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GM intends to offer semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020

Prepare for a few years of technological saber-rattling, as the world's automakers begin pushing to bring self-driving cars to market. Earlier this week, Nissan announced that it aims to offer autonomous vehicles by 2020, while Google, BMW and several other marks are working on similar efforts.
General Motors is doing things differently, though. Rather than push for a fully autonomous car, it's continuing to refine its semi-autonomous Super Cruise, a product that we tested in April 2012 and that will eventually see use on some Cadillacs before trickling down to the rest of the General Motors family. Super Cruise, which is undergoing testing in the Cadillac SRX, doesn't take complete control out of the driver's hands. Rather, under a very specific set of circumstances on the freeway, it will marry the capabilities of things like lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control to allow the driver to take their hands off the wheel. All of which sounds a lot like the system Mercedes-Benz is launching on the 2014 S-Class.
The system is still in development, according to John Capp, GM's director of electrical controls and active safety technology. Now that that the biggest hurdle, steering control, has been cleared, GM's engineers can focus on things like teaching the system to adapt to differing road conditions and visibility levels. As we reported in 2012, Super Cruise is still befuddled in low-visibility situations or when road markings aren't particularly clear.

2021 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing spied up close, showing off bronze wheels

Here is yet another closer look at the upcoming Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing sedan. Some pertinent details have been flying around this one for a while now. A photo of the interior showing a manual transmission is the latest leak, and it’s also one of the most exciting. Reports have also shone light on the engine: ItÂ’s supposed to be getting an updated version of GMÂ’s 6.2-liter supercharged V8. There will be no shortage of horsepower and torque. These latest spy shots reveal a couple of other new developments. For one, we get a really great look at the wheel and tire package on the car. Those dark bronze wheels are new, and they sure do look like production-style wheels to us. If anything, they remind us of the Brass Monkey wheel color found on Challengers and Chargers. Wide Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires wrap those wheels. It gets 305-section-width tires in back and 275-section-width rubber in front. The wide, staggered setup is no surprise considering that this car will very likely put out more than 640 horsepower. ThereÂ’s a great deal of camouflage missing from the car as a whole, too. The hood is out in the open, and the same goes for the upper portions of the doors. ThatÂ’s because those parts of the car are virtually identical to the regular CT5-V. Sorry, no massive hood scoop on this sedan. The front grilleÂ’s lower opening does look significantly taller on this car, though. And where the standard CT5 has covered up fake vents, this car appears to have real, open venting. All the lighting is the same, but the maw of the CT5-V Blackwing is definitely much more aggressive than the standard CT5-V. Cadillac hasnÂ’t provided us with a date on when the new CT5-V Blackwing will be revealed, but has assured us that itÂ’s coming soon. We expect its little sibling, the CT4-V Blackwing, will debut right alongside this one. Related video:

Cadillac exec realizes ELR pricing was stupid high

At least one Cadillac exec has finally started to come to terms with something we knew all along: the initial $75,000 price for the ELR plug-in hybrid was way too high. The bad decision in part led to the model selling just over 1,000 units last year. Company marketing boss Uwe Ellinghaus recently gave an interview to Bloomberg where he discussed what went wrong. "The MSRP was, indeed, a mouthful," Ellinghaus said to Bloomberg. "We overestimated that customers would realize our competitors were naked at that price." People balked at the ELR's price from the very start, and dealers were receiving $5,000 at one point just for getting customers to test drive the PHEV. Later, some incentives for buyers were as high as $14,000. Cadillac planners saw a conundrum when it came to the ELR's price. Too low of a figure was thought to bring the model close to the Chevrolet Volt, and $75,000 was also believed to signal Caddy's PHEV as something special. "We just wanted to make this a statement for the brand of how progressive we are," Ellinghaus said to Bloomberg. Cadillac is now working to rehabilitate the ELR's reputation with a host of updates for 2016. Buyers get a 25-percent boost in powertrain output, additional standard features, and the whole package comes with a $9,000 drop in price. The tweaks should help the luxurious PHEV make a better second impression. Related Video: