Cadillac XTS to Include iPad

I'm bummed that the CUE app is an app at all. I wish it were accessible as an HTML5 webpage so people without Apple devices can play with it too.

Kinda cool....

I'm afraid all this effort will be for naught. A lot of XTS customers will not want to be bothered with all this. I hope there is a simple way to lock in basic settings to prevent inadvertent changes that might prove dangerous (pushing the wrong button while driving, trying to get back to where you were while driving, becoming distracted, etc.)

As always, my opinion is, a true luxury car should coddle the driver with EFFORTLESS operation. An I-pad? Really? Just to work the radio and heater? Because a lot of people will only be interested in learning that. Whatever happened to a simple button? ON/OFF.

Owning and operating a luxury car should not require going to school. Having reached that point in one's life, one should be comfortable, not troubled.

Have you seen a BMW lately? You need a psychics degree to adjust the volume on one of those. But that's thing: luxury cars are all about technology and electronics integration these days. Its what most people want, for better or worse.

Is GM stocking up extra passenger window glass for all the iPad thefts?

That's is pretty funny, although I haven't heard any widespread issues about Equuis owners losing their iPads to theft.

  On 5/10/2012 at 6:28 AM, Dodgefan said:

That's is pretty funny, although I haven't heard any widespread issues about Equuis owners losing their iPads to theft.

I don't think knowledge of the iPad in the Equus has reached critical mass yet. Otherwise, the 2 Equuii that didn't end up in limo fleets are apparently taking their cars' security more seriously... the fleet Equuii all saw their iPads quickly landed on Craigslist.

Seriously, I'd say Equus owners are likely more tech-savvy and would remove the iPads from the cars and use them as, well, iPads. A certain percentage of XTS owners will not know how to turn the iPads on, let alone know they can be used for anything outside the glovebox.

Wasn't some other, more common car supposed to have iPads included gratis by now?

Personally, I like the idea of putting the manual on a tablet-like device, or even readable through the SatNav screen. But I feel like unless the device is useless away from the car, it will be a huge smash and grab item. Instead of a iPad, I'd rather see, perhaps, a Raspberry Pi based low power, hardware locked tablet that only acts as a dumb terminal for car's (perhaps iPad based) entertainment and information system. Then stealing the tablet is useless.

Great, another wasted effort. Come on, really the iPad. Apple devices I find to be very stupid and frusterating. Give me basic on/off buttons or a windows or linux app. Better yet just as Prevez said why not a html page or flash or something other than a stupid apple app.

Very disappointed in GM for this move. The XTS crowd I doubt will be very tech savy considering the baby boomers and I suspec the buyers support will not be GM but their kids who are tech savy.

If GM really wanted to do this, they should have done it with the AST and next generation CTS and escalade. Those are the tech savy crowds.

More intuitive, why not just have the owners manual as an option you can select on the NAV Screen so owners can quickly get to it rather than wonder if their Ipad is charged or in the house or where did I leave it last.

Having the owners manual in the NAV unit with it being able to be upgraded as a push out upgrade via the onstar system would be the way to go I would think.

GM shold use their OnStar system to upgrade all software on their auto's.

Are some of you not reading the article correctly? You all realize that you don't operate the controls in the XTS with the iPad, right?

Like Fap said, it essentially serves the purpose of an owner's manual in this case. It's there so that older buyers who check into an XTS can better adapt to the controls before they actually use them.

It's a manual that can do more than just sit in the glove box and be manual while also being a hot consumer item. I mean even older people own iPads and can operate them. I think its a nice add-on to accompany it that probably won't send a lot of time sitting in the car.

A commenter on autoblog said it best: "A lot of grandkids will be getting ipads for Christmas"

But really, this seems like a nice idea to help people get familiar with the system without crashing into a kountry kitchen.

  On 5/10/2012 at 3:50 PM, Dodgefan said:

It's a manual that can do more than just sit in the glove box and be manual while also being a hot consumer item. I mean even older people own iPads and can operate them. I think its a nice add-on to accompany it that probably won't send a lot of time sitting in the car.

I know what it is and I don't think it will work. XTS customers will want easy comfort, not to go back to school. A high percentage of them will need tutelage just to use the freakin' Ipad, let alone CUE.

  On 5/10/2012 at 3:45 PM, black-knight said:

Are some of you not reading the article correctly? You all realize that you don't operate the controls in the XTS with the iPad, right?

Like Fap said, it essentially serves the purpose of an owner's manual in this case. It's there so that older buyers who check into an XTS can better adapt to the controls before they actually use them.

Yes I totally understood that and it is a stupid idea. people will forget to keep it charged and when they need their owners manual it will not be available. They will leave it in the house, play with it or probably recover a thousand dollars by selling it.

The cost of this is far greater I am sure than having the owners manual online in the NAV unit or as an app that can install into all smartphones.

Dumb Dumb Move by GM.

Everyone who thinks this is a dumb move assumes that the XTS buyer is pushing 70. What if the buyer is 15-20 years younger and more tech-savvy?

I hate to say this but the LaCrosse may well be better for the traditional luxury car buyer since most other traditional luxury cars are now extinct.

It's easy for some of us to be perplexed by what I'm trying to say, after all we're on an internet forum. The internet is no big deal to us. But in my work I see plenty of older folks who do not care to enter the Tech Age or whatever "this" is called.

It is never too late to learn something new, everyone can hopefully agree on that, but some older folks honestly have no use for I-pads and the like. They've never even owned a pc. They're going to be left adrift by CUE, I believe. And Cadillac's multi-fronted plan to try to help them supports what I'm saying... Cadillac KNOWS this will be an uphill battle for some of their traditional customers. They're about to alienate some people with this system, and that is not the right idea, imo.

I think this is just the start for all cars.

I was reading how many auto makers that are now looking for ways to cut weight in cars. One way was to convert the audio and entertainment systems to phone based and pad based system. They are looking at mostly just giving you a sound system where your phone or pad would supply the music or video. With the onset of things like Pandora and most radio stations on the web I could see it being done at some point. Also I would save the companies money in vehicles they did not supply the smart phone with.

Note Mylink and Intellink both are fully operational now just with a smart phone. I can even put my home Dish TV audio on my GMC radio and listen to any TV show on Dish Network.

I also would not under estimate the love of pads by the old. In my wife job she deals with many seniors and they have taken to many of the pad systems out there, Even my DTS loving mother in law has taken to the pads now,

While it may be true that many 70 and 80 year olds right now would be not as interested the people who are in their 60's or under worked with computers in their jobs and as the younger people get older in the next ten years more and more will take to theses systems.

While some think the theft statment was funny I feel that is the biggest issue involved here. The automakers need to find a way to prevent the smash and grab thefts. I could see those becoming very common unless you can lock the pad to the cart in some way.

Either way this kind of technology will become more and more common and accepted by more and more people.

As fhe use of the I pad I think GM was smart to start with. I hate I pods and I tunes but the fact is Apple products are the most common and fastest selling in the world. I do see them making many of these system work with the other smart pads and phone like my Intellilink system in my GMC does. Most of this stuff is just bluetooth and they will adapt to most systems.

Also note Mylink and Intellilink systems can be upgraded by the owners with new firmware and updates with from GM on the web. You can use a flash drive and or a lap top to down load these updates in just as you do with any of the smat items. GM plans to make it so you can update the system to new OS systems and also add new apts.

The truth is the new smart phones and pads for the most are very easy to learn and getting eaiser as time goes on. It will be common for people of all ages to all have one or the other if not both with them where ever they go. We have yet to see what all they will do and it will shock many.