2001 Cadillac Catera 34k Miles Clean Carfax Ext Clean on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM To Offer Car That Will Almost Drive Itself

Cars that can talk to each other and almost drive themselves at freeway speeds are just two years away from the showroom, according to General Motors executives. The company announced Sunday that the semi-autonomous system for freeways will be an option on an unidentified new 2017 Cadillac that goes on sale in the summer of 2016. In addition, another 2017 Cadillac, the CTS, will be equipped with radio transmitters and receivers that will let it communicate with other cars, sharing data such as location, speed and whether the driver is applying the brakes. The announcements were made Sunday at the opening of the Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress being held in Detroit this week. They are part of a barrage of similar declarations that are expected from other companies throughout the week as the industry shows off progress toward self-driving and safer cars. The freeway system, dubbed "Super Cruise," uses cameras and radar to keep the car in the center of a lane and also stay a safe distance behind cars in front of it. The system will bring the car to a complete stop if traffic halts without driver action, and it can keep the car going in stop-and-go traffic. Other automakers, such as Mercedes-Benz, now offer similar systems that work at low speeds, but GM says it's the first to announce a system that operates at highway speeds. Others could have freeway systems in two years, though. "If the mood strikes you on the high-speed road from Barstow, California, to Las Vegas, you can take a break from the wheel and pedals and let the car do the work," CEO Mary Barra said in remarks prepared for the conference's keynote address on Sunday. But GM said the car still won't drive itself, and the company is working on a system to monitor drivers to make sure they're still paying attention. Details of that system weren't released. "Sensing technology is not yet to the point where the driver can check out," said John Capp, GM's director of global safety strategy. "This is a level of automation that can be done, that is feasible." The new Cadillac that will get Super Cruise hasn't been officially announced yet. But executives have hinted that GM will build a big rear-drive Caddy to lead its lineup in the coming years. Also Sunday, the Michigan Department of Transportation announced that it will partner with GM, Ford Motor Co.

Cadillac expects major growth in China

The US sales issues facing Cadillac are not being paralleled in the People's Republic of China, as a new report from Automotive News indicates the US luxury maker should see its sales increase by as much as 40 percent.
The report cites Cadillac's own forecasts, which put its 2014 sales in the PRC at 70,000 units after cresting 45,000 vehicles at the end of August. Provided the sales pace holds true through 2015, the brand would hit its new 100,000-unit sales goal, AN reports.
"We're very optimistic about the luxury market, we believe that the luxury market by 2016 here will become the largest luxury market in the world, surpassing even the size of luxury in Europe," GM China President Matthew Tsien told AN. "With [Cadillac president] Johan [de Nysschen], we have somebody that really is an executive that understands luxury, but he also is very, very keen on understanding what do we need here in China for Cadillac to be successful."

Cadillac finds a few more horsepower for ATS-V

We've rarely found cause to complain about a car getting more power, and guess what? That's not going to change here. After initially announcing that the new ATS-V would come to market with a Corvette-matching 455 horsepower, Cadillac has come back with an SAE-certified 464 horsepower. That, as Automobile points out, puts the high-performance ATS in spitting distance of the base Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG and its 469 hp. Anyone else feeling bad for owners of the 425-hp BMW M3? While the ATS-V is getting a bit more grunt, somehow, we doubt Cadillac will adjust its previously published performance figures. Expect 60 miles per hour to arrive in 3.9 seconds, with a top speed of 185 mph. As of this writing, a lucky Autoblog staffer is lapping the ATS-V around Circuit of the Americas in Austin as part of the sedan's big launch. So while we can't fill you in on its real-world performance just yet, expect a big update soon. Related Video: