2004 Cadillac Escalade Awd Navi S/roof Lth/htd Seats $599 Ship on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Teaching autonomous vehicles to drive like (some) humans

While I love driving, I can't wait for fully autonomous vehicles. I have no doubt they'll reduce car accidents, 94 percent of which are caused by human error, leading to more than 37,000 road deaths in the U.S. last year. And if it means I can fly home at night in winter and get safely shuttled to my house an hour-plus away — and not have to endure a typical white-knuckle drive in the dark with torrential rain and blinding spray from 18-wheelers on Interstate 84 — sign me up. Autonomous technology will also take some of the stress, tedium and fatigue out of long highway drives, as I recently discovered while testing Cadillac Super Cruise. AVs are also supposed to eventually help increase traffic flow and reduce gridlock. But according to a recent Automotive News article, as the first wave of AVs are being tested on public roads, they're having the opposite effect. Part of the problem is they drive too cautiously and are programmed to strictly follow the written rules of the road rather than going with the flow of traffic. "Humans violate the rules in a safe and principled way, and the reality is that autonomous vehicles in the future may have to do the same thing if they don't want to be the source of bottlenecks," Karl Iagnemma, CEO of self-driving technology developer NuTonomy, told Automotive News. "You put a car on the road which may be driving by the letter of the law, but compared to the surrounding road users, it's acting very conservatively." I get it that, like teen drivers, AVs need a ramp up period to learn the unwritten rules of the road and that a skeptical public has to be convinced of the technology's safety. But this is where I become less of a champion on AVs, since where I live in the Pacific Northwest we already have more than our share of overly cautious human drivers. Since moving here 12 years ago, I've found it's an interesting paradox that a region famous for its strong coffee, where you'd think most drivers would be jacked up on caffeine, is also the home to annoyingly measured motorists. As an auto-journo colleague living in Seattle so aptly put it: "People in the Pacific Northwest drive as if they have nowhere to go." If you drive like me and always have somewhere to go — and usually are in a hurry to get there — it's absolutely maddening.

Expect the Cadillac XT3 small crossover in late 2018

Cadillac's sedan-heavy lineup can't complete in this crossover-crazy market, it seems. The Detroit News spoke to Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen and found out some more details about the brand's plan to alter its lineup to cater more to current consumer tastes. It's no surprise that these plans would include a small crossover, because de Nysschen has been talking about a vehicle smaller than the XT5 like this since at least 2015. The report also pins the Fairfax Assembly Plant, where GM builds the Buick LaCrosse and the Chevrolet Malibu, as the site for what could be called the XT3's production. That's not an immediately obvious choice, since the LaCrosse and Malibu are based on the latest evolution of the Epsilon platform, known as E2XX. And the XT5 is based on a crossover version of that same platform (known as C2XX), while XT3 is expected to be smaller than the XT5. So perhaps there's a different assembly line going into Fairfax, or the C2XX platform can be significantly shortened. We assume that the XT3 would be built on a smaller platform, perhaps the Gamma II that underpins the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore – which are built in either South Korea or Mexico, depending on which market they are to be exported to. The Encore is selling very well for Buick, with sales figures increasing through late last year. Another possibility is the D2XX platform that underpins the Chinese-built Buick Envision and the GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox, perhaps with assembly happening at the CAMI plant in Ontario. At this early stage, without confirmation of GM as to what platform the XT3 will use or where it will really be built, it's too early to say what the Fairfax rumor means. This isn't the first time we've heard about a small Cadillac crossover. Back in 2015, de Nysschen told us to expect it sometime in 2018. But later that year, speaking to Reuters, he posited that it'd be closer to 2019. The Detroit News says de Nysschen told them it'll launch in the second half of 2018, splitting the difference between what we'd heard previously. Remember, Cadillac's only two vehicles in the segment are the XT5 and Escalade. We know that the brand is almost certainly scrambling to fill the holes in that side of the lineup. We think a three-row crossover will slot between the two, probably called the XT7.

Off-road Cadillac Escalade adds some extra bush country capability

So, you're a dyed-in-the-wool General Motors fan, but like the notion of a machine like the Hennessey Velociraptor. We have good news for you. Behold the Aria Coachworks XPLORE Cadillac Escalade. For a modest fee, Aria will outfit your Escalade with a custom suspension, BF Goodrich all-terrain tires wrapped around aluminum wheels, a Warn winch and a special exhaust. There's even a snorkel option for those of you with aspirations toward deep water crossings. Consider yourself warned, however: unlike other GMT900 SUVs, the Cadillac only has an all-wheel drive system, not the more rugged four-wheel drive setup of the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon). Outside, the luxury SUV gets matte paint, black chrome trim, XPLORE power running boards and a roof rack system.
The interior also receives a few fun changes as well, but we're more interested in the fact that buyers can snag a power roof top tent. You know, in case you need to camp out at Best Buy for the PS4. There's also a matching camp trailer and, our personal favorite, a matching BMW GS motorcycle. Bikes not your bag of tricks? That's fine. Aria will also sell you a matched Airstream trailer or Old Town wooden canoes. As much as we want to hate this, we love the notion of bashing through the woods in a $100,000 Cadillac battlewagon with our GS in tow. Check the press release below for more information.