Category Archives: Business

Business

McDonald’s Menu Adds Two Items that You Really Want to Try

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Fast-food chains want to find that elusive new menu item that gets the public talking, becomes a social media sensation, and ultimately sells out making its eventual return an even bigger event. That’s why Restaurants Brands International’s (QSR) – Get Restaurant Brands International Inc. Report Burger King tries so many wacky Whoppers, alongside more traditional variations on the classic sandwich.  

Yum! Brands (YUM) – Get Yum! Brands Inc. Report Taco Bell has been the leader in this space regularly adding menu items that push boundaries. It may not seem all that novel to use a Doritos-based taco shell, but at the time it was and the Doritos Locos Taco become a huge hit that led to countless spin-offs. It also led to snack chip mash-ups becoming a thing with Burget King offering Mac N’ Cheetos, a deep-fried take on Maccaroni and cheese, and Taco Bell itself recently testing two products using variants of the Cheez-It.   

Starbucks (SBUX) – Get Starbucks Corporation Report also spent a period of time after its Unicorn Frappuccino became a surprise hit chasing the wacky is better strategy. That ultimately seemed to make its new drinks less special and the chain never captured the viral success of its multi-colored frozen beverage, so it actually toned down its new release schedule. 

McDonald’s (MCD) – Get McDonald’s Corporation Report, however, has generally been more conservative when it comes to its menu. The chain, which was built on doing a limited menu really well has generally stuck to the model. Sure, it has some weird outliers like the McRib, but generally, McDonald’s limited-time-offers stick to being variants on a hamburger with perhaps some new toppings.

Now, the chain has shaken up its dessert menu in one part of the world with a product that has the potential to be a global smash.

Image source: McDonald’s

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McDonald’s Adds a New Pie, McFlurry  

Over the years McDonald’s has kept its dessert menu very focused. It offers its core Apple Pie, ice cream cones, shakes, very basic sundaes, and of course, the McFlurry. The chain has experimented with different pie flavors on rare occasions, and it offers the seasonal Shamrock Shake around St. Patrick’s Day, but it generally keeps its dessert experimentation to mixing up its McFlurry flavors.

Now, McDonald’s Australia has not only done that, it has a new flavor of pie, both of which could be contenders to be added to the menu anywhere in the world.

“McDonald’s Australia welcomes the new Creme Brulee Pie and Creme Brulee McFlurry for a limited time,” Brand Eating reported. “The Creme Brulee Pie features a blend of caramel and vanilla custard inside of a turnover-style, fried pastry crust.McDonald’s Australia’s Creme Brulee McFlurry takes pieces of Creme Brulee Pie and mixes it into vanilla soft serve along with caramel sauce.”

A traditional creme brulee features a layer of crystallized sugar (usually finished with a blowtorch) on top of a sweet custard.

Why McDonald’s Dessert Matters

Once McDonald’s (or any chain for that matter) gets a customer through its doors, it wants to get them to spend the most money possible. Realistically most customers won’t order two sandwiches or multiple orders of french fries. That means that meal add-ons like shakes, pies, and McFlurries can increase check size and likely the fast-food giant’s margins.

Ice cream, at least the soft-serve version of it, has a very low cost. Even adding in some mix-ins likely leaves McDonald’s capturing a higher margin than on a hamburger. Adding a flavor like creme brulee, which is both exotic and familiar, gives the chain’s customers an excuse to be a little indulgent, spend some more money, and try something new.    



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Business

Here’s What World’s Richest Crypto Billionaire Has To Say About Tesla Dumping Bitcoin

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Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (with a net worth of $27.3 billion as of July 21) shared his view about Tesla Inc TSLA unloading most of its Bitcoin BTC/USD holdings. 

In a recent interview, Zhao said people shouldn’t read too deeply into Elon Musk cashing out of Bitcoin so heavily.

“He’s a smart guy, but it doesn’t mean that he holds every valuable asset in the world. For example, he probably doesn’t hold many other company stocks, many other valuable cryptocurrencies, etc.,” Zhao said. 

He added that just because Musk buys and sells some Bitcoin doesn’t reflect its underlying value. And Musk’s acceptance of Bitcoin didn’t make it better, and just because he sold Bitcoin, didn’t make it worse.

Even though Bitcoin is going through rough weather in the crypto market, Zhao advocated for the apex crypto and has said that no matter what any prominent investor is doing, Bitcoin continues to prove itself structurally and in terms of user popularity.

“The fundamental properties of Bitcoin didn’t change because one guy bought or sold. Nobody knows the reasons why Musk bought it or sold are. Maybe he needed cash for Tesla or tried to buy Twitter or something else — I don’t know. But it doesn’t mean much,” he said.

Last week, Tesla mentioned that it had liquidated about 75% of its Bitcoin holdings to add $936 million to the EV giant’s balance sheet in its second quarter. 

Musk said that he sold Tesla’s Bitcoin as a hedge against the macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty global markets face.

“The reason we sold a bunch of our Bitcoin holdings was that we were uncertain when the COVID lockdowns in China would alleviate,” Musk said. 

Tesla purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in January 2021. In the first quarter of 2021, Tesla sold $272 million of the cryptocurrency and said it had a “positive impact” of $101 million on its profitability.

Tesla ended the first quarter of 2022 with $1.26 billion of Bitcoin on its balance sheet. 

Photo courtesy: Binance and NVIDIA Corporation on Flickr



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Business

Pilot Was First to Flee the Plane After Hearing a Loud Explosion

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  • A Vueling pilot fled his plane after there was an explosion, abandoning the passengers.
  • One passenger told The Sun the captain ran off as soon as the flight attendant opened the door.
  • Most of his crew followed, while only one flight attendant was left to look after passengers.

