MG Motor on Thursday officially launched MG Gloster in India. Touted as the company’s first ‘Autonomous Level-1’ premium SUV, Gloster comes with a variety of ‘smart’ features. It also builds upon the iSmart connectivity suite that debuted with MG Hector last year.
On the eve of MG Gloster’s price announcement, we got a preview of some of the smart features that are there in the SUV. As advertised, MG Gloster leverages upon the built-in cameras and a bunch of sensors to assist the drivers.
One of the standout features of the car is Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). This feature allows the car to automatically gain control of acceleration and brakes while maintaining a safe distance from cars ahead. It can follow the car in front of you while maintaining a safe distance and speed. The SUV automatically adjusts the speed as well. During the demo, Gloster successfully adjusted the speed depending upon the speed of the car in front of it. At one point it even reached zero speed while maintaining a decent distance from the car ahead that had gone static.
Another feature of the car is Automatic Parking Assist (APA). This feature is quite similar to Ford’s parking assistance. Gloster, however, can also look for vertical as well as parallel parking. The built-in ultrasonic sensor, once activated, starts to scan for a spot for parking. After it determines a spot, it gives drivers on-screen directions to change gears and apply the brake. The steering moves on its own. In case a driver is not satisfied with the APA solution, they can always override to park the car.
As said earlier, MG Gloster relies on the cameras and sensors for its key technology solutions. The setup helps drivers get a warning about an imminent collision. The sensors onboard can detect if there is another car in front of it and if enabled can also put a brake to avoid a collision. Similarly, these sensors help drivers get alert on changing lanes.
The iSmart connectivity suite has also received a bunch of improvements. MG Gloster comes with a 12.3-inch infotainment screen which is compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The screen appeared to be much responsive than on MG Hector. “Hey MG” voice command also seemed to be very prompt, as experience during the demonstration. There is also a Gaana integration which can be controlled through voice commands. MG has also integrated Shortpedia news application in the suite.
Overall, MG Gloster comes across as a feature-packed premium SUV. The technology suite is also quite impressive, at least on the papers. During the brief demonstration, all of these features worked without any glitch. We will refrain from giving our final thoughts about the car as the demo experience was conducted in a synthetic environment. Stay tuned for more insights on the car-tech of Gloster.
