While sitting in the backseat of a sport utility vehicle in 2007 with two distracted kids and a dog, General Motors engineer Cody Hansen learned about the realities of center console usage. Hansen, along on the ride as an observer, watched a 40-ish mother of two struggle with her car's aftermarket navigation and radio system -- pushing repeatedly on the touch display, tapping harder when it didn't work, and hunting through menus to find the right screen.
"Why does it have to be so hard to go from one screen to the next?" the exasperated driver demanded. "Why is it so hard to go from my iPod to my nav?"
Four years later, Hansen and the rest of the 40 engineers and designers behind Cadillac's new CUE (Cadillac User Experience) have an answer to those questions: It shouldn't be that hard. After hundreds of hours of observing users, and thousands more hours debating among themselves, the technical team has rolled out a product that GM executives believe is the next big thing in telematics. The CUE -- a center stack that works like a smartphone -- combines entertainment and information data from up to ten Bluetooth devices, USBs, and MP3 players with a user interface that can be easily appreciated, even by a dyed-in-the-wool Luddite.
Engineer Mike Hichme (left) and designer Stuart Norris (right): GM's design and engineering teams colocated in an effort to understand the customer's needs and choose the right technologies to support those needs.
"What the smartphone did for the cellphone, CUE is going to do for the infotainment space," says Micky Bly, engineering executive director for GM.
Clearly, GM engineers are proud of the new technology, having referred to it as "dramatic," "holistic," and "magical" at a recent press conference in San Diego. But what makes CUE different to other center console systems -- inside and outside GM -- is the team's penchant for using customers to help with the innovation. In the course of designing CUE, GM engineers traveled to California, Texas, Boston, and Chicago to ride with more than 120 users of navigation and radio consoles.
They went on sales calls, travelled with real estate agents showing homes, and even joined drivers who were on vacation. They sat in backseats with families and watched husbands and wives argue over infotainment intricacies. And in the end, they walked away with a better understanding of how drivers use infotainment.
"A lot of our design solutions were directly related to what we saw in the field," Hansen says.
The idea for CUE grew out of internal marketing discussions early in 2007. During the discussions, GM executives pointed out that Cadillac's competitors were a step ahead on offering specialized infotainment consoles. BMW had its well-known iDrive; Mercedes-Benz had its Comand; and Audi, its MMI. Yet, GM saw the infotainment space as one it wanted to grow into.
A final note on the Prius PHV, Ann. To me, it seems like the most logical form of electrification in vhicles today. By minimizing the size of the battery, Toyota will hopefully keep the costs down. If you're a person who drives less than 13 miles roundtrip to work, and if you recharge religiously, you can run in pure electric mode the majority of the time.
Ann: We should know by second quarter of this year. Predictions seem to vary from $28K to $32K, but when I interviewed Toyota engineers over the summer, they described the sweet spot as $26K. I doubt they can come in that low, but they do have the advantage of a small-ish battery on this (one-third the size of the Volt battery), so they should be able to keep costs down.
Wow, that price could make a big difference. Under $20K is my sweet spot for buying a new car, but under $30K is when I start paying attention. When do you think we'll find out?
Next we want to hear how much Toyota is going to charge for its plug-in vehicle, the Prius PHV. If that comes in at a reasonable price -- say, $28K -- we'll really see electrification appealing to more consumers. We should know soon.
Thanks for reporting on that lower-priced Prius and the down-sized pricing of plug-in hybrids. They should go a long way toward getting volumes up by appealing to more consumers, especially in these tough economic times.
Ann, I'm afraid that until now, most hybrids and electric cars have been aimed at upper-end consumers. That's starting to change no, though, with last week's introduction of the $19,000 Prius c. Automakers are also turning to plug-in hybrids because they can market them at the mid-level of the market by reducing the size of the battery and, therefore, reducing the cost.
Chuck, that's a really interesting shift in what's defined as luxury. Thanks for pointing that out. OTOH, I hope that doesn't mean that EVs and hybrids are being aimed at the upper end of consumers, since that will most likely delay acceptance and the higher volumes needed to make them mainstream. During the energy crisis in the mid-70s, people started buying smaller Japanese cars in huge numbers because they both cost less and had better mileage than Detroit. It was a win-win.
I think there's a solution to the unsustainable luxury car dilemma that you mention, Ann. In earlier stories, I have mentioned that the Volt is based on a new definition of luxury. I can buy a Chevy Cruze for under $20,000 or buy a Volt for $40,000. In some respects they are the same car, same size, same foundation. The Cruze gets 42 mpg; the Volt gets about 45 mpg on gasoline and 90+ mpge using electricity. The Volt also has a few more luxuries inside. I really do believe that most of the of the buyers of the Volt, Leaf and other EVs and hybrids are wealthier consumers with a new definition of luxury. If they were buying out of a sense of pragmatism, they'd go for vehicles like the Cruze.
I agree, Rob, that SUVs aren't always what they appear to be. And the reason that they are safer is simply that they are usually based on truck bodies, which makes them weigh more, which is partly why their mileage is so low, etc. etc.
If I want a truck--which I do--I'll buy a truck, not one of those.
We recently posted an online slideshow called, “18 People You Didn’t Know Were Engineers.” Within hours of its publication, readers began to suggest names of other luminaries -- astronauts, politicians, athletes and actors -- who were educated or had worked as engineers.
In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
One of the ugly truths of engineering is that life has a price. Cars, buildings, power plants, and industrial machinery can always be made safer for a cost, but manufacturers are at the mercy of the market.
Front-seat television technology is beginning to creep into the worldwide automotive market, but regulators, automakers, and suppliers say it’s unlikely to take hold in the US.
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