lol . Its a good think that some young folks are open to new things . or we'd all be driving cars like in Cuba .
Instead, we'll all be driving cars that do the driving for us. Then we won't have to waste valuable social media time by doing menial things like watching the road, and steering and braking... wouldn't you much rather be looking at your phone?
In fact the Cadillac CT6 shown above is equipped with Super Cruise, hands free driving, the only car in the world that does currently drive itself. The product specialist told me that there is a camera in the steering wheel which monitors driver (if that's the term) alertness and when it detects that you are distracted will require you to focus and manually drive the car again. The top of the steering wheel lights up in a green glow while the system is operational and can navigate turns and changing road conditions keeping the car centered in the lane. Amazing technology.
My family is after me to get a new Cadillac as my current one is a 2006. I like it though, its a 300 HP V8 and has just over 150,000 km, all the new ones are V6, even that CT6 has 420 HP but I'm not sure about a V6. The CTS V is a V8 but the car is pretty cheaply finished and too flashy with carbon fibre accents compared to the CT6 and even less expensive XTS at $76,000. I'm in no hurry yet.
-- Edited by 73SC on Monday 26th of February 2018 09:59:15 PM
It is amazing technology, but I still remain wary of it for a few reasons:
(1) It encourages complacence in the driver, thinking that they don't have to pay attention or really do much of anything because the car will look after it for them. When something happens that they do have to pay attention to, they will be ill equipped and likely not ready to do anything about it.
(2) There is a lot of stuff that can go wrong (and does). There are redundancies built into the systems but they still do fail.
Joyce Laux estimates that she was traveling somewhere between 45 to 50 miles per hour as she drove her 2010 Toyota Prius across the Alaskan Viaduct, a major highway that brings commuters through Seattle. Suddenly, something went haywire.
It just stopped, Laux tells ConsumerAffairs. At the same time her car stopped, "the seatbelt grabbed me, pulled me into the back of my seat, and took every bit of air out of my lungs."
She looked in her rearview mirror and saw cars passing in every direction. Directly behind her, the driver had taken a nosedive to the right to avoid a rear-end collision with Laux. Behind that car, another had veered to the left. "It was amazing that nobody hit me, she recalls. Nobody had hit anything. Then the car returned to normal.
(3) I don't think any manufacturer has mastered the ability of vehicle auto-driving in snow or slippery conditions yet, or road salt covering cameras, etc. etc.
(4) For me, the extra cost, complexity, and weight of the systems aren't enough of a payoff for me. I will always prefer to drive on my own, until I'm physically or mentally unable to do so.
So, your Cadillac representative is surely going to give you glowing reports of all that they've been able to accomplish, and it is impressive on some level, but he's not going to give you any of the negatives.
I frequently say, no one has built a perfect car yet and no one has built a perfect computer yet, AND the builder will be responsible for accidents caused by a glitch, huge liability.
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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC. 1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada
Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
