2009 Cadillac Dts on 2040-cars

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Teaching autonomous vehicles to drive like (some) humans

While I love driving, I can't wait for fully autonomous vehicles. I have no doubt they'll reduce car accidents, 94 percent of which are caused by human error, leading to more than 37,000 road deaths in the U.S. last year. And if it means I can fly home at night in winter and get safely shuttled to my house an hour-plus away — and not have to endure a typical white-knuckle drive in the dark with torrential rain and blinding spray from 18-wheelers on Interstate 84 — sign me up. Autonomous technology will also take some of the stress, tedium and fatigue out of long highway drives, as I recently discovered while testing Cadillac Super Cruise. AVs are also supposed to eventually help increase traffic flow and reduce gridlock. But according to a recent Automotive News article, as the first wave of AVs are being tested on public roads, they're having the opposite effect. Part of the problem is they drive too cautiously and are programmed to strictly follow the written rules of the road rather than going with the flow of traffic. "Humans violate the rules in a safe and principled way, and the reality is that autonomous vehicles in the future may have to do the same thing if they don't want to be the source of bottlenecks," Karl Iagnemma, CEO of self-driving technology developer NuTonomy, told Automotive News. "You put a car on the road which may be driving by the letter of the law, but compared to the surrounding road users, it's acting very conservatively." I get it that, like teen drivers, AVs need a ramp up period to learn the unwritten rules of the road and that a skeptical public has to be convinced of the technology's safety. But this is where I become less of a champion on AVs, since where I live in the Pacific Northwest we already have more than our share of overly cautious human drivers. Since moving here 12 years ago, I've found it's an interesting paradox that a region famous for its strong coffee, where you'd think most drivers would be jacked up on caffeine, is also the home to annoyingly measured motorists. As an auto-journo colleague living in Seattle so aptly put it: "People in the Pacific Northwest drive as if they have nowhere to go." If you drive like me and always have somewhere to go — and usually are in a hurry to get there — it's absolutely maddening.

2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing, CT4-V Blackwing bring big performance back to the brand

They're finally here, the real successors to the Cadillac CTS-V and ATS-V: the 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing and CT4-V Blackwing. And at least on paper, they sure seem like worthy successors to those superb super sedans. They're more powerful, come with standard manual transmissions, and feature the latest and greatest chassis upgrades available. We'll start things off with the most beastly of the Caddies, the CT5-V Blackwing. Like the CTS-V predecessor, the Blackwing gets a supercharged 6.2-liter pushrod V8. But thanks to intake and exhaust improvements, output is up to 668 horsepower and 659 pound-feet of torque, as opposed to the CTS-V's 640 horses and 630 pound-feet. The engine also is handbuilt in Bowling Green, Ky., just like the short-lived turbocharged DOHC Blackwing V8. It's coupled either to a six-speed manual transmission with a twin-disc clutch, rev matching and no-lift shifting, or a 10-speed 10L90 automatic transmission. Power goes to the electronically controlled limited-slip differential at the rear, and rear-wheel drive is the only drive configuration available. The transmission and differential each get their own oil coolers, too. Cadillac says the CT5-V Blackwing should be able to hit 60 mph in 3.7 seconds with the automatic transmission, and the top speed is over 200 mph. 2022 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing View 13 Photos As for the CT4-V Blackwing, it gets a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter V6 built in Canada, and although it is more powerful than the previous car, it's only by a small amount. The CT4-V Blackwing makes 472 horsepower versus the ATS-V's 464, and the 445 pound-feet of torque is the same between each car. Just like the CT5-V Blackwing, the CT4-V gets either the same six-speed manual transmission or a 10-speed 10L80 automatic transmission, the electronically-controlled limited-slip differential, and the oil coolers. Picking the manual transmission has extra perks on the CT4-V Blackwing, though. The engines in manual cars received titanium connecting rods and revised crankshaft counterweights. The manual transmission's no-lift shift functionality is also more helpful on the CT4-V Blackwing since it keeps the car in boost between gears. Still, Cadillac's 0-60 mph time estimate is for the automatic model at 3.8 seconds. Top speed is 189 mph. 2022 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing View 16 Photos Keeping all that power under control are a variety of chassis upgrades.

Frustrated GM investors ask what more Mary Barra can do

DETROIT — General Motors Co Chief Executive Mary Barra has transformed the No. 1 U.S. automaker in her almost five years in charge, but that is still not enough to satisfy investors. Ahead of third-quarter results due on Oct. 31, GM shares are trading about 6 percent below the $33 per share price at which they launched in 2010 in a post-bankruptcy initial public offering. The Detroit carmaker's stock is down 22 percent since Barra took over in January 2014. After hitting an all-time high of $46.48 on Oct. 24, 2017, the shares have declined 33 percent. In the same period, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 7.8 percent. Several shareholders contacted by Reuters said GM could face a third major action by activist shareholders in less than four years if the share price does not improve. "I've been expecting it," said John Levin, chairman of Levin Capital Strategies. "It just seems a tempting morsel to somebody." Levin's firm owns more than seven million GM shares. Barra has guided the company through the settlement of a federal criminal probe of a mishandled safety recall, sold off money-losing European operations, and returned $25 billion to shareholders through dividends and stock buybacks from 2012 through 2017. GM declined to comment for this story, but the company's executives privately express frustration with the market's reluctance to see it as anything more than a manufacturer tied mainly to auto market sales cycles. GM's profitable North American truck and SUV business and its money-making China operations are valued at just $14 billion, excluding the value of GM's stake in its $14.6 billion Cruise automated vehicle business and its cash reserves from its $44 billion market capitalization. The recent slump in the Chinese market, GM's largest, and plateauing U.S. demand are ratcheting up the pressure. GM is one of the few global automakers without a founding family or a government to serve as a bulwark against corporate raiders. In 2015, a group led by investor Harry Wilson pressed GM to launch a $5 billion share buyback, and commit to what is now an $18 billion ceiling on the level of cash the company would hold. In 2017, GM fended off a call by hedge fund manager David Einhorn to split its common stock shares into two classes. Einhorn, whose firm still owned more than 21 million shares at the end of June, declined to comment about GM's stock price. Other investors said there were no clear alternatives to Barra's approach.