[amg5610]

Greetings, fellow BHPians. Following my initial ownership review on my Verna turbo, this thread is about an unusual issue I faced with the ADAS system on the car a few weeks after delivery.

The Problem:-
A couple of weeks after taking delivery of the car in April '23, I started daily driving the car. My route involves taking the highway for a large part of my commute, bringing the issue to light. A warning popped on the instrument cluster when the car went over 100 kmph for over 5 minutes: "Vital forward safety functions are limited! Radar blocked." This prevented me from using Adaptive Cruise Control, and the Automatic Emergency Braking was disabled. The Lane Follow Assist still worked, as it depends on the camera rather than the radar. The warning message automatically gets cleared once the speed is reduced to below 90kmph.

This warning message made me anxious as it would make anyone who got a brand new car and is facing issues almost immediately. I first encountered this on a rainy morning and the road was dirty, so I hoped it would be a one-off and wouldn't appear again, but it wasn't! The same warning started popping up every time I went over 100kmph for over 5 mins. Another thing I noticed was when I engaged ACC (I usually set it at 85kmph at Distance 2), the system worked in a rather weird way. It didn't recognize the vehicles switching to your lane, and the radar didn't recognise smaller vehicles such as bikes or auto-rickshaws. I couldn't get an opinion on this as none of my close friends or family has a car equipped with ADAS, and I don't have any past experiences with an ADAS-equipped car either. However, the reviews and videos I watched on YouTube all had perfectly working ADAS systems that recognized smaller vehicles and the vehicles merging in front of the car.

So I knew something was wrong with my particular vehicle but I had no idea what it was. I contacted my dealership (FPL HYUNDAI, AMBATTUR) and escalated this issue with their service department. They assured me that they would look into the issue and solve it when the car came in for its first service, as it was due in 1 week. When I took the car for its first service (1500km) 3 weeks after delivery, the technicians plugged in the OBD II device and looked for error codes, but there was only one related to the battery. It was cleared, and they took the car for a test run, assured me it was solved, and asked me to contact them in case it reappeared. Guess what? The next day, it appeared in an identical situation (100kmph - 5mins). I again contacted my service advisor and was told he would take this issue up with Hyundai themselves as the ADAS tech was fairly new to them, and they haven't faced such an issue before, which is fair enough. A week or so later, I got a reply from my SA saying ADAS wouldn't work for speeds over 110kmph, so it gets disabled automatically, concluding that mine isn't a fault but it is a feature, and it is supposed to work that way. Classic response, as expected from the dealership. Their response didn't convince me and they were least bothered to investigate this issue further. I started looking for answers and researched online and looked at the owner's manual for any information; that is when I learned that the ADAS function should work for speeds up to 200 kmph. Now, I was pretty sure that it was a fault and not a feature.

The Culprit!
Bumper. Yes, the Front Bumper. A few days later, I was watching some random YouTube shorts when I stumbled upon a video on factory accessories available for the Verna. I got a zoomed-in view of the front bumper and that car had a square plastic enclosing the Radar behind it, and I realised my car didn't have it. I checked mine immediately, and yes, it was missing in my car, which was the culprit. (Image attached below). I have no clue how it was missed during production and PDI. I was finally relieved that at least I had found the cause of the problem and it could be fixed.

The Fix!
I contacted the dealership immediately as it was a manufacturing defect rather than a service fault. The technical advisor of the dealership remained in contact with me since the week the issue was discovered after delivery. I was told they contacted the PDI department of HMIL, and their people are coming to check my vehicle and fix it. As promised, my vehicle was taken to the yard, where the radar unit and the front bumper were replaced at no cost and returned on the same day.

A small protective covering for the radar caused all this and once the bumper was replaced, the issue was fixed. I didn't get any such warning messages at high speeds, and smaller vehicles and merging vehicles were also being detected by the radar flawlessly. I use ACC quite frequently on highways and I must say it is a big boon.

[Aditya]

2023 Hyundai Verna : Peculiar issue with ADAS and how it was fixed - Post moved to a new thread.

[avdhesh15]

Another point to be added to the PDI checklist!

[lemedico]

an odd instance! We would have liked to see a photograph of your original radar and how it appeared without it's home.

You mentioned that you started driving it a couple of weeks after taking delivery. Why was that? I am just curious to learn if you didn't feel excited about taking the ADAS for experiments as soon as you got the car in your hands.

[harikr]

Originally Posted by avdhesh15

Another point to be added to the PDI checklist!

Exactly my thoughts. I have booked a Verna and getting delivery in a couple of weeks. Definitely need to check this. Is Hyundai loosing focus on these basic checks these days. Production lines normally are setup such that these errors don’t happen. How did it get past the last Quality check gate?

I am wondering what other parts can get mixed up like this and we realise late until something major Happens.

[bhaskaracs]

Can you also please post pictures of pre and post the bumper change if possible? This may be useful in isolating the exact area one must look at during a PDI.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by amg5610

A week or so later, I got a reply from my SA saying ADAS wouldn't work for speeds over 110kmph, so it gets disabled automatically, concluding that mine isn't a fault but it is a feature, and it is supposed to work that way. Classic response, as expected from the dealership.

If you get calls about feedback, please mention this. It is unacceptable to mislead the consumer this way. It happens so often that we're desensitized to it but it's still unacceptable.

