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GM intends to offer semi-autonomous vehicles by 2020

Prepare for a few years of technological saber-rattling, as the world's automakers begin pushing to bring self-driving cars to market. Earlier this week, Nissan announced that it aims to offer autonomous vehicles by 2020, while Google, BMW and several other marks are working on similar efforts.
General Motors is doing things differently, though. Rather than push for a fully autonomous car, it's continuing to refine its semi-autonomous Super Cruise, a product that we tested in April 2012 and that will eventually see use on some Cadillacs before trickling down to the rest of the General Motors family. Super Cruise, which is undergoing testing in the Cadillac SRX, doesn't take complete control out of the driver's hands. Rather, under a very specific set of circumstances on the freeway, it will marry the capabilities of things like lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control to allow the driver to take their hands off the wheel. All of which sounds a lot like the system Mercedes-Benz is launching on the 2014 S-Class.
The system is still in development, according to John Capp, GM's director of electrical controls and active safety technology. Now that that the biggest hurdle, steering control, has been cleared, GM's engineers can focus on things like teaching the system to adapt to differing road conditions and visibility levels. As we reported in 2012, Super Cruise is still befuddled in low-visibility situations or when road markings aren't particularly clear.

2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe favors cleanliness over radical lines

Though you might not know it from looking at vehicles like the XTS and Escalade, if you take a broader look at history, you'll see that Cadillac models have gotten a lot smaller from the tail-finned highway cruisers of old. At least when it comes to coupes, anyway. The Eldorado, in particular, kept getting smaller until it disappeared, its place taken in recent years by decidedly more compact XLR, CTS Coupe and ELR hybrid. What you see here, however, is Cadillac's smallest coupe yet.
Revealed today at the Detroit Auto Show is the new 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe, the brand's first compact two-door coupe, and the first production car to wear the brand's all-new crest. It shares the same platform and wheelbase as the existing ATS sedan, but packs a wider track and unique bodywork that's decidedly more conservative and less unique in its angular styling than the CTS Coupe that it's likely to ultimately displace in the Cadillac lineup. Styling aside, the all-American luxury marque has engineered the ATS Coupe with a focus on reducing weight to the benefit of both performance and fuel economy, giving it near 50/50 weight balance front to rear with underbody aerodynamic elements helping it cheat the wind.
Buyers will be able to choose between two engines: a 2.0-liter turbo four and a 3.6-liter V6.

Seinfeld and Don Rickles stretch out in classic Caddy for latest CiCGC

It's no surprise that for the newest episode of Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, airing for the first time on the 4th of July, that a couple of American classics are involved. You'll Never Play the Copa unites Seinfeld with legendary curmudgeon Don Rickles, driving around in a stunner of a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville in Gleneagles Green (upholstery wrapped in Grandma-spec plastic, of course).
Mr. Rickles really steals the show in this one - maybe our favorite CiCGC to date - though the Eldorado plays a strong-jawed costarring role, for sure. Stories about Ronald Regan, Frank Sinatra, Billy Graham and, of course, Herkie Styles are more than worth the price of admission. Check it out below.