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Is Cadillac Planning a Self-Driving Camper Van?

A couple of mysterious teaser images have us intrigued.

openspace, which will be fully introduced at a later date, offers a glimpse of a future chapter for cadillac’s halo concept portfolio Courtesy

By Tyler Duffy

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The assorted car brands that were presenting there took different approaches to CES 2022 earlier this month. We saw colossal EV reveals from Mercedes and Chevrolet. BMW, meanwhile, brought some new color and infotainment tech. Cadillac, however, leaped forward to the autonomous future with a trio of vehicles from their “Halo Concept Portfolio.”

Cadillac debuted the InnerSpace, a cozy, two-person autonomous luxury coupe. The brand also showed off the PersonalSpace, an autonomous single-seater vertical take-off and landing vehicle and the SocialSpace, a boxy six-seater autonomous van — both of which they’d originally shown at last-year’s all-virtual CES. But most intriguing for us is a concept Cadillac teased, but didn’t revealed yet: the OpenSpace.

openspace, which will be fully introduced at a later date, offers a glimpse of a future chapter for cadillac’s halo concept portfolio Cadillac
openspace, which will be fully introduced at a later date, offers a glimpse of a future chapter for cadillac’s halo concept portfolio Cadillac

Cadillac didn’t offer much information about OpenSpace, beyond noting that it would provide a new chapter to the Halo Concept Portfolio. But the two teaser images depict what appears to be a parked luxury vehicle with a bed, a bar and a set of stairs enjoying panoramic views of the great outdoors. So it’s hard to imagine OpenSpace — when it eventually gets revealed — will be anything other than some form of Cadillac autonomous camper van or RV.

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We’re a long way from any of these Cadillac Halo vehicles becoming a reality. Autonomous driving doesn’t exist yet, and has not been regulated anyway. EV technology and infrastructure are not ready to handle such vehicles’ creation and mass proliferation yet. (Besides, Cadillac is still building the V8-powered Escalade and combustion sport sedans.) But Cadillac thinking about camper vans and RVs is interesting, to say the least.

Camping vehicles are a huge trend and growth market — and not one that OEMs have seriously embraced in America yet. In theory, autonomy would work well with camper vans. And there’s a lot that a manufacturer could do with existing technology. Progressive iterations of GM’s Super Cruise or Ultra Cruise (which will debut on, you guessed it, a Cadillac) could mitigate the monotony of highway driving. And mapping out trails in a national park for autonomous driving would be a relatively low lift endeavor.

We’re not holding our breath for a Cadillac luxury Camper Vaniq version of a Brightdrop van to arrive anytime soon. But it wouldn’t be the worst idea for Cadillac to consider.

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