Cadillac revamps the instrument panel with CUE
New CUE (Cadillac User Experience) instrument panel utilizes a number of technologies popularized by smartphones and tablets. It has a large touch screen in the middle that uses multitouch gestures and a proximity sensor so that it knows when your hand is approaching.
SAN DIEGO--Cadillac has introduced a new central instrument panel that features touch-screen technology popularized by smartphones and tablets. The fully capacitive faceplate has an 8-inch touch screen that utilizes multitouch gestures to interact with it. Cadillac says this sets it apart from other car in-dash units that have an overabundance of buttons and controls.
The instrument panel is called CUE and it stands for Cadillac User Experience. In addition to a touch screen that lets you tap, swipe, and pinch in and out, it also has a proximity sensor so that when your hand approaches the screen, certain shortcut icons will appear. You can also enable haptic feedback, so that the screen pulses when you select something. Aside from the touch screen, the overall interface features fewer buttons, large icons, and natural voice recognition. You can pair up to 10 Bluetooth devices to it, and it's also compatible with USB keys, SD cards, and, of course, the iPod or iPhone. The entire faceplate opens up to reveal a 1.8L storage area as well.
The main home screen of the CUE display features the five most frequently used functions along the top of the screen in an app tray. These buttons can be customized with any function or shortcut the driver wants. Drivers can also select up to 60 favorite points of interest, music files, addresses, maps, directions, phone numbers, and system commands to scroll along the bottom row of the screen. If you want to keep your hands on the wheel, the steering wheel has several physical controls to help you navigate through the cluster display, cruise control functions, volume, and more. You still get access to OnStar's suite of services if you decide to sign up for it.
CUE runs on a version of Linux and uses an ARM 11 3-core processor, which Cadillac says offers 3.5 times more processing power than its competitors. The open nature of the platform lets developers write applications for CUE in the future.
Other features of CUE include weather maps with Doppler radar, 3D turn-by-turn navigation maps, a customizable gauge cluster, AM/FM/HD and XM radio, two USB ports, an SD card slot, Bluetooth with A2DP streaming, Pandora and Stitcher support, and more.