Socks, sedans, and Christopher Walken: Here’s your first look at Kia’s Super Bowl 50 ad

By Andrew Hard Published January 27, 2016

Kia is well known for its quirky, comical advertisements, and for this year’s Super Bowl, the brand is taking it to the next level.

The automaker will air a 60-second TV spot during the big game on February 7, one that stars the always entertaining Christopher Walken. You are now reading this news post in Walken’s signature voice.

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The commercial, titled “Walken Closet,” will highlight the all-new 2016 Optima, and although the 18-second teaser above doesn’t give much away, the spot clearly has something to do with socks. Beige socks. Also, non-beige socks, as evidenced by the photo below.

Kia Super Bowl 50 commercial — Image used with permission by copyright holder

According to the brand, “the new ad will continue to spotlight the next-generation Optima as the vibrant alternative for those determined not to blend in.”

We attended the Optima’s First Drive event in Aspen, Colorado late last year, and we were impressed with the vehicle’s handling and well-appointed cabin. For more info on the car, check out our initial drive impressions here.

In non-Walken-related Kia news, the brand has announced that it will expand its GT performance lineup with a new hot hatch in the next two years. Dubbed the Rio GT, the hatchback will butt heads with the lovable Ford Fiesta ST sometime around 2018.

Like its American rival, the Rio GT is expected to equip a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, sharp handling, and (hopefully) a manual transmission. Its rumored output of 180 horsepower is noticeably less than the Ford’s 197 hp, however, so the Kia’s new platform — which is the same architecture that will underpin the standard Rio in 2017 — will focus more on decreased weight and linear cornering. As far as the interior is concerned, Kia says the cabin and infotainment system will take a “quantum leap” forward.

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Andrew first started writing in middle school and hasn't put the pen down since. Whether it's technology, music, sports, or…

Cars

Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs

2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time. The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Cars

Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting

Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

Cars

Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure

Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.