2017 Cadillac CTS Sees Road Hazards Before You Do
CARS.COM — Your new 2017 Cadillac CTS sedan will communicate with other cars on the road to warn you of danger well in advance — as long as those other cars are also 2017 Cadillac CTS sedans. Hey, it’s a start!
Related: Still Scared of Self-Driving Cars? You’re Not Alone
Starting this month, all 2017 CTS sedans currently in production are equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology as standard equipment. The advanced safety feature alerts drivers to hazards ahead, such as hard braking, slippery roads and disabled vehicles, to give them extra time to react.
“For example,” Cadillac explained in a statement, “when a car approaches an urban intersection, the technology scans the vicinity for other vehicles and tracks their positions, directions and speeds, warning the driver of potential hazards that might otherwise be invisible.”
Cadillac notes that only vehicles equipped with compatible V2V systems can communicate with one another, but it says the introduction of the technology to the CTS lays the groundwork for a safer connected-car future. The feature uses short-range communications and GPS to foresee dangers beyond the driver’s field of vision, and it’s capable of handling 1,000 messages per second — rivaling a teenager direct messaging friends on an iPhone.
Multiple V2V-equipped vehicles, Cadillac says, create an ad hoc wireless network that allows for the transfer of info from as much as 1,000 feet away regardless of lines of sight, weather or wireless coverage. CTS drivers can customize V2V prompts to appear in the instrument cluster and optional head-up display via the automaker’s Cadillac User Experience multimedia system.
The standard safety feature won’t cost buyers extra. The 2017 CTS starts at $46,990, including a $995 destination charge. You can research it here.
A recent study showed that while an overwhelming majority of Americans still fear self-driving cars, 59 percent said they wanted autonomous features in their next vehicle.