These same SAs will then ask for a 10-star rating on a stupid review form and act offended if you give them anything that isn't a 10.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by amg5610

A small protective covering for the radar caused all this and once the bumper was replaced, the issue was fixed. I didn't get any such warning messages at high speeds, and smaller vehicles and merging vehicles were also being detected by the radar flawlessly. I use ACC quite frequently on highways and I must say it is a big boon.

I suspect the original bumper of your car which had this cover for the radar was replaced by a bumper of a car which didn't have ADAS and no one in the service center knew this consequence until you reported the issue and then they replaced the bumper or lower grill with the proper variant. It's nearly impossible for this to happen in the factory on the assembly line.

[kpkeerthi]

What protective cover are you talking about? A pre and post images would've helped

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by kpkeerthi

What protective cover are you talking about? A pre and post images would've helped

Automotive radars need an unobstructed view in front of it, with respect to radar reflective material. They are physically hidden behind a plastic or even a ceramic cover whose reflections are static and are ignored after calibration. The moment this changes, to a different position or the plate is replaced by something else, the radar will end up realising that there is some unknown obstruction. Since this is a risk to its detections and there is a chance of wrong detection, the radar throws the error mentioned by the OP and the ADAS functions are degraded to different states, either partial operation or non operation. Thats exactly what happened in this case, with the Verna having two different lower grille for ADAS and non ADAS versions. Someone has swapped the lower grille to the wrong version. Refer the differences below:

The correct grill has a flat blank area for the radar to function correctly


In this car, the grille has the design pattern which continues on the area ahead of the radar, possibly with some dark chrome finish? That will cause the radar to detect some abnormal object ahead of it.


Thats the reason I mentioned there has been some fouling at the dealers end since this mistake could never happen at the factory, since the radars will be calibrated at the end of assembly line and the calibration would have failed even if the assembly line really fit the wrong part on the car. Guess there was some transit damage or so and the part was replaced with the wrong replacement.

[DevilzzzzOwn]

Yup. Definitely looks like the Dealer swapped the front bumper. And this was AFTER your PDI.

How do I know? Just look at the pic of the car DURING your PDI. It clearly shows the sensor in its full glory, not the way it is in the snap on this thread.

Now you have to figure out what else was swapped and why by the Dealership.

[amg5610]

Originally Posted by lemedico

an odd instance! We would have liked to see a photograph of your original radar and how it appeared without it's home.

You mentioned that you started driving it a couple of weeks after taking delivery. Why was that? I am just curious to learn if you didn't feel excited about taking the ADAS for experiments as soon as you got the car in your hands.

Photograph has been attached at the end of the article. Both before and after. I have attached a couple of more pics for reference here. Notice the area below the number plate

I mentioned I started daily driving the car couple of weeks after delivery.
.

Originally Posted by DevilzzzzOwn

Yup. Definitely looks like the Dealer swapped the front bumper. And this was AFTER your PDI.

How do I know? Just look at the pic of the car DURING your PDI. It clearly shows the sensor in its full glory, not the way it is in the snap on this thread.

Now you have to figure out what else was swaped and why by the Dealership.

How did my miss noticing this. Thanks for pointing out! I'll make sure to check with the dealership.

So far so good. Nothing else has thrown a problem.

[ishekk]

Originally Posted by amg5610

A week or so later, I got a reply from my SA saying ADAS wouldn't work for speeds over 110kmph, so it gets disabled automatically, concluding that mine isn't a fault but it is a feature, and it is supposed to work that way. Classic response, as expected from the dealership.

This is pure blasphemy. How can a dealer say this? Anything to get rid off the customer who has already made the purchase! Please don't get your car serviced by this dealer's service center.

I got a zoomed-in view of the front bumper and that car had a square plastic enclosing the Radar behind it, and I realised my car didn't have it. I checked mine immediately, and yes, it was missing in my car, which was the culprit.

Disappointed that radar is not able to detect that something is blocking it.

[Rganand]

Originally Posted by amg5610

Greetings, fellow BHPians. Following my initial ownership review on my Verna turbo, this thread is about an unusual issue I faced with the ADAS system on the car a few weeks after delivery.
…
The Fix!
I contacted the dealership immediately as it was a manufacturing defect rather than a service fault. The technical advisor of the dealership remained in contact with me since the week the issue was discovered after delivery. I was told they contacted the PDI department of HMIL, and their people are coming to check my vehicle and fix it. As promised, my vehicle was taken to the yard, where the radar unit and the front bumper were replaced at no cost and returned on the same day.

PDI is taken very lightly these days, I've to escalate to Kia to perform physical PDI, I. hope zekardo open their shop sooner in Chennai which will be a boon to new car buyers. I've observed a strange thing in cruise control with IVT Seltos when I test drove in bypass stretch, when set speed as 100 it's zooms past 100 to 110/115 and then settles at 100. Not sure if this an issue or that is how IVT Works ?? Once I get my vehicle, I need to check it

[true_sedan]

Originally Posted by Rganand

I've observed a strange thing in cruise control with IVT Seltos when I test drove in bypass stretch, when set speed as 100 it's zooms past 100 to 110/115 and then settles at 100. Not sure if this an issue or that is how IVT Works ?? Once I get my vehicle, I need to check it

After you get your car, perform the test multiple times and on multiple road surfaces with varying inclinations(uphill and downhill stretches). This margin of error is unacceptable. +-2 kmph might be acceptable when going uphill or downhill. Especially when going uphill, the cruise control accelerates to compensate for the incline. But 10-15 kmph over the set cruise speed is not only unacceptable but also very dangerous. Congrats on your upcoming purchase. Happy mile munching.

Cheers!