I Thought I Was Safe In the 2025 Hyundai Palisade - Then This Confirmed It

Recounting how the 2025 Hyundai Palisade may have saved my life this week.

This week, while returning from a media event, the 2025 Hyundai Palisade three-row, full-size SUV danced like a sports car at highway speeds when an unlikely emergency occurred. Here’s what happened and why I credit the vehicle with helping to save my life. 

I’m blessed to be a media member who tests vehicles for a living. While I rarely attend press junkets that require travel, I almost never miss a New England Motor Press Association (NEMPA) meeting at the headquarters in Southern Massachusetts. Last night, while returning from an electric vehicle manufacturing seminar sponsored by Honda, I was driving a media fleet vehicle. The full-size, three-row  2025 Hyundai Palisade Caligraphy Night Edition AWD SUV. I will refer to it as the Palisade from here on in the story to keep my hands from cramping. 

It was around 8:30 pm and I was on Mass. Rt. 95 heading northbound. I was trying out the Palisade’s excellent adaptive cruise control with lane centering and marveling at how great the head-up display (HUD) worked. The HUD shows vehicles as they come alongside you and pass you or drop back on your side. It is a very helpful way to maintain situational awareness and keep track of the cars and trucks around you. 

A white Chrysler Pacifica minivan had just overtaken me on the left, and its rear bumper was about even with my front bumper. There was no vehicle to my right in the slow lane (thank goodness). Suddenly, I saw high beams and blue lights in my eyes from the front left coming super fast. A State Police Ford Interceptor SUV roared onto the highway from the median. The minivan to my left braked and swerved sharply to the right - directly into my path and about to strike me on the left side!

Instinct and training kicked in, and I had no choice but to steer hard to the right. My right foot was at rest above the brake, and I gently applied the brake while I corrected my line. I had reflexively steered to avoid the minivan, but I needed to correct, or I would head into the woods to our right. My habit is to keep my hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 when using adaptive cruise control, whether the system is hands-free or not. That habit may have saved us all from crashing. My foot was also poised to brake. Had I not been using the assisted driving feature, I would have had to move it from the right pedal (power pedal) to the brake, and I may have lost a split second of braking time. Now I understand why the Team O'Neil Rally School drivers opt to use both feet to brake and apply power. It saves important time. 

Just as suddenly as the first police vehicle appeared, a second police Ford Interceptor SUV zipped past me on the right side at roughly double my own speed. It went by so fast that my huge SUV shook from the wind suction of its passing. Had I not corrected my line and returned to the center lane, I suspect that the second police vehicle would have had to dodge me. 

Now traveling at about 50 MPH, I started to speed up and checked my six (looked in the rear view mirror) to be sure a semi-truck/trailer wasn’t about to rear-end me for going so slowly. The Palisade’s rear headrests drop down to allow the driver to see clearly out the back window. I was fine, but just as my eyes returned to the front view, I saw debris all over the roadway. It looked like an RV had exploded or a construction truck had lost a load of building materials. Suddenly, on my left, I saw that the entire fast lane was blocked by wood and metal, and it was as high as four feet off the ground. Thankfully, the white minivan had stayed in the center lane after its crash avoidance maneuver. Google Maps then chimed in, saying through the audio system, “Object on road ahead!” A little late, but still a welcome warning my fellow Google Maps users must have created. 

I saw that on the opposite side of the road, more police cars were coming fast, along with DPW crews with distinctive yellow lights. On my right, a sedan was pulled over into the breakdown lane and parked with visible windshield and front-end damage. 

I considered pulling over, but nothing had touched the Hyundai Palisade. I toggled the thumb switch on the wheel to display the tire pressures, and they all were steady at 37 PSI. At that moment I realized that the Automotion media vehicle team had sent me off in an SUV with its tire pressure perfectly set. Had they not, and if the tires had been soft due to dropping temps, it may have all gone bad.  I drove on very shaken up.

As soon as I got home, I did a full inspection of the Palisade in my well-lit garage. There was no damage at all, and the four tires were free of any debris. Magically, I had escaped this crazy situation with zero damage.

I thought blind luck was the main reason I didn’t crash last night. However, because of my job, I’ve been to many driving schools and events where emergency lane change maneuvers are taught and practiced. A Road & Track-run event I attended about a decade ago was nearly identical to what I ended up experiencing. My first Skip Barber Driving School course also practiced this maneuver. Maybe that had helped. 

Related Story: 5 Driving school lessons that can save your life

Another reason I think I was able to steer right, brake, and then correct back so perfectly is that the 2025 Hyundai Palisade is built right. Its suspension and tires were ideal for what I needed to do. I frequently knock large-diameter, low-profile tires, but they were just the right design to make that pair of swerves at highway speeds. The Palisade didn’t wallow or roll to its sides at all. It held the road, and it did what I wanted it to do. Even the driver assist system was perfect. It never fought with me when I yanked the wheel twice, forcing the vehicle out of its lanes. I must say, had the weather been snowy or icy, I don’t think this would have turned out so well. 

Kudos to the Hankook Ventus S1 Noble2 tires with Kontrol Technology Hyundai mounted to the Palisade. This tire scores an 8.4 on Tire Rack's handling ratings. Hankook says that this tire is designed with “Maximum grip for high-performance driving.” I am a believer! I’d rate it a solid 10 out of 10. 

The Hyundai Palisade is equipped with Forward Collision Avoidance Assist. Was that the “hand of God” that made this all turn out so well? I’m not certain. I know that I did steer and brake, but perhaps the vehicle did the important work. 

I’m thankful for many things in life, but aside from thanking God last night, I thanked the folks at Hyundai, my media support team at Automotion, Hankook, and the State Police for conspiring to get me home in one piece. 

Note: I reached out to the Massachusetts State Police media relations team and asked for a police report related to the events of last night. Trooper DeAngelis was very helpful and sent me this summary of the report from the Framingham Barracks: “At approximately 8:40 p.m. on November 19, Troopers assigned to the Framingham Barracks responded to reports of debris in the roadway on Route 95 northbound in Needham. At least one vehicle struck the debris, causing significant damage, and requiring it to be towed from the scene. No injuries were reported. MassDOT responded to recover as much of the debris as possible, with the assistance of Troopers conducting traffic control.”

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John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading. 

Images of 2025 Hyundai Palisade by John Goreham.