The driving experience is changing which is a topic we talk about a lot at Jacobs Media. From smartphone pairing to in-dash apps, consumers are experiencing content behind the wheel that is exponentially growing. Today, Paul Jacobs takes us on a tour of a brand new Cadillac Escalade and its CUE system. Fasten your seat belts. – FJ
Whenever Fred and I do a presentation about the” connected car,” we always ask whether attendees own a vehicle equipped with systems like Ford SYNC, Cadillac CUE, or AudiConnect – or even if they’ve ever driven one. Usually, no more than 10-15% of the radio professionals at these sessions raise their hands. And so our very first recommendation is to buy, lease, rent, or test drive a truly “connected car” in order to truly understand how these new systems change the way consumers experience audio while driving, and how radio listening may be impacted.
My personal car has some enhanced features and I’ve rented lots of cars that qualify as “connected.” But I recently concluded a week-long experience driving a new Cadillac Escalade – fully loaded with more electronics than the space shuttle that was a great way to truly get the feel for a true “connected car.”
While at DASH, GM’s Stuart Fowle and Rich Martinek asked if I’d be interested in checking out their newest technology, and I jumped at the change to experience Cadillac CUE, along with all the other bells and whistles.
Renting a vehicle like this for a day or two is one thing; driving one as part of your daily routine is a completely different experience. And I’m grateful to our friends from GM for allowing me to experience the Escalade (sadly, it was only for a week).
I approached this like a normal driver, and instead of diving into the manual or relying on my own knowledge, I simply tried to figure things out on my own. I’m sure that there are people at GM or Pandora or Sirius who will read this and tell me I did something wrong. But these systems are complex and overwhelming, and it isn’t about the experts – it’s about the consumer experience, which I tried to replicate.
Here are my takeaways and impressions:
The self-driving vehicle is (almost) here. Like many people, I just started driving the Escalade without reading the thick manual, and I didn’t even have the advantage of in-dealership training (they just handed me the keys). So as the week progressed, I kept stumbling upon new features and how to use them.
What I discovered is that this car can almost drive itself. It has the foundation for autonomous driving. One day I made the 90 minute drive to Lansing and set the cruise control to 74 when I hit highway. I was cruising along in the left lane when someone wanted to pass me. I moved over to the right lane and eventually caught up with a slower driver. Before I had a chance to hit the brakes, the car’s sensors did it for me, slowing down to 65 without me doing anything. When traffic cleared, I moved back into the left lane and the car automatically returned to 74 mph. At that point, I realized that all I had to do was steer.
But the Escalade also ensures that you stay in your lane. The first day I had the car, I must have drifted in my lane. I felt a little buzzing next to my right leg and thought it was my cell phone vibrating in my pocket, but it was sitting on the console. Later on, I must have drifted to the left, and the same thing happened on that side of my leg (I’m really not that bad of a driver, and trust me, I wasn’t texting). It was the car’s sensors warning me that I was drifting. If the car could have returned me to my lane, it would have. That’s how close we are to autonomous driving.
When I got back to the office, I opened up the manual to discover the Escalade is equipped with multiple systems designed to keep the driver safe, but in fact, virtually take over the driving experience. It is amazing.
So what’s the impact on radio? I have to tell you that while driving on the highway, I was actually able to concentrate more on what I was listening to while searching more intently for options. Why? Because I became confident the car was taking care of what was happening in front of me and around me (there are also side-warning systems, and even an impending crash feature that appears on your windshield and sets off alarms if there’s big trouble ahead. Fortunately, I learned about that in the manual and not in real time).
So, based on this experience, driving a semi-autonomous vehicle was a net plus for engagement with audio entertainment systems. I was actually more focused on the audio system (while keeping my “eyes on the road and my hands on the wheel”) than I usually am when driving my car.
And for radio, that is perhaps a double-edge sword, and a harbinger of things to come. Read on….
Radio . . . . and a WHOLE lot more. Emmis’ Rick Cummings said it best: “Choice kills.” And driving a totally connected vehicle that features satellite radio, HD Channels built into the on-screen guide, the ability to stream apps via Bluetooth seamlessly, and of course, AM/FM radio provides a lot of great options every time you get behind the wheel. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a video entertainment system in the back (although I couldn’t figure out how to watch that while driving.)
