Cadillac CUE, Making the Most of Industry-Leading Technology

May 1, 2013

There are many vehicle infotainment systems on the market today but Cadillac is setting a luxurious standard with its industry-leading technology. The Cadillac User Experience (CUE) debuted last year in the XTS and ATS luxury sedans and SRX luxury crossover.

Unlike other in-vehicle user systems, CUE is designed to reduce complexity and be unique to each driver, from the “simple user” to the fully connected “super user”. For example, most of today’s luxury cars have around 20 buttons controlling the radio and entertainment functions. CUE reduces that to just four buttons.

You’ll immediately feel comfortable with CUE’s design because its home page resembles your smart phone or tablet screen and functions like them with the familiar click-and-drag functions. Along with its clean, uncluttered design, CUE provides Natural Voice Recognition and responsive touch-screen technology. Similar to many smart phones and tablets, CUE is mostly computer-driven so drivers can update their system to get the latest offerings no matter how old their Cadillac is.

CUE’s app-like approach to accessing a vehicle’s traditional features allow for settings to be tailored to specific tastes, also known as “favorites”. Users can save their favorite locations, phone numbers, or customize and save radio tone settings for a personalized music listening experience. CUE interaction designer Cody Hansen discovered this technology comes in handy when you have a sleeping child in the vehicle.

“I’ve used this feature to create a “baby mode”,” Hansen said. “I set the fade all the way to the front and turned down the bass so it won’t wake my daughter when she’s napping. When she wakes up and wants to hear music, I just tap my “regular” favorite and all my settings go back to normal.”

Another benefit, there’s no hassle when it comes to the navigation system. With CUE, users can manually or verbally input the entire destination address on one screen, which saves time and keeps drivers focused on the road. In some cases, the driver can input the partial address and CUE will help fill in the rest. Engineers even addressed security concerns in the development process.

“With ‘Valet Mode’, users can enter a four-digit pin and lock access to the center stack, steering wheel controls, and the storage cubby behind the center stack,” said Hansen.

CUE is elegantly displayed on an 8-inch LCD touch screen, seamlessly integrated into the top of the central instrument panel. A motorized capacitive faceplate is below, concealing a 1.8L storage area.

GM Partners with AT&T to Bring 4G LTE to GM Vehicles

February 25, 2013

At GM our mission is to design, build and sell the world’s best vehicles, and with the rapid advancements of in-vehicle technologies, the potential for us to produce vehicles that truly enhance the driving experience is greater than ever before.

As the head of GM’s Global Connected Consumer business unit, I see huge opportunity in creating vehicles that will allow our customers to bring their digital life into their vehicle and the vehicle into their digital life. That is why I am proud to announce that by mid-2014, General Motors will offer a new generation of connected cars and trucks with built-in 4G LTE mobile broadband, allowing for several potential consumer benefits, such as an in-vehicle Wi-Fi hot spot; faster, real-time apps; enhanced safety features and new infotainment options, like streaming videos in vehicles’ back seats. Additionally, 4G LTE allows for a more interactive voice and data service experience, which in turn provides an enhanced interaction with OnStar.

For 4G LTE mobile broadband in the U.S. and Canada, we partnered with AT&T to build an embedded connection specifically designed for vehicles and using an external antenna to provide maximum coverage and connectivity. With 4G LTE, our vehicles will become rolling mobile devices so customers do not have to rely solely on their own smartphone to stay connected while on the road.

We anticipate that our built-in 4G LTE will be attractive to third-party engineers and developers to create new in-vehicle applications for our customers. The 4G LTE network will provide engineers and developers with a fast, reliable mobile platform and will also enable vehicle-specific applications — ones that can tap into data provided by the vehicle, such as fuel levels, oil life and maintenance needs.

As we rollout 4G LTE connectivity and other in-vehicle innovations, safety — as always — is our top priority. We plan to deliver all this technology in a safe, well integrated manner to minimize distraction.

You will find 4G LTE on the majority of 2015 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models available in the U.S. and Canada. For those of you living in other parts of the world, this is the first stage of a global rollout. We plan to expand 4G LTE capabilities to all markets where we sell GM vehicles.

Mary Chan joined General Motors in May 2012 as President Global Connected Consumer. With her background in the consumer electronics / enterprise solutions business and experience in the global wireless networks space she is driving the set up and execution of GM’s strategic global infotainment plans, OnStar’s global expansion, as well as a strong integration of all in-vehicle connectivity services and solutions across the GM vehicle brands.

Chevrolet and General Motors Announce Exciting New MyLink Updates at the LA Auto Show

December 3, 2012

Chevrolet has announced some exciting additions to the MyLink Infotainment systems in upcoming models including a number of firsts for the company, voice recognition, and industry firsts like bringing an intelligent assistant that helps get things done just by asking.

Not only will the next versions of MyLink come with more features and improved usability, General Motors is taking customer service a step further to ensure that owners understand how to get the most out of their infotainment systems.

Chevrolet Impala’s MyLink offers industry first technologies

The 2014 Chevrolet Impala will be the first vehicle equipped with Chevrolet’s next-generation MyLink infotainment system. The new MyLink is designed to be easy to use, highly customizable and capable of linking up to 10 devices.

The system represents Chevrolet’s first use of natural language voice recognition that allows customers to safely place calls, enter destinations, browse media, play music and control other functions simply by telling the vehicle what to do. There are no key phrases to remember and no need to look at a screen.

Another first for Chevrolet is that the system can store up to 60 favorites including radio stations (AM/FM/XM), contacts, destinations, music and other media, making it convenient for those who travel to the same destination regularly to save their favorite places.

In addition to voice activated technology and other technical features the MyLink system in the Impala will allow owners to get personal and customize the system to fit one of four distinct personalities, depending on who’s behind the wheel – Contemporary, Edge, Velocity and Main Street. Owners can also change their home screen icons for easy access to features they use the most.

“There is such a high level of attention, consistency and level of detail in the graphics on the cluster and center stack displays that they’ve become nearly as important to the overall interior look and feel as color and trim,” said Fuligni. “We can’t design a custom Impala interior for every customer, but we can give them the next best thing.”

The next generation MyLink system will be also be available on other 2014 model year vehicles including full-size trucks, SUVs and the Corvette.

Siri comes to Spark and Sonic

In early 2013, the Chevrolet Spark (1LT, 2LT) and Sonic LTZ and RS will be the first vehicles in the industry to integrate the Apple intelligent assistant, Siri into their MyLink infotainment systems.

Siri will complement MyLink’s existing capabilities to help deliver an incredible driving experience. Owners with a compatible iPhone running iOS 6 can direct Siri to perform a number of tasks while they safely keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. To further minimize distraction, Siri takes hands-free functionality even further with an Eyes Free mode that enables users to interact with their iPhone using just their voice.

Owners can use Siri in Eyes Free mode to:

Make voice-activated, hands-free calls to Contacts on their iPhone
Play songs in the iTunes library, and even switch music sources automatically from AM/FM/XM radio to iPod mode
Listen to, and compose and send an iMessage or text message to a phone number or anyone in saved Contacts
Access Calendar and add appointments
Minimize distraction even more by keeping the screen of the iPhone from lighting up, even when Siri answers simple questions such as game scores or the dates of national holidays

GM’s Connected Customer Specialists help users understand systems

To enhance the ownership experience, General Motors has hired 25 young, tech-savvy Connected Customer Specialists and sent them to dealers across America to help owners fully understand their Chevrolet MyLink, Cadillac CUE and Buick and GMC IntelliLink infotainment systems.

“While our infotainment systems are designed to be intuitive and easy to operate, we’re taking a proactive approach to ensure customers receive the expert support they may need,” said Alicia Boler-Davis, vice president of Global Product Quality and Customer Experience. “This is one of many ways we are taking care of our customers after they’ve made their purchase.”