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Future Kias to get TV, Web services

Kia shows off a variety of future technologies for its cars at CES 2010.

Wayne Cunningham Managing Editor / Roadshow
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
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Digital TV screen
Kia is working on including digital TV for rear seat passengers. Wayne Cunningham/CNET

The future tech of Kia (photos)

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LAS VEGAS--At CES, Kia announced its new Microsoft-powered UVO technology, which will be included in the 2011 Sorrento. But the company has much more tech on deck, as it showed in its display area.

Kia showed a steering wheel-mounted thumbwheel controller for accessing vehicle infotainment. With haptic feedback, the controller delivers a different feel depending on user settings, from smoothly turning to detents to a spring stop.

Digital TV would be displayed in rear seat monitors.

A new telematics service uses a paired Bluetooth phone to get local search information or automatically call 911 in the event of a crash. This system is very like Ford Sync's 911 Assist and Traffic, Directions, and Information.

An infotainment interface offers user customizable Web services, bringing in data streams from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr.

To get all this data into the car in multiple countries, the Unity antenna can receive nine different signals in a shark-fin format.