[PRGDenia]

The 2020 edition has a VESS button down by the lane keeping assist buttons etc. pressing that turns off the vehicle driving noise and the reversing bongs. Is it still there for the 2021 edition onwards?

 

[PRGDenia]

I would.definately think that disabling a "safety" system would have serious implications if anything went wrong. If you hit a pedestrian or reversed into a blind person you could be personally liable as insurance may refuse to pay?? I wouldn't turn it off if I was you.

And yet my 2020 model Kona has exactly that facility built into the design?

 

[PRGDenia]

And because people have been turning it off, and injuring visually impaired people, they have removed the button.

But if you have a button, and turn it off you are not changing the design of the car. Without a button, you are, thus rendering your car no longer type approved and thus invalidating your insurance.

I wouldn't want to be stood in court, trying to explain to a judge why I had taken great trouble to make my car more dangerous to pedestrians and shoud therefore be let off.....

It's like anything - it's all fine till something goes wrong - and then it will be scrutinised....

You say people have been turning the VESS off and visually impaired people have been injured? Do you have a reference for this? Because I’ve never seen such an accident reported anywhere? I find the button useful when I’m reversing the car off my drive late at night. It means no one living nearby is disturbed and no one is near my drive at that time anyway.