Reports are coming in that Cadillac will not be pushing towards a future without a steering wheel, according to the brand’s President Johan de Nysschen. Instead, Cadillac will be in the business of creating an “immersive experience.”
“For us, driving is a very immersive experience,” de Nysschen told WardsAuto. “The notion of removing the driver from that is foreign to us. It’s not what Cadillac stands for. We are not into making transportation modules. We’ll leave that to someone else.”
It’s certainly a very different approach from other luxury automakers, all of which are quickly working to be the first to deliver a new kind of luxury experience: one where you have the luxury of not being responsible for driving at all.
de Nysschen went on to describe Cadillac’s upcoming Super Cruise technology as “supervised driving,” where drivers will be able to take their hand off the wheel in “limited access highway driving.” Super Cruise is expected to debut in 2017, after some delays.
While Super Cruise will take some of the burden of some monotonous driving moments away, don’t expect to hop in your future Cadillac and have it do all of the work. But who knows if that will hold true in a decade from now.
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I think Cadillac is the only brand that SHOULD have fully autonomous features in the long term. Many S-classes and Towncars in NYC have chauffeurs. Cadillac moved to NYC because they want that image. So S-class drivers can shuttle around in the back seat reading the paper, while CT6 drivers sit upfront frustrated in traffic. I understand the rationale for Porsche not wanting fully autonomous vehicles, but not understanding this move.
Johan has the typical German (yes I realize he’s South African of Dutch ancestry) mentality of making a “driver’s car” instead of a “nice ride”. But by the time automated driving is practical, he’ll be gone from Cadillac anyway. Bigger question is whether Cadillac can survive Johan. It can survive him – as long as GM wants to keep funding it, but the way he’s taking it, Cadillac will have a much smaller base than even today. Automated driving would be one way to expand the base. I’ll tell you what though, if BMW starts doing automated cars, so will Johan the BMW-follower.
TBH, I actually like Johan when I hear him in interviews and he seems to make a lot of sense, but his actions and directions for the company so far don’t really inspire confidence in cadillac’s future. Moving their headquarters and marketing strategy to NYC was unnecessary (even Bob Lutz rants about this in a recent piece). In my opinion, Johan ruined Infiniti in the short time he was there. The whole Q nomenclature is confusing, stupid and unneccessary. The G series had cachet and the G coupe was a lustful object for tuners. G37 already satisfied Johan’s need for letters and numbers. G35 referred to the 3.5 v6, G37 the sexy 3.7 v6. Q50!? Q60?! Their saving grace is the futuristic design of the new models. What will save cadillac? Rebranded chevy/gmc crossovers?
One final thought: cadillac desperately needs a halo car. It doesnt have to be in production – it can be a concept, but in every brochure and ad, they should show that car and the design elements or powertrain components that trickled down into the existing production lineup. Right now, I’m not seeing this at all. Open an audi TT brochure and you’ll see it side-by-side with an R8. Basically equating a rebranded VW golf with a lambo huracan. But it makes people feel good!
I don’t believe it, but I think its the right marketing message.
I believe this is de Nysschen saying one thing and doing another.
“right answer”
But cadillac is working on it and will come out with driverless cars, I can just about guarantee it. But since they are at least 5 years out, why would they even talk about it? He’s trying to steal BMWs “Ultimate driving Machine”- He’s sending a message and setting a brand setup that the cars are about driving experience.
Sometimes brands get so far ahead of themselves- “We’re going to be electric” – How does that sell cars? “We’re going to be autonomous” – how does that sell cars? They don’t. I don’t love where cadillac is going, but this is the right marketing material at the right time, and they will have fully autonomous cars when others have it.
I think not having a fully autonomous vehicle is the right move at this time especially since these systems are not fully vetted and the consumer trust is not there yet.
Just look at the Tesla’s Autopilot.
Cadillac can always change its position down the road.
Providing insurance and defining the law for liabilities for self driving vehicles may never be resolved.
Until we get green lights for those issues, not much will happen.
No big benefit in being first.
Driver assist for safety is worth paying up for!
Smartest move I have seen from Cadillac in awhile. And I like all the tech they are providing which I predicted making sure the mindless public dose not go to sleep or read a book like wonderful Tesla lets happen.
Well the reality of Autonomous cars is that they are not going to be fully automatic for a good while.
The cars may be capable of it but the real world is not a good setting for it as there are just too many variable to be faces. The main issue is that normal cars with no automated systems to interact with other cars is a major stumbling block. These cars are free radicals that can do things that are so unpredictable that they could crash autonomous car or even make them so annoying to ride in you will not want to use the system.
There are just to many scenarios to program with other cars that can not be fully predictable, Then you add in while life and weather conditions.
We had Otto here recently testing here in Ohio. This is the fully autonomous semi that has been traveling the country with two riders overseeing the run. They made it clear the new system is very capable but there will still be a need for a driver to be in the truck to over see the drive. They said the goal is to make the truck more responsive and able to stop and turn faster under control. In other words it is more like a more advanced stability and braking system.
Just as they found with the Space Shuttle things come up that you can never count on. In the Shuttle they had an automated landing system. It worked great the first few times. Then it happened and the thing they never counted on came up. They made it so it would extend the landing gear at a precise air speed so not to create drag. Well that was all and fine till they got a tail wind and came with in 3 seconds of belly landing at Edwards.
Then factor in the realities of liability and other things. The first automaker to have a car go out of control due to a unforeseen failure into a crowd or put someone over a cliff killing a family will pay a high price. The media will really eat that one up. Just look at how they treated the run away Toyota cars that had floor mats sticking the throttle. It was something that a turn of the key would have resolved or even a shift to neutral but the people did not do that.
I expect cars to be more and more set up for automation but till they most can do it there may be real issues getting them to interact with normal cars.
It is like today I would not want to take a Model T up on I5 in California in Orange county at rush hour.
As for now this is like the dream of a flying car. It can be done but the conditions and society are just no there to make proper use of it yet.
I don’t understand this. Luxury will be one of the main aspects that separate different self driving cars. Cadillac seems like the kind of company that would do well in the next transportation environment.
I do not buy a luxury sports sedan dialed in at Nuremberg track with Brembo Brakes and ZF steering to let a computer drive it.If you dont like to drive ,take the bus or Uber….
Good News
I think all the luxury brands such as Caddy. Acura and Lincoln should make thar cars better than they are now and more upscale…pluse make them EV powered instead of spending money on unessary tech like driverless tech.