Apr 18
From the outside it looks like a normal Ford Transit van
Apr 17
I have accepted that center-mounted displays screens in cars, touch or otherwise, are not going anywhere. But why do so many of them look like they’ve just been tacked on as an afterthought? It looks terrible.
Apr 16
Land Rover went a little bland with the design on their Discovery Vision Concept
Apr 15
This week at the New York International Auto Show, Chevy announced that they’ll be bringing the Trax to their collection of small vehicles. This new Small SUV will be a … Continue reading
Apr 04
It’s that time of year again for cars makers to put their best foot forward and BMW does not disappoint. The renowned automobile maker has just announced the M4 Convertible … Continue reading
Apr 02
Once upon a time, your car had to be the fastest or the most luxurious if you wanted to stand out. Now, as GM has discovered, a car has to be talkative if tech-savvy drivers are to take them seriously. A path that started with OnStar has ended up with cars that talk to your smartphone and tablet, quietly plan their own servicing, and generally take the sting out of owning and maintaining a modern vehicle. SlashGear sat down with GM President of General Motors North America Mark Reuss to talk infotainment and how the company is betting on more than just top speed for models like the new 2014 Cadillac CTS.
We’re no strangers to GM’s in-car tech. The company announced earlier this year that it would be equipping all of its models with in-car LTE, and promptly showed off a demo of what you could do when your 4G connection is actually baked into the car’s electronics, rather than just a dumb mobile hotspot in the glovebox. We also played extensively with Cadillac CUE, the infotainment system built into the 2013 ATS, last year.
GM isn’t a late entrant to the infotainment market, however, and gambles like baking expensive LTE radios into every single model aren’t exactly new. “If you look at our history, we’ve long had OnStar as an asset” GM President Mark Reuss told us. “So I think bringing that demonstrates the commitment we’ve made. There were a lot of tough times at the company when we looked at the equipment that we put in to do that, and generally did not price for. So that’s generally a long-term financial commitment to what we think we’re now being able to look at: an amazing opportunity for us for 4G, the expansion of that pipe we’ve invested in.”
In fact, Reuss argues, car connectivity and the functionality that enables could well end up being the 21st century’s equivalent of extreme customization. “If you look at how people use their cars, if you look at the changing demographics, new people coming into the car-buying market, most of those people have sort of an “ultimate customization” available, they see all the different devices available today” he pointed out. “That’s a reflection of who you are, that’s a reflection of how you live … it’s almost like hot-rodding used to be, right, sort of like that type of creativity that you have. It’s very low-cost, it’s very fun.”
Examples of that flexibility GM has already demonstrated range from remotely setting LED color schemes and cabin temperature, monitoring fuel levels and economy from across the country, and turning your car into a Skype video conferencing suite. However, Reuss says, the key is minimizing the stress involved in owning a car.
“That attention and care is now delivered through the pipe of the car, because the car is now bringing that information back to both the dealer, our engineers, and us as an OEM, and that’s really important data to us from a safety standpoint, and it’s important to the customer” Reuss says. “It takes the challenge of thinking about “when’s my oil going to be changed?” and “when are my tires going to be rotated?”; it takes that away from your busy life. And these are big, big things because the world is not getting less complex, and these type of tools in fact can make your daily life less complex.”
Still, it’s a big investment to web-enable every car you produce, especially when only part of your audience might walk into the showroom with an understanding of cutting-edge informatics. According to Reuss, GM has tackled that in how it markets each system across each of its brands, picking out the key functionality it knows potential drivers are going to be most interested in, as well as able to afford.
At the budget end, for instance, there are models like the Chevy Spark, aimed at younger drivers who are particularly smartphone-savvy. “You see widely different approaches in GM in how we’re doing this” Reuss points out. “The reason for purchase in a Spark of the screen we have in the car, the bring-your-own-media, don’t underestimate that. This is a car that’s under $13,000 … so that car in that price point is one approach to connectivity and bring-your-own-media, that replicates basically what you have on your phone in a very simple way, a fun way.”
On the other end of the spectrum is Cadillac’s CUE, which doesn’t assume the driver will necessarily be coming to the car with a pocket or bag full of the latest phones and slates. Instead, Reuss says, “the CUE system embeds more of that technology into the car, into the center stack of the car.”
For Cadillac drivers, the appeal of a system like CUE might not be its streaming media capabilities but how it unlocks new safety and convenience features: tech that builds on the same underlying informatics hooked into the car, but delivers that access and data in differently focused ways. “The price point is wildly different,” Reuss concedes, “but that type of information, integration, safety systems, crash avoidance, automatic cruise-control, radar-detected cruise control: that data and that format in the car you’ll see on the most expensive models in the range. And it replicates a lot of the function of what a tablet, or a smartphone, would do for you on a use-basis.”
The next example of that growing technological focus inside and outside of the car comes in the shape of the new 2014 Cadillac CTS, the company’s latest sports sedan. Set to hit the road later this year, the CTS builds on the excellent example of last year’s Cadillac ATS, borrowing the expansive all-digital driver instrumentation from the more expensive XTS, and cladding it in a sharp suit with echoes of the eye-catching 2014 Corvette Stingray.
