I've initially noticed the blind spot detection was working "intermittently" but later realized it may be designed to work differently as part of Hyundai/Kia's "award winning blind spot safety system". This is what I noticed: if my relative speed to vehicles in a adjacent lane is more than 10mph (i.e. overtaking speed), the blind spot system will not go off even if you pass another car all the way through blind spot. In all other scenarios - cruising, getting passed by another car, or driving slightly faster than the other car, the system gives you warning 100% if there is any moving object in the blind spots.
I think there is a design rationale to this - if you are aggressively overtaking a car, you are presumably aware the car you are passing in this case there is no "blind spot" and the lane change assist active safety mechanism (actively steering for collision avoidance) would not engage. Kia simply applied the the active system logic to the detection algorithm, but many new owners such as myself did not know this system works very differently from all other "dumb" blind spot detectors.
Initially Kia was going to send a field service tech to check on my car but now I told them if they can confirm that this is a design feature, we can save the trip and I'll get used to it. Yes my personal preference would be turn off the active safety and have my "dumb detection" just like every other car, but I could get used to the new design as long as it works highly consistently and predictably. Could the other new owners confirm your experience here?
