Cadillac Shows Unique Technology
VIDEO: WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert shows us the Cadillac CUE system.
DETROIT -- (WWJ) Cadillac seeks to take another step forward in connectivity, with a new system called CUE, Cadillac User Interface.
"What CUE is designed around is trying to allow you to bring your connected life into the vehicle, but do it in a way that's not distracting to you, but still gives you all of that connectivity that's appropriate to bring into the car," said Jeff Massimilla, CUE program manager.
The goal of CUE, says GM, is to simplify the whole connectivity process, and make it safer behind the wheel.
That includes an upgraded touch screen.
"This is touch sensitive like an iPad would be," said Massimilla, "What that allows you to do is gestures across the screen, slide your finger. It allows you to go into a list, and scrub down the side of the list, or grab on to the bar, and move it up and down."
The advanced screen allows what designers call "haptic feedback" where an electric screen acts much like a physical button would.
"If you touch here, 'temp up-temp down' you're going to feel a pulse on your finger every time you touch it."
Massimilla says the idea is to allow you to get feedback through touch, without needing to look down on the road.
To encourage drivers to keep their eyes on the road, CUE has a storage space behind the system, where you can plug your smart phone in to recharge. The phone also connects through Bluetooth. Future systems will use wi-fi.
Cadillac will debut CUE in the new XTS large car, and will quickly spread it to other vehicles, as those vehicles are redesigned.
The system also includes a customizable instrument panel, and new voice controls, that Cadillac says, respond to normal language, and doesn't need specific voice commands.
The goal of the system, says Cadillac marketing manager Jim Vurpillat, is to allow customers to take the technology they use in every day life, and use it in their car safely and seamlessly.
"How the screen even looks is going to look very familiar to somebody who was a tablet or a smart phone," he said.
GM did a lot of research during the development of CUE, said Vurpillat..
"We spent a lot of time going out with customers, driving in their car, going on vacations with them, going on their daily errands, going on commutes with them to understand how they interact, how they use those smart phone devices.
Connect With Jeff Gilbert
Email: jdgilbert@cbs.com
Twitter: @jefferygilbert
Facebook: facebook.com/carchronicles