On the outside, that design language expresses itself in features like the daytime running lights, extending down from the main lamp cluster and under the bumper. Like on the new Corvette, GM has worked hard to diffuse the LEDs so that they illuminate as two solid strakes of light; that, director of Cadillac exterior design Bob Bonaface tells us, gives the whole family a recognizable face, and one which you can spot no matter whether it’s day or night.
It’s arguably on the inside that the technological and materials focus is most obvious. Just as the Corvette team strove to be “authentic” in their choice of finishes – opting for real carbon-fiber, real metal, real leather rather than cheaper lookalike alternatives – so the new CTS dresses its cabin in premium materials. Eight interior finishes will be offered, ranging from the more traditional black, tan, and brown leather, through to more eye-catching shades like blue, each with optional contrast stitching. Real carbon-fiber and aluminum also show up again, joined by open-pore and natural finish wood.
The center stack has the same zero-profile touch sensitive buttons, topped by an 8-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen with anti-gloss and oleophobic coatings, as we saw in the Cadillac ATS last year. However, the ATS’s LCD sub display in the driver’s binnacle has been replaced with a huge, 12-inch 1280 x 480 cluster display, capable of showing multiple instrument layouts and even 3D graphics of the car which can be scrolled through using wheel-mounted controls. It’s all driven by a tri-core ARM11 processor running Cadillac’s proprietary Linux OS.
The only visible sign of that underlying tech that GM wants drivers to see, though, is a smooth and responsive interface. It’s still a work-in-progress, Reuss tells us, but it’s one the car company is committed to: making its car’s controls just as tactile and efficient as analog would be, while also having the flexibility benefits being digital brings. “Things we’re working on to make them perfect is the feedback and latency of something so simple as a volume control,” he says, “so we’ll work to perfect that, but the use and layout of it is spot-on, so we’re committed to that.”
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or, in this case, how many drivers aren’t punching their dashboards in confusion), the GM President says the response – even from those who might traditionally be considered more tech-averse – has been positive. “While the demographic for Cadillac may not be the very youngest car-buying population, our population is currently changed by the use of those devices no matter what your generation is” he argues. “You immediately understand what [CUE] is and how to use it, so we’ve had very little feedback that that’s a problem; very little from the CUE system in both the XTS and ATS.”
Next up is third party developers wading in, as GM throws open its In-Vehicle APIs and invites coders to cook up new functionality and features based on having core access to the infotainment stack. Alongside that, there’s an official plan for “agility and capability” over the next decade, Reuss says, though he also points out that consumer demands more than anything might well shape what car dashboards look like and deliver in tomorrow’s models.
“I don’t know how it’s going to evolve, and that’s exciting to me” Reuss concluded. “It’s sort of an open world of possibilities for it, and our job is to provide those open world of possibilities enabling people’s lives to be easier, to provide new advantages to buy a GM car, and to provide a user-interface that’s extremely safe, and easy to use, and very consistent.”
Smart Wheels: We talk Infotainment & the 2014 CTS with GM’s Mark Reuss is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Mar 29
The opportunity to design a new, next-generation Corvette doesn’t come along too often, particularly when it’s the iconic Stingray, and so GM has wasted no chances in putting together a car that demands performance benefits from every aesthetic decision. SlashGear caught up with GM at the New York International Auto Show to take a look at the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray coupe and convertible and talk authentic design – inside and out – with the execs responsible for guiding the changes in the new model.
From the outside it’s clearly a Corvette at first glance, but take a longer look and the evolution of the design becomes clear. The 2014 car is 4mm lower than before, as well as being wider and 15mm longer; the wheelbase has increased by an inch, pushing the front wheels forward and giving the car a better footprint and handling, in addition to making it look more composed and aggressive. New lights front and rear, as well as a new collection of vents, perforate the bodywork, which has a new blend of creases and sweep-lines.
Importantly, the design elements aren’t done solely for the sake of appearance, but also invariably serve a performance element too. “You want a compelling design, you want a strong aesthetic” GM’s Kirk Bennion, Exterior Design Manager for Corvette, told us. “We try to do things where, okay, this gives us a new look that we like, we think it’s attractive, but if we can also benefit with some functionality then it’s a double win. We like to do that with Corvette especially.”
So, the front grill and the hood vents aren’t just for show, but sit at either end of a new, ducted extractor that feeds cool air across the radiator. That itself has taken on a whole new angle: where Corvette radiators of old went from upright to leaning back, Bennion explained, the 2014 model actually tips its radiator forward, into the flow of air. Each of the grill blades in the hood sits at its own, specific angle for the best flow.
That’s not the only trick ducting. The 2014 Stingray sees the return of intakes on top of the rear arches, sitting on the long swathe line that runs from the back of the car, down the shoulder-line, and blends in interesting angles with the hood and arch creases. They’re not for cooling the brakes, but instead are the rear trans and diff coolers, which are just visible through the upright outlet vents at the back of the car. They also saw GM’s engineers take on the challenge of delivering a huge eight cubic meters of air per minute through each intake, while simultaneously avoiding debris. Side vents – finished in carbon-fiber – are also fully-functional, delivering a reduction in drag as well as cooling benefits.
Like many other recent cars, the 2014 Corvette Stingray makes ample use of LED lighting; however, GM has taken a few new approaches in how it implements those lamps. Up front, there’s a new single, bi-functional headlamp with daytime running lights replacing separate fog lamps. That’s something we’ve seen on models from Audi and others, but GM has played with the positioning and angles of the LEDs to make the lighting more consistent.
“We wanted to avoid ‘carnival light’ spacing” Bannion told us, referring to the tendency for LED lamps to look like a string of individual bulbs rather than a solid bar of light. “We really worked hard to keep the LEDs close together, to diffuse the light.” To do that, the LEDs are actually downward-firing, into a diffuser lens that smooths out the individual brightness of each into a consistent whole. They’re set next to a stack of amber LEDs for the turn signals, which also blend together into a solid lozenge of light, and everything is embedded into a black stainless steel assembly which creates interesting reflections depending on the angle from which you’re looking at the car.
That same attention to detail is continued at the rear of the car. GM has stuck with the dual-element tail lamps that have been a feature of Corvettes since 1961, but it has used the same downward-firing LED technology as on the headlamps for some extra visual flourish. “The technology here again is indirect LEDs, so the LEDs are horizontal, they’re throwing the light down into the cavity, for even-lit appearance. They kinda avoid having the spottiness” Bannion explained. “Also, with the lamps being three-dimensional, is very new for the car as well.”
The result is a car that treads the line between classic and contemporary, just as GM expects a Corvette Stingray buyer to demand. “They’re still dual-almond shape, but we really felt we needed to break tradition, have a car that’s more distinctive, more unique at night” Bannion pointed out. “There’s a lot going on with lighting technology right now, and you can see manufacturers are doing more and more to have their cars be seen, or be seen as exclusive with the night-time signature.”
It’s when you’re inside that the changes are most obvious, however, particularly if you’ve ever found yourself behind the wheel of a previous-gen Corvette. The dashboard and seats are less of an afterthought compared to the exterior, Helen Emsley, Interior Design Director for Performance Cars at GM, told us. So, the 2014 dash is more like a jet-fighter cockpit, surrounding the driver in an arc of controls and gages. Those gages have been redesigned for the new Corvette Stingray, with a choice of digital and analog views in the 8-inch instrument binnacle, and variations according to which of the three driving modes – touring, sport, and track – the car is currently set to.
Just as the exterior design has sought to make aesthetic details serve a functional purpose, so part of Emsley’s focus with the new Corvette has been to make the interior more authentic. “This is a Corvette. If it’s metal, if it’s aluminum, it should be real – it is real aluminum. If it’s carbon fiber, it’s real carbon fiber,” she explained to us. “It was very important to us that we show real, authentic materials.”
That approach has continued over to the passenger seat, with Emsley saying that GM wanted to make the 2014 Corvette Stingray just as much of an experience for the person not driving. So, the “co-driver” gets a separate interior, in Emsley’s words, a second cockpit arch with their own speed gage and heating controls. Materials all round have taken a step up in quality, with hard surfaces replaced by soft-finish plastics and contrast-stitched leather. In fact, GM has even cooked up two new, exclusive leather colors for the Corvette: black may well be the most popular, Emsley concedes, but the new beige and new red finishes are expected to draw some buyer attention, along with the existing black & grey and black & dark brown options.
Everywhere you look there are thoughtful design decisions, showing just how much consideration the GM team has put into the interior of the new car. Recognizing that many Corvette buyers want to replace the standard seats with more sports-focused alternatives, Emsley points out, GM will offer a choice of two styles with the 2014 model: either the normal touring seats, or special sports seats as a cost-option. More mundane – but no less important – considerations like storage have been addressed in clever ways, too, like a sizeable storage cubby hidden behind an 8-inch motorized drop-down infotainment display.
The Stingray convertible – which made its North American debut at the New York show – is certainly beautiful, but those who opt for the coupe also get a choice of roofs. Three targa tops are on offer: the standard, carbon-fiber roof which is painted to match the body; a premium version which is left in exposed carbon; and a polycarbonate version which is translucent, allowing more light into the cockpit. There’ll also be various body/performance packages, such as the Z51 with its tall rear spoiler – helping reduce lift – and larger wheels.
All in, it’s a suitably considered approach to what’s undoubtedly a muscle-car icon. “When you think of the opportunity, every time you get to do a new next-generation Corvette, you realize that there has to be certain calculated moves in order for it to be seen as the next-generation, and that’s why we felt we needed to make some of these changes” exterior design chief Bannion told us. Throw in a new LT1 6.2L V8 engine capable of 450 HP and 450 kb-ft of torque, and you’ve got performance that matches the great looks, too. The new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray will go on sale this fall, in both coupe and convertible versions.
2014 Corvette Stingray: GM talks authentic design is written by Vincent Nguyen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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