Heads up, Ludacris: GM wants you to check out this Cadillac's 4G thrills

GM
4G and feeling fine

What does a car with built-in 4G feel like? GM, in partnership with AT&T, set out to answer such a question, showing off a conceptual cook-up of what a connected vehicular future might look like during CTIA 2013.

The car is a 2014 Cadillac ATS, the company's current flagship and winner of the Detroit Auto Show's Car of the Year award for 2013. The connectivity is AT&T 4G, of course.

In February, the companies announced a partnership to bring the high-speed waves to GM cars starting in 2014, with the end game to eventually have all vehicles coming off the car maker's production lines armed with 4G.

Attendees of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona got the first taste of the connected concept car, but this is the first time this 4G ATS has been shown on North American soil.

entertain me

Entertain passengers with individual video streams

Equipped with 4G, a GM car could, for example, stream videos to passengers, provide in-vehicle Wi-Fi hot spots, allow for speedier hook up to custom apps and give car owners views from cameras mounted on the vehicle.

4G inside

Xzibit would be down with this ride

apps

The hub of activity

Imagine, a GM rep asked us, working late and wanting to know if there was a stranger lurking around your vehicle. Cameras, and 4G, would let you hop on your phone or tablet and instantly get four-sided views of the environment around your car.

outside camera

The vehicle on display had cameras mounted on the front, rear and both sides, providing real time images of what was going on outside the ATS to a tablet.

Internally, the demoed ATS was equipped with internal cameras as well, perfect for spying on passengers you suspect are leaving crumbs in your whip.

GM is developing its own HTML 5-based app ecosystem, and we were told the company is looking to court more developers as the 2014 launch time frame approaches.

interior camera

'I see you!' would be fun to say to passengers

The first vehicles to see these types of services will be 2015 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models available in the U.S. and Canada. The features shown may have been prototypes, but they provided a glimpse at what a connected car future could be quite well.

Michelle Fitzsimmons

Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook.  A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a keen eye for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.