The Cadillac CT6 review: Super Cruise is a game-changer
No other car on sale can drive itself like this Caddy.
Jonathan M. Gitlin - 2/22/2018, 9:00 AM
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Jonathan Gitlin
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Cadillac's flagship CT6 might not have the best interior in its class. It might not have the sharpest, track-honed handling. It doesn't have a butter-smooth V12 engine. It definitely doesn't have the best infotainment system. And yet, it is carrying the most exciting technology being offered in any production vehicle on sale in 2018.
Called Super Cruise, Cadillac's new tech represents the best semi-autonomous system on the market. In fact, Super Cruise is so good, I think General Motors needs to do everything it can to add it to the company's entire model range, post-haste.
You sure sound excited about this thing Regular readers will know this isn't the first time I've written about Super Cruise. In fact, at last year's New York auto show, we awarded it an Ars Best distinction in the "Automotive Technology" field—a bold move for new technology that we had yet to actually test.
But with almost 900 miles of Super Cruising under my belt now, I am glad to report that boldness paid off. This system really is that good. As long as its operational conditions are satisfied, Super Cruise will enable the CT6 to accelerate, brake, and steer without any need for you to touch the pedals or steering wheel. This can happen for hours at a time.
At its essence, Super Cruise is another one of those systems that combines adaptive cruise control and lane keeping. Forward-looking sensors measure the speed and range of any cars ahead of you to maintain a constant distance and also read the lane markers on either side to keep you centered within it. So far, so much the same as any number of systems from any number of OEMs. But Super Cruise adds a couple of other features that are missing in every other implementation—even in Tesla's much-loved, somewhat-infamous Autopilot. What's more, Super Cruise's unique features will be critical for true self-driving cars in the future.
Further Reading
The car of the future is taking shape—and it will know how we feel about it
First up is the driver monitoring system (Cadillac calls it a Driver Attention System). This isn't entirely unheard of; various car makers have been putting crude monitoring into vehicles to warn drivers when they might be getting too drowsy. The CT6's DMS lives just on top of the steering wheel column, pointed at your face. Don't worry! It's not doing anything creepy like detecting your emotional state. (Do worry! Those kinds of systems are only a few years from showing up in our cars.)
continues at arstechnica.com |
