The all-new 2021 Cadillac Escalade packs a lot of high tech into a traditional SUV.
General MotorsThe all-new 2021 Cadillac Escalade, revealed just now with pomp and circumstance befitting a movie premiere, might be likened to a traditional bottle filled with an utterly new wine handcrafted by expert vintners to deliver an experience no wine-drinker has ever had. According to Cadillac President Steve Carlisle that is exactly what the brand needs as it transitions from an also-ran in the global luxury vehicle market to a position that marked Cadillac during its glory years — technology leadership.
"Cadillac was at its best when it was leading the industry in technology and innovation," Carlisle told us in an exclusive interview. "And there's no better representation in that than Escalade over the years, and this new one takes that to an entirely new level."
A massive traditional body-on-frame SUV powered by huge, high-horsepower internal combustion engines might not seem to be the most promising platform to represent high tech, but Cadillac engineers, designers, and product planners have filled it with a truly dazzling array of technological wonders. Undoubtedly the flashiest is the 38-inch expanse of curved Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) screens that extends across the 2021 Escalade's dash.
The 38-inch OLED driver information display is the splashiest feature of the 2021 Escalade.
General MotorsThe array integrates three screens: a 7.2-inch-diagonal touch-control driver information center to the driver's left, a 14.2-inch-diagonal instrument cluster behind the steering wheel and a 16.9-inch-diagonal infotainment screen immediately to the driver's right. With twice the pixel density of a 4K television, the paper-thin curved display offers eye-popping resolution, strong blacks and the largest color range of any automotive display in production today. The combination of its extremely high resolution and its curvature enabled the interior designers to do without the hoods, covers, and nacelles that typically house such displays.
Carlisle says that the new display technology is emblematic of where Cadillac needs to go to break through the clutter in the luxury category.
"It is awesome when you get to see it," he said, "and it allows us to do just so many more things in terms of augmented reality with navigation, taking night vision to an entirely different level, and integration with the connected world."
Escalade's designers incorporated Cadillac's familiar vertical light signatures into an all-new ... [+]
General MotorsBut impressive as it is the OLED display isn't the only area of high-tech in which the 2021 Escalade can be seen as grabbing a leadership position. Another is Super Cruise, which Tesla Autopilot notwithstanding, Cadillac calls "the industry's best driver-assistance technology." In contrast to Autopilot, Super Cruise is not described as an autonomous driving system, but it does enable hands-free driving on more than 200,000 miles of compatible highways in the United States and Canada. It requires the driver to stay engaged and incorporates a system that endeavors to maintain that engagement by detecting and signaling to drivers when they need to pay more attention to the road.
While Super Cruise isn't all-new, the version in the 2021 Escalade features a new automated lane change function that will allow the driver to direct the system to perform a single lane change using the turn signal to indicate the direction of the desired move. Using LiDAR map data, high-precision GPS, and a network of cameras and radar sensors, Super Cruise takes it from there.
"We hear from outside sources that we have the best solution of its type in the industry for hands-free driving on the highway," Carlisle said. "So we're super excited about taking Super Cruise, which is already very successful, to an entirely different level."
Carlisle thinks the Escalade takes automotive audio systems to an entirely new level with its exclusive AKG audio. Known for microphones and headphones used in recording studios and live venues around the world, AKG brings its audio technology to the auto industry for the first time in the new Escalade.
The highest-level AKG Studio Reference system uses 36 speakers powered by three amplifiers that deliver 28 channels of sound, offering a listening experience that exceeds that of the most acoustically perfect concert halls. The standard AKG Studio system includes 19 speakers and a large enclosed subwoofer powered by a 14-channel amplifier.
Carlisle believes the combination of tech and the blocking and tackling of product execution like ride quality, quiet and seat comfort are aspects that will set the new Escalade apart and drive the Cadillac brand toward a future that many might not expect — a reliance on battery-electric vehicles.
"We're about to enter into this intense age of electrification, and we have so much to draw upon based on the work that General Motors has put into electrification over the last 10 years," Carlisle said. "So I like to say that we're now in the 20s for the second time. We enter this decade as an internal-combustion-engine brand. We're going to exit [the decade] as a battery-electric-vehicle brand, including everything that goes with that. And that is a big transition."
Carlisle says the by 2030 Cadillac will have a battery-electric vehicle in every segment run which it now competes. Some other automakers are using plug-in hybrids to transition to an EV future, but with Cadillac leading the way, GM has committed to making the more radical transition to battery electrics.
"So as a company, General Motors, we talk in terms of the three zeros: zero emissions, zero collisions, zero congestion. So we take that pretty literally. Zero means zero, not approaching zero," he said.
Even a company as big as General Motors can't afford to try to offer every kind of powerplant for every possible application. GM is pushing a lot of its chips towards BEVs, a vehicle type with which it has a lot of history.
"You know, the times that we're in, with these are big resource-intensive decisions we can't afford to try to do so many things, so we focused on battery-electric vehicle and we can see the day when we'll be able to make those profitably," Carlisle said. "We're fully committed to battery electric."
For a Cadillac executive to say that on the day the brand is launching a new version of its mainstay conventional SUV complete with a 6.2-liter 420-horsepower gasoline-fueled engine says a lot about the direction the auto industry will head this decade.
2020-02-05 02:00:00Z
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacknerad2/2020/02/04/all-new-2021-cadillac-escalade-unveiled-tonight-points-cadillac-toward-high-tech-future/
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