don’t pay at all for getting my car charged, so that’s really neat.
Hopefully, it lasts for a long time.
But I can look and see if there’s another car beside me that’s plugged into the same charger because when that happens, the amount of power going to my car gets cut in half.
So, if I’m there by myself, I get like 6.2 kilowatts.
If another car plugs into the other side of that charger, then it gets cut down to 3.1.
People know that happens, so they don’t immediately plug into the one that’s being used.
But if a third car shows up, someone’s getting half the power.
So, you can use it in those instances just to see what’s around your car at the time.
And I find it pretty neat.
I still don’t fully understand how it gives you such a clear and accurate picture of your vehicle, but it’s super helpful in tight situations and really helps in the parking lots of the day.
That is all I have for today.
As always, if you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytes at merrickfamily.com.
That’s m-e-a-r-i-g-f-a-m-i-l-y.com.
And bytes is b-y-t-e-s.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together, taking another bite of technology.
