A Cadillac can’t take the place of your smartphone — and as GM computer engineers tell it, they don’t want it to. But what they are trying to do over time is make the act of using your phone in relation to the car an experience that gets better.
Cadillac will begin selling its next-generation user experience system in the CTS next month, and it will soon be added to the 2018 XTS and ATS models. Last week I traveled to Detroit, deep into the windowless basement operations of GM’s Renaissance Center headquarters, to check out the new system ahead of its official launch.
But first a little background: when I first began covering cars, the assessment of in-car entertainment was wrapped up in a neat paragraph at the end of the review, almost like an afterthought in comparison to ride and handling, fuel economy, and showy 0–60 mile per hour times. These systems weren’t standard, but packaged as more expensive options. But as screens become standardized throughout all models and I talked to more and more customers, I realized that people get really irritated when they struggle with the technology in their cars. Bad tech in cars is no longer excusable, and in some cases it may cause customers to flee.
Photo: General Motors
Let’s hone in on the general differences, which admittedly come down to personal preference. Tesla’s flashy iPad screens appeal to the gadget mind. Audi has a more minimal approach to the stack placing an emphasis on exceptional graphics and a multimedia interface controller. Lincoln will tell you its customers insisted that it return to old-school knobs and buttons. And sometimes it’s the luxury automakers that struggle the most on how to make a system that has more to offer than high-end speakers. Fancy processors and options don’t mean much if the system is more complicated than what’s covered in a one-page engine manual.