2003 Cadillac Cts. Only 79k Miles. Fully Loaded on 2040-cars

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Combine a self-driving car with V2V, and here's what happens

Transportation engineers have started laying the groundwork for a traffic world in which cars communicate with other cars and infrastructure like bridges and traffic lights. How about an environment in which cars talk to pretty much everything and everyone? In a preview of its offerings at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, Delphi Automotive will deploy just such a concept. Engineers have designed a system that communicates with traffic signals, street signs, pedestrians, cyclists, even to fry pits and parking garages along a driver's route. To date, engineers and researchers across the auto industry have focused on the technical and safety-oriented foundation of future vehicle-to-vehicle communications, which could help cars share information about everything from traffic tie-ups to upcoming road hazards. Beyond those building blocks, many have projected that V2V could also include more consumer-focused features. Delphi's system, dubbed V2Everything, might be the first that combines those sorts of features in a tangible package. At CES in Las Vegas, scheduled to begin the first week of January, company officials say they'll demonstrate in real-world conditions how V2V technology can be used in an autonomous vehicle to provide a range of critical safety information and leisure and convenience options for riders. The first V2V technology installed on a production car is slated to appear on the 2017 Cadillac CTS. "We imagine a world with zero traffic accidents," said Jeff Owens, Delphi's chief technology officer. "To get there, we will need a convergence of active safety, sensor fusion, connectivity platforms and advanced software." Such software might allow a vehicle to start searching for and reserving parking spots at a programmed destination long before arriving. It could allow riders to place their McDonald's drive-through order from the road and have the food ready for pickup along the route. For the drive itself, the Delphi-equipped car can stay updated on the status of traffic lights around Las Vegas, and can anticipate yellow and red lights. Using smart-phone technology, the car can detect pedestrians and cyclists that may otherwise be hard to see. It can send messages to friends or family to notify them of a driver's location. Some of those features have been available on third-party apps or individually developed by automakers. But this system marries them together in a single system that is tailored for use in self-driving cars.

Want to beat LA traffic? Chargers QB Philip Rivers has found a way

Slogging through traffic in Southern California is about as pleasurable as being slowly eaten by bears or being the awkward third wheel on a bad first date. It feels like it's never going to end. After the team relocated to Los Angeles from San Diego, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers decided that three hours wasted each day in a car was too much. As The San Diego Union-Tribune reports, Rivers' rolling office makes his days more productive than ever. After deciding that he wasn't going to relocate his family to Orange County, Rivers was stuck with the prospect of either spending considerably less time with his children or skipping out on much-needed film work at the team's training facility (not really an option given his profession). Instead, he began investigating a number of options to make his lengthened commute slightly more viable and productive. First, he considered carpooling with a teammate. That was still too much of a pain. He looked at flying a helicopter, but unless it could land close to both his home and the practice field, it too was useless. A quick online search eventually led to the rolling footage review room you see here. Becker Automotive Design in Oxnard, Calif., builds these rolling offices for a wide range of customers. It sells modified Mercedes-Benz Sprinters, Ford Transits, and, in Rivers' case, a Cadillac Escalade with a raised roof. His needs were simple: a television and an HDMI input so he can hook up his computer. No fancy armor or recumbent exercise bicycle. His goal was to review game footage on his commute rather than slowly waste away behind the wheel of a car. Photos show a sea of leather and wood and a mini fridge, so it's not totally without niceties. Column | Philip Rivers' new ride allows him to stay home https://t.co/btwCEgIsFq pic.twitter.com/DHud3ho5UF — The Union-Tribune (@sdut) September 5, 2017 The Union-Tribune lists the price of the Escalade at about $200,000. That's not including the driver's salary. In 2015, Rivers signed a four-year deal with the Chargers worth $84 million, so he's not hurting for cash. If it increases productivity and saves the headache of being behind the wheel in traffic, we can imagine more people with means (and not just quarterbacks) will be opting for such daily transport. Related Video:

Cadillac dealers frustrated over Escalade production snarls

Lincoln went through it during the launch of the MKZ last year, Jeep went through something similar with its Cherokee launch, and now the 2015 Cadillac Escalade has apparently caught the bug: dealer delivery delays because of quality control checks. Automotive News reports that Cadillac dealers have been waiting three times longer than usual - a month or more - from the time an Escalade leaves the assembly line to when it gets delivered. Worse, dealers are saying they don't always know where their vehicles are in transit, or when they are set to arrive. The situation has upset customers who have put down deposits and things have gotten so bad that some dealers have reportedly stopped taking pre-orders.
Cadillac says it has the delay, called "dwell time," down to two weeks, and it expects to cut that to a week by the beginning of September. The company said "a lengthy quality-assurance process on some interior parts" has caused the lag, the report citing additional issues with figuring out which vehicles should be delivered first. A spokesman said that more trucks have been put in the distribution system to work through the backlog, but it's clear it's still going to take some time to set things right, with one dealer telling AN that cars ordered in February and March still haven't arrived.
Brand chief Kurt McNeil said additional personnel are at the Escalade's Arlington, Texas factory to speed up the checks, and spreadsheets tracking every order have been distributed to field staff. Even with the snafu, though, the Escalade is Cadillac's best seller through July.