At CES 2022, Cadillac’s parent company, General Motors, unveiled plans to implement its Ultra Cruise driving assist technology in upcoming models beginning in 2023. As the luxury marque’s future flagship sedan, the fully-electric Cadillac Celestiq will be one of the first models to feature the technology.
Ultra Cruise is considered a Level 2 Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS). It is an expanded version of the luxury marque’s current semi-autonomous driver assist feature, Super Cruise. Cadillac says Ultra Cruise will “enable door-to-door hands-free driving”, and the feature will be programmed to safely respond to 95 percent of real-world driving scenarios, with plans in place to make Ultra Cruise compatible with all paved North American roads in the U.S. and Canada.
The addition of Ultra Cruise will grant a slew of advanced features to the Cadillac Celestiq, including internal navigation route following, vehicle speed maintenance, automatic and on-demand lane changing, close object avoidance, and residential driveway parking, among others.
The Cadillac Celestiq will be one of the first vehicles to use Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Ride Platform, which will be defined by software developed in-house. The all-new computer architecture was developed specifically to facilitate Ultra Cruise, and has the processing capability of 100 home computers, while only being the size of two laptops stacked on top of one another.
As of this writing, there isn’t much information regarding the Cadillac Celestiq yet, but we do know that it will feature a full glass roof with SPD-SmartGlass technology that will enable each passenger to change the opacity of the roof above them to their preference. The technology will also help regulate the Celestiq’s cabin temperature, therefore reducing the amount of power needed to maintain a comfortable interior climate and likely increasing its driving range.
The Cadillac Celestiq should be unveiled very soon, and will eventually become the luxury marque’s flagship sedan. With the exception of batteries and frame/body stampings, it will be hand-built in the Detroit area and carry a starting price tag of around $200,000.
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