2011 LA Auto Show: Does Cadillac have the right touch in infotainment with CUE?

It’s clear that the designers of Cadillac’s new CUE infotainment system paid a lot of attention to the negative feedback surrounding the much-maligned MyFord Touch. After getting a run-through of CUE in Los Angeles, my initial impressions are that the system is more intuitive and user friendly, although questions remain about the potential for driver distraction.

CUE, which stands for Cadillac User Experience, will debut next spring on the 2013 Cadillac XTS. Like MyFord Touch, CUE relies on a touch-sensitive display and touch-sensitive buttons on the dash. To give you some physical feedback, however, it provides a haptic response—a slight vibration—when you press a button, which helps give it the reassuring familiarity of using hard keys.

The system can also sense the proximity of your hand. So, simply moving your hand to within about four to six inches of the screen can automatically prepare it for a command. When using the navigation system, for example, the display will show a full-screen map while you’re driving. But moving your hand toward the screen will cause nav-function buttons to appear along the top and bottom of the display.

The CUE screen is uncluttered and has relatively large buttons and customizable settings. It’s also multi-touch sensitive, so you can scroll, swipe, and interact with it as you would a smart phone or tablet computer. Since even dead areas of the screen are active, you don’t need to be pinpoint precise when pressing a button, according to a spokesperson. A function will often activate even if you press in the vicinity of the related button.

The digital gauge cluster in front of the driver is also customizable. When using the navigation system, for example, a second route map can be displayed there so the driver doesn’t have to take his or her eyes as far off of the road.

According to Cadillac, CUE’s voice-command system has a conversational interface, so you don’t need to remember specific commands. This is becoming more common with other voice-command systems, as well.

Read More:  http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2011/11/2011-la-auto-show-does-cadillac-have-the-right-touch-in-infotainment-with-cue.html

2013 Cadillac XTS Leaked Ahead of L.A. Auto Show Debut

Last night, what appeared to be a production 2013 Cadillac XTS sedan appeared on Cadillac’s consumer website before quickly being taken down. A few hours later, Cadillac officially released the same photo and announced that the large sedan would debut at the L.A. auto show next week. We already knew the XTS would land in L.A., but the photo gives us our first look at the production version; until now we’ve seen only the show car, spy photos, and the new Caddy’s interior. Oh, and we tried out its new CUE infotainment system.

It appears as though the production XTS’s styling will deviate remarkably little from the concept’s—the car seen above sports the same chunky, cab-forward stance and heavy front-end styling as the show car, which now looks as though its body panels may have popped from production molds. The XTS is set to replace the slow-selling STS and the long-in-the-tooth DTS at the top of Cadillac’s lineup. The front-drive XTS rides on stretched Buick LaCrosse Epsilon II bones, and we expect it will be powered by the same 3.6-liter, direct-injection V-6 as is found in the CTS. Stay tuned for the XTS’s big reveal next week.

Read More: http://blog.caranddriver.com/2013-cadillac-xts-leaked-ahead-of-l-a-auto-show-debut/