1967 Chevrolet Nova on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM's Buckle to Drive teen safety feature comes to more models for 2021

In 2014, GM announced a feature called "Belt Assurance," which would prevent a vehicle from being shifted out of park until the driver and front passenger had buckled their seatbelts. Initially launched on certain fleet vehicles in 2014, the feature rolled out as a free option on the 2015 GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Colorado, Cruze and Silverado. At the time, GM said it would push Belt Assurance to more models if customers took to it. That appears to have happened; come 2019, GM repackaged Belt Assurance as Buckle to Drive, part of the automaker's Teen Driver System that bundled tech such as geofencing and speed limit warnings to help parents keep track of their children's driving habits. In that implementation, the system only works when Teen Driver Mode is activated, locking out the shifter and muting the radio for 20 seconds or until the seatbelts are buckled, whichever comes first. The system shows a visual warning in the gauge cluster, too.  For this model year, the Teen Driver System came standard on 10 Chevy models, but Buckle to Drive was only allotted to the Colorado, Malibu and Traverse. Later this year, the 2021 Camaro will join the Chevys outfitted with the Teen Driver System and will get Buckle to Drive in addition. GM Authority reports that for the 2021 model year, Buckle to Drive will also be picked up by the Cadillac CT4 and CT5. Previously, the Cadillac ATS, CTS, Escalade and XTS came with the Teen Driver System, but three out of those four vehicles are no more, and the 2021 Escalade makes no mention of the Teen Driver System nor Buckle to Drive among its safety features. Elsewhere around the GM empire, the Buick Envision and Encore GX include the Teen Driver System, as do six GMC vehicles, but it's not clear when any will be upgraded with Buckle to Drive. The tech could help save numerous teenagers' lives. On its page of teen crash facts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention writes that roughly 300,000 teens between the ages of 16 and 19 ended up in emergency rooms to treat crash injuries in 2017. Furthermore, "only 58.8% of high school students always wore seat belts when riding as passengers," and, "Among young drivers aged 15-20 who died in car crashes in 2017, almost half were unrestrained at the time of the crash (when restraint use was known)." Related Video:    

Full-size trucks are the best and worst vehicles in America

You don’t need me to tell you that Americans love pickup trucks. And the bigger the truck, the more likely it seems to be seen as an object of desire. Monthly and yearly sales charts are something of a broken record; track one is the Ford F-Series, followed by the Chevy Silverado, RamÂ’s line of haulers, and somewhere not far down the line, the GMC Sierra. The big Japanese players fall in place a bit further below — not that thereÂ’s anything wrong with a hundred thousand Toyota Tundra sales — and one-size-smaller trucks like the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger and Chevy Colorado have proven awfully popular, too. Along with their sales numbers, the average cost of new trucks has similarly been on the rise. Now, I donÂ’t pretend to have the right to tell people what they should or shouldnÂ’t buy with their own money. But I just canÂ’t wrap my head around why a growing number of Americans are choosing to spend huge sums of money on super luxurious pickup trucks. Let me first say I do understand the appeal. People like nice things, after all. I know I do. I myself am willing to spend way more than the average American on all sorts of discretionary things, from wine and liquor to cameras and lenses. IÂ’ve even spent my own money on vehicles that I donÂ’t need but want anyway. A certain vintage VW camper van certainly qualifies. I also currently own a big, inefficient SUV with a 454-cubic-inch big block V8. So if your answer to the question IÂ’m posing here is that youÂ’re willing to pay the better part of a hundred grand on a chromed-out and leather-lined pickup simply because you want to, then by all means — not that you need my permission — go buy one. The part I donÂ’t understand is this: Why wouldn't you, as a rational person, rather split your garage in half? On one side would sit a nice car that is quiet, rides and handles equally well and gets above average fuel mileage. Maybe it has a few hundred gasoline-fueled horsepower, or heck, maybe itÂ’s electric. On the other side (or even outside) is parked a decent pickup truck. One that can tow 10,000 pounds, haul something near a ton in the bed, and has all the goodies most Americans want in their cars, like cruise control, power windows and locks, keyless entry, and a decent infotainment screen.

Chevy, GMC have electric pickups coming. Is Cadillac next?

GMC already has an uber-expensive electric pickup in the Hummer EV. By now you've no doubt seen the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV. It's a pickup. It's electric. It looks a little bit like an Avalanche. Hmm. You know what else was a pickup that looked a little bit like an Avalanche? Why, the Cadillac Escalade EXT, of course.  Cadillac Escalade EV-T yes or no?https://t.co/R1AXThRzIG@therealautoblog @Cadillac — Byron "Don't do anything Byron says. Ever" Hurd (@Byron_AB) January 7, 2022 So, hypothetically, if Cadillac were to build an Escalade EXT with an upmarket interior, Super Cruise, a minimum of 300 miles of range, 10,000 pounds of towing capacity, a locking frunk and 5-passenger seating, plus all of the nifty doodads and gadgets we've already seen on the Silverado ... would it sell?  OK, this isn't entirely hypothetical. In fact, I received a survey from Cadillac this morning asking just that. It's an interesting question. And it's one we're putting to you, the readers. So, what say you? Cadillac Escalade EV-T? Yes or no? Related video: