Fox News Autos Test Drive: 2021 Cadillac Escalade
The all-new Cadillac Escalade SUV is more like a luxury car than ever before, says Fox News Autos Editor Gary Gastelu.
Cadillac has topped Tesla for the second time running in a Consumer Reports test of highway driving assistance systems.
Cadillac
The organization evaluated the highway lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control capabilities of 17 different systems and Cadillac’s Super Cruise was the clear winner with 69 points to Tesla Autopilot’s 57, with the Ford/Lincoln Co-Pilot360 system finishing third with 52. Cadillac had previously finished first in a 2018 test of six systems.
The test considered several criteria that included performance, ease of use and the system’s ability to monitor whether or not the driver is paying attention to the road. Super Cruise’s use of facial recognition technology to determine driver awareness put it ahead of the other systems, most of which use sensors in the steering wheel to make sure the driver hasn’t let go. Cadillac explicitly advertises Super Cruise as a hands-off feature while others note that a driver must keep their hands on the wheel.
Consumer Reports tested Super Cruise in the discontinued CT6 sedan, but it will be rolled out to 22 General Motors products in the next three years, including the 2021 Cadillac Escalade, 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV and 2022 GMC HUMMER EV. It uses 3D maps, GPS and cameras to locate the vehicle within a lane precisely.
FOX NEWS AUTOS TEST DRIVE: THE 2021 CADILLAC ESCALADE IS MISSING ONE THING
Tesla’s Autopilot is standard on its vehicles and different from the optional Full Self-Driving feature, which can make lane changes, pass slower cars and negotiate highway entry and exit ramps. A beta update that allows for city driving was recently made available to a select group of Tesla owners.
Mazda’s I-Activesense was ranked worst on the list with a score of 27.