Last year, around this time, I was offered an opportunity to check out the 2022 Cadillac XT6, and at that time I thought, “sure, why not, it had been a few years, lets see what’s new and different.” Little to my surprise, nothing much was up. In fact, not much had changed at all since my first initial review in 2019 apart from some minor modifications made to the highest Sport trim model. Now, a year later, after a last-minute scheduling change mishap, I was surprised with yet another, XT6. But unlike the other two XT6’s I’ve tested, this one is the Sport with something I was truly excited about,  SuperCruise.

Touching base on the fundamental specifications, the XT6’s engine remains the same with power stemming from a 3.6-liter V-6 and 310-horsepower through a 9-speed automatic transmission. Taking 6.5-seconds to achieve 60 mph, the Sport trim doesn’t add any additional performance apart from the massively sized Brembo brakes that look like they belong on the Chevrolet Corvette. In fact, they are so big, you couldn’t even fit a finger between the rotor and the 20-inch rims.

Going with the Sort model includes all-wheel drive standard and comes with a starting price of $61,490. Outfitted in a stunning Radiant Red Tintcoat paint, the XT6 almost looked lickable like a candy coating – but that color sets the car back an additional $1225. The Sport trim does make for the most attractive XT6 having a black honeycomb mesh grille, black chrome trimmings and even black tinted rear taillights that gives it just a nice little pop of style. And to give the interior a more sporty flare, in lieu of wood, the interior trim featured glossy carbon fiber.

What I really want to talk about however is the new SuperCruise system – this was something I was excited about as it is about as close as one can get to autonomous driving without purchasing a Tesla. Taking its adaptive cruise control system to another level, SuperCruise is designed to be a handsfree driving experience on specific highways and interstates. It can also allow up to autonomous lane changes with the flick of the indicator and the system will find a suitable, safe opening and will automatically change lanes. So, some pretty cool technology is at our fingertips.

Now I am going to be blunt with you, I am all for autonomous driving, don’t get me wrong, as someone who enjoys driving, I also can appreciate the autonomous features. I use the adaptive cruise control all the time whether I am in bumper-to-bumper morning and evening rush hour or out on the open highway – it is a great way to ensure safe driving as we all tend to get distracted from time to time. There is no beating around that bush, we have far too many distractions around us, and its not just the phone.

Using the SuperCruise however, was anything but exciting. It was super annoying. Most of my driving included traffic scenarios which made the system frustrating to use. Understanding that the SuperCruise works only on interstates and highways, little did I know that the system would fully disengage when entering an exit lane or a freeway interchange, so naturally caught off guard, the vehicle began to decelerate at times that was not idealistic for the drivers behind me. But the most annoying part of the SuperCruise was how much it nags you. While sitting in rush hour, slow moving traffic, with SuperCruise engaged, I received a text message and opted to respond to it – doing such caused the system to bark at me and warn me to pay attention to the road; noted, I’ll admit I was in the wrong here. In a second act of distraction, I wanted to change over from listening to the new on my iHeart Radio app and switch to music in Pandora Radio, and as such through using the vehicles console mounted know and managing through the Apple CarPlay system, the SuperCruise system again noticed that I was not paying attention and sent out a second alert to pay attention. Okay, now I’m annoyed.  In final third distraction wasn’t a distraction at all but a motion of distress, again with SuperCruise activated in heavy slow moving traffic, traffic was at a near standstill and my frustrations were starting to get the best of me, I lean my head on the back of the head rest and tilted my head up in a resting fashion, the SuperCruise system did not like this and for its final alert, deactivated the system entirely and locked me out from using the system again until the vehicle was shut off and turned back on again. Uhhh, okay…., rude a.f. 

The thing is, the SuperCruise system is not standard, nor is it cheap either… it costs an extra $2500. And to that I say, just give me the standard adaptive cruise control system, I get enough barking at work to have my car do it to me as well.