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Why we can't have better headlights here in the U.S.

It wouldn't be a European auto show if we weren't teased with at least one mainstream vehicle we can't have here. At the Geneva Motor Show last week, the small but vocal contingent of shooting-brake buffs lamented that the Mazda6 wagon won't be coming to our shores, although they can take comfort in the fact that the vehicle won't get the torquey 250-horsepower 2.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine we'll get here. Mercedes-Benz also announced a new headlight technology in Geneva that likely won't be available here anytime soon. It's just the latest in a long line of innovative and potentially lifesaving front-lighting solutions that the federal government doesn't allow in this country due to outdated standards — and a current lack of leadership at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Mercedes-Benz's new Digital Light system that debuted in Geneva uses a computer chip to activate more than a million micro-reflectors to better illuminate the road ahead. The Digital Light headlamps works with the vehicle's cameras, sensors and navigation mapping to adjust lighting for the given location and situation and to detect other road users. The Digital Light technology also serves as an extended head-up display of sorts by projecting symbols on the pavement ahead to alert drivers to, say, slippery conditions or pedestrians in the road. And it can even project lines on the road in a construction zone or through tight curves to show the driver the correct path. Digital Light will be available on Mercedes-Maybach vehicles later this year, although like any technology it's bound to trickle down to less expensive vehicles. That is, if we ever get it here in the U.S. Audi, a leader in automotive lighting, has repeatedly run into snags trying to bring state-of-the-art car headlights to the U.S. The German luxury automaker's recently introduced matrix laser headlight system, which performs many of the same trick as Mercedes-Benz's Digital Light, also isn't legal on U.S. roads. And five years after the introduction of its matrix-beam LED lighting, which illuminates more of the road without blinding oncoming motorists with brights by simultaneously operating high and low beams, Audi still can't bring that technology to the U.S. either.

Watch the 2014 Cadillac CTS live-stream reveal

Despite many an image leaking onto the Internet over the weekend, today is the official day for the debut of the all-new 2014 Cadillac CTS. You want the nitty-gritty details of Cadillac's new sedan? Click here.
If you want to watch the 2014 CTS makes its live debut in front of a throng of auto journalists, then just watch below, as Cadillac is live-streaming the event at 7:15 PM EST. That's only a few minutes from now, so click here to start watching, and stay tuned for our first live images of the CTS from the New York Auto Show.

GM to build $1.3 billion Cadillac plant in China

General Motors has gotten approval to build a $1.3 billion manufacturing facility for its Cadillac brand in China. China's National Development and Reform Commission signed off on plans for GM to build the plant in the country's Shanghai's Jinqiao zone; construction is expected to begin in June of this year. According to a Bloomberg report, the plant will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
No surprise here, but Cadillac would like to sell a lot more cars in the plush Chinese luxury market. The brand moved only 30,010 cars in China last year, compared with 400k for Audi, and about 330k for BMW. With Cadillac already telling us that it would be moving production of its XTS sedan to China - a production decision that saves having to pay 25-percent import tariffs - approval of the factory is a critical win for the company.
In fact, according to earlier comments by GM China president Bob Socia, it's at least conceivable that Chinese-built Cadillacs could be shipped back to the US for sale. The brave new world of globalization, getting stranger by the minute.