The audio entertainment system is such a significant Escalade feature that along with the usual manual for the car, Cadillac provides an additional 132-page book devoted to operating the Cue entertainment system.
As we’ve seen in some of the research we’ve conducted, Larry Rosin’s interviews with “connected car” owners, and other surveys, consumers often want a simpler, easier infotainment environment in their vehicles.
So depending on your point-of-view, here’s what’s good and what might be improved in the Cadillac Cue system.
1. TiVo for radio comes to the car. The most exciting feature in the CUE system is the ability to record up to 25 minutes of an AM/FM broadcast for later listening. Imagine listening to an NPR story, a morning show bit, or even a football game – and you have to run into the store – simply hit the record button and pick up the broadcast where you left off. This single feature makes the entire system worthwhile and is a big step forward for content creators as well as drivers. We have become used to watching TV where we can simply go back if we missed something or pause a program. Now that will be a part of radio in the car.
2. All audio is created equal. Cars that were built just five years ago provided two options – an AM/FM radio and a CD player. When you looked at the dashboard, all that you saw was the dial, knobs, and preset buttons. Your choices were few.
Not anymore. With the CUE system, drivers can set the center stack presets for anything – AM/FM stations, satellite radio channels, and HD2s and 3s – and place them next to each other on the preset bar. And switching from AM/FM to satellite to a streaming app to Pandora is seamless. If this sounds a feels more like television, you’re on the money. Just as you scroll up and down from broadcast to cable to premium channels while watching TV, that same sensation has now come to audio consumption in the car.
And of course, the clear conclusion is that radio is no longer dominant in this dashboard. It’s an equal.
3. Where’s the album art? While the on-screen display is stellar, there aren’t graphics available for AM/FM stations or satellite radio. Instead, there’s just RDS-fed text with title and artist information. This was probably my biggest disappointment with the system because I wanted to be wowed by the graphics. The only exception is Pandora, where the album art, title and artist are displayed on the entertainment screen and also right in front of the driver near the speedometer.
4. Advertiser information – a missed opportunity. When you listen to satellite radio and they go into commercials, the name, URL, and phone number of the advertisers appear not only on the entertainment screen, but in the display by the speedometer. This is an area that the folks at iBiquity, streaming players, and broadcasters need to pay attention to. If title and artist can be fed in the metadata, why not advertiser information? This is a value-added opportunity that broadcasters need to demand.
5. Pandora. While Pandora is the only source that provides album art, it’s not as stellar as you might think. First of all, if you have an iPhone, you have to pair it with a USB cable (streaming apps work via Bluetooth). And the driver cannot skip or thumb up or down a song on the screen – this had to be done in the phone. Not the worst thing in the world, but not as good as you’d expect.
So those are my main takeaways from driving a truly “connected car.” The broadcasting industry needs to accept the fact that the in-car audio experience has changed forever. AM/FM radio no longer rules, but shares its real estate with many other players and is on equal footing with an ever-growing array of audio providers.
As the driving experience becomes more autonomous (and it will), how will drivers spend their extra time and mental bandwidth?
The CX is still choppy and more complicated than it will ultimately be, but the driver’s relationship with in-car entertainment is forever changed. The broadcast radio industry needs to do its own research with the goal of adjusting its strategy and content delivery approaches to meet these tectonic changes. Better visuals, advertiser content, and localization are all parts of the new recipe that should be considered in the “connected car” experience. But the real separator is content that demands to be heard. Through that filter, it is clear that radio needs to think about it competitive landscape as broad, global, and personalized. It’s an entirely new environment in which broadcasters will compete.
Now that I’ve had a taste of this experience, it’s hard to go back. And that echoes what we saw in those Edison videos at last year’s DASH. I will be factoring in the digital dashboard experience when it comes time to lease my next car.
My thanks to GM for the chance to take a “deep drive” in the Escalade. I cannot emphasize enough that a great New Year’s resolution for everyone in radio would be to buy, lease, rent, or test drive a “connected car” over the holidays.
Just drive one.