1956 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special on 2040-cars

Auto blog

MIT puts V2V technology on its 2015 Top Ten list

Of all the technologies swimming around the automotive world, it is vehicle-to-vehicle communication that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has fished out as one of its Ten Breakthrough Technologies of 2015. It joined emerging tech like brain organoids, supercharged photosynthesis, and Project Loon on the list, and got the nod over autonomous driving because, as the MIT Technology Review wrote, V2V communication "is likely to have a far bigger and more immediate effect on road safety." How so? Because actual cars transmitting data like their location, speed, steering angle, and state of braking to one another at least ten times per second provides a greater degree of awareness than sensor readings and algorithms. The US Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been working for years on standards and a regulatory schedule for introducing V2V to the marketplace, and Cadillac plans to incorporate V2V into at least one of its vehicles by 2017. Since we've begun the year with a number of stories of cars being hacked into, that got us wondering about the security of V2V communications. In a recent piece by our own Pete Bigelow on what motorists should know about getting their cars hacked into, he wrote that although cyber break-ins are extremely difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to do remotely, V2V is "one more conceivable avenue a hacker could use to impact multiple cars at a given time." So we spoke to Wilmington, Massachusetts-based Security Innovation about it. The automotive consultancy company has been working with the DOT since 2003 on V2V technology and the issues around it - namely security and privacy - and its chief scientist, William Whyte, is the technical editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1609.2 standard outlining its security protocols. Those protocols are expected to be finalized by the DOT toward the end of this year and then come into effect in 2016, and the company's Aerolink product is the security solution Cadillac will use. Whyte said, "If you hack into a car, V2V is the hardest place to start," and Pete Samson, the general manager of Security Innovation's automotive team, said "There are ten or 12 alternate attack surfaces" around the car that would make much easier targets.

Cadillac CTS-V gets Stealth Blue and Silver Frost limited edition models

A little more than a year and a half ago, former weekend editor Alex Nunez and I were talking about how sweet it would be for Cadillac to offer a CTS-V in the Corvette's Supersonic Blue paint, and as if General Motors eavesdropped on our conversation, this showed up. And while the Stealth Blue car you see here isn't an exact duplicate of the hot-looking sedan GM showed off in prototype form, it's really close. And really sweet.
New for 2013, the Cadillac CTS range gets two new colorful editions, starting with the Stealth Blue package available on the CTS-V (in sedan, coupe and wagon bodystyles) as well as the naturally aspirated CTS coupe. In addition to the unique paint, blacked-out grille and dark satin wheels, Stealth Blue cars can also be done up with an optional Twilight Blue leather interior. (And you thought blue-on-blue color schemes died in the '90s.)
Cadillac is also offering a new Silver Frost package, but it's a bit more exclusive. Only 100 examples will be built, all in CTS-V Coupe form. The Silver Frost paint is a low-gloss matte finish, in that while it technically has a clearcoat covering, it's reduced in a way that the surface still appears flatter than standard paint. Even so, Cadillac states that the car should be hand-washed only.

Hotter Cadillac CT5-V prototype spotted with a manual transmission

Fans of the old Cadillac CTS-V (and high-performance sedans in general) may have something to be excited about. A series of interior photos leaked Tuesday reveal that prototypes of the forthcoming higher-output variant of the CT5-V Sedan have been equipped with a manual gearbox. Exclusive: Photos show the wilder Cadillac CT5-V will have a manual transmissionhttps://t.co/Ta8hZ804eg — The Drive (@thedrive) March 10, 2020 Photos obtained by our friends at The Drive show a partially camouflaged CT5-V prototype with a full interior and what appears to be a manual gear selector. While the shifter and its boot are partially obscured by a plastic covering, it's obvious that the knob is not the same one paired with Cadillac's automatic gearboxes, such as the one featured in our expertly augmented photo above.  This is not the first time the potential for a stick-shift option in the new, higher-end "V" cars has been floated. Rumors suggesting that the as-yet-unnamed higher-output CT4-V and CT5-V models might be so-equipped (at least optionally) circulated late in 2019. This, in addition to significantly higher power outputs and revised suspensions will set them apart dramatically from the base CT4-V and CT5-V, which are intended to compete with the likes of the Audi "S" line of vehicles.  CT4-V spied View 40 Photos GM has been quite cagey when it comes to details about these new models. We know they'll follow in the footsteps of previous-generation "V" cars, which were aimed squarely at Europe's powerhouse sport sedans. The hotter CT5 variant is expected to employ the automaker's 6.2-liter supercharged V8, which made 640 horsepower in the now-dead CTS-V.  We reached out to Cadillac for comment and were told by a spokesperson, "The ultra-performance variants of our Cadillac CT5-V and CT4-Vs are still under development.  We will have more details to share in the next few weeks and the CT5-V and CT4-V ultra-performance versions will debut later this year. Until then, I can only confirm that these cars will build on V-SeriesÂ’ respected legacy." Hopefully, GM won't make us wait too much longer for official details of these new high-performance models, including what we should expect in terms of powertrain availability and launch timing. Stay tuned. Related Video: