CUE Something Better: Cadillac Raises the Bar for Its Abysmal User Interface
Cadillac’s user interface has been one of its consumers’ biggest grievances. Last week, I heard a private chauffeur in an Escalade — a $75,000 car that makes you feel simultaneously wealthy and powerful — refer to the Cadillac User Experience (CUE) as “bullshit.” Even Johan de Nysschen admitted that CUE did not pass muster.
Clearly aware of how supremely loathsome the interface is, the automaker has announced that the next-generation user experience system will debut on the 2017 Cadillac CTS this spring. According to General Motors, the updated user experience will evolve with a customer’s connectivity needs — adjusting itself over time while offering a plethora of personalization, connectivity and apps.
More useful is the all-new navigation app, providing constantly updated points of interest, streaming traffic information, parking availability, and fuel prices. Over time it will even memorize a user’s favorite places to stop and preferred routes and begin offering predictive suggestions. Helpful and creepy!
However, the feature most people will look forward to the most is the new CUE summary view. It essentially consolidates all of the most important applications (navigation, climate, phone, audio, etc.) so you aren’t stuck navigating though endless and confusing menus while trying to merge onto the expressway at 75 miles an hour and endangering the lives of everyone around you.
“Cadillac pioneered connectivity by bringing OnStar to market, and more recently we became the first luxury brand to enable Apple CarPlay and Android Auto across our product line,” said Richard Breckus, Cadillac’s director of product strategy, in the announcement. “We have worked to improve overall system response in recent years, and now this next-generation user experience system delivers more improvements, focused mainly on intuitive control.”
Everything runs through the car’s built-in OnStar 4G LTE, which also allows it to serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to seven devices while syncing two smartphones simultaneously. The new interface will appear first on the 2017 CTS before making its way into the XTS and ATS models at the start of the 2018 production year.
[Image: General Motors]
A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.
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Take it from a former 2014 ATS owner that the CUE problems go way beyond just the software design. The hardware running the system is way too slow and the system was riddled with bugs and defects. This release also doesn't resolve the fundamental problem that the touchscreen is not a great interface to operate while the vehicle is moving.
Yet another reason we bought a Yukon XL Denali. Intellilink is miles better and you still get the 6.2L V8 and mag ride.