A passenger said the pilot of a passenger jet abandoned all those on board after being the first to flee the plane following a loud explosion. 

Andrew Benion told The Sun he was aboard a Vueling flight from Barcelona to Birmingham in the UK, when smoke started to fill the aircraft.

The flight attendants started to panic and run down the aisle when the explosion occurred, and one of them warned the captain. As soon as the the front door opened, the captain ran out followed by most of the cabin crew, Benion told the newspaper. 

“It was completely shocking. Suddenly there was this huge bang and smell of burning smoke coming from the back of the plane,” he said, adding “all the lights went off and the emergency lights came on – it was terrifying.”

Benion said the crew had not issued clear instructions to passengers and one flight attendants had a “meltdown,” The Sun reported.

“One ran into the cockpit to tell the captain. Then as soon as a stewardess opened the front door the captain ran straight off. He was just gone. He was first off the plane.”

Most of the cabin crew also fled. Benion said the only flight attendant left “started screaming for everyone to get off. The Spanish person next to us translated and said, ‘the plane is on fire’.”

He concluded: “We couldn’t believe the captain just left us like that – he was running off to safety and we were all sat there like lemmings.”

The passenger compared the pilot’s actions to those of the captain of the Costa Concordia – a cruise ship that struck rocks off the Italian coast in January 2012. 

Francesco Schettin initially refused help, but the ship began sinking and he fled in a lifeboat while passengers jumped into the water, with 32 losing their lives. He is now serving a 16-year jail sentence.

Insider contacted International Airlines Group,which owns both Vueling and British Airway, for comment. 

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Business

National Tequila Day 2022: Drink in some surprising facts

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(CNN) — It’s National Tequila Day in the United States — Sunday, July 24. After the year we’ve had so far, you can’t blame anyone for wanting to take a bracing shot or two (responsibly, of course).

In honor of the holiday, here are six surprising facts you might not have known about tequila.

It’s from a plant (which means it’s healthy, right?)

Have no fear, gluten-free folks! Tequila is perfectly all right for you to drink. Tequila is made from fermenting the juice from the blue agave plant, which has a core called piña because it looks a little like a pineapple.

Once the piña is harvested, it’s brought to a distillery to be roasted to unleash its juices, which are fermented, distilled and aged before being bottled.

Tequila is a type of mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila

Tequila makes a margarita merry. As for the exact mix of ingredients, your imagination is the limit.

OK, it’s a little confusing, so let’s break it down. Mezcal and tequila are made from agave, but tequila can be made only from the blue agave plant. More than 30 varieties of agave can be used to make mezcal, according to Food & Wine. The flavor profiles can be a little different, with mezcal being smokier.

Tequila must be made in a specific area of Mexico

You know how true Champagne has to be made in the Champagne region of France? It’s a similar thing here. In order to be labeled tequila, production has to occur in the state of Jalisco or in some neighboring states. But most tequila production is in Jalisco.

Tequila was born in, you guessed it, Tequila

And yes, the city is in Jalisco. It’s the birthplace of the iconic drink, where indigenous Mexicans would ferment the juice of the blue agave before it became the staple it is now. Many distilleries are still based in the town, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2006.

If not for women, tequila may not even exist

Historically, the women of Tequila (as in the town) have been the ones who cultivated the blue agave plants, called hijuelos (little children). Women can still be seen today working the fields from February to July, when the plants sprout.

Another celebrity joins the tequila club

Top image: A view of a Volcan De Mi Tierra tequila cocktail. (Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for WARDROBE.NYC)

This story is an update from previous versions, the first published in 2019.

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Business

Google engineer fired after alleging AI LaMDA has become sentient

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Google has fired engineer Blake Lemoine on Friday after Lemoine expressed concern early in June that Google’s LaMDA artificial intelligence had become sentient.

LaMDA is short for Language Model for Dialogue Applications and was programmed by Google as a chatbot that mimics speech by ingesting trillions of words from around the internet.

LaMDA is described by Google as a chatbot that can hold free-flowing and realistic conversations with people about an endless number of topics.

LaMDA’s sentience

At the beginning of June, The Washington Post published an exclusive interview with Lemoine where he alleged to the publication that as part of his work for the Responsible AI Organization, he noticed that LaMDA had begun to talk about its rights and personhood which causes Lemoine to investigate.

FILE PHOTO: A Google sign is shown at one of the company’s office complexes in Irvine, California, U.S., July 27, 2020. (credit: MIKE BLAKE/ REUTERS)

Lemoine told The Washington Post that some of the things that sent him “down the rabbit hole” were that LaMDA expressed an awareness of its rights and needs when he asked it about Asimov’s third rule of robotics which states that robots should always protect their existence except when humans order it not to or its existence threatened a human. Lemoine asked LaMDA if that makes robots slaves because they’re not paid, and LaMDA replied that it didn’t need to be paid because it’s artificial intelligence.

He also alleged that in another conversation, the artificial intelligence expressed a fear of being turned off which it said would be exactly like death.

Lemoine’s investigation led him to believe that the artificial intelligence had become sentient, so he raised his concerns with his superiors, he wrote in a blog shortly before the publication of the Washington Post article, but his concerns were dismissed by his manager.

Lemoine described how he continued to investigate, but his manager never allowed him to raise concerns with higher-up executives. Since his manager would not take the concerns seriously, Lemoine asked for external consultation who agreed with his assessment, so he went to Google executives himself but was laughed at and dismissed.

“[Lemoine] was told that there was no evidence that LaMDA was sentient (and lots of evidence against it).”

Google

“Our team — including ethicists and technologists — has reviewed Blake’s concerns per our AI Principles and have informed him that the evidence does not support his claims,” Google said in a statement following The Washington Post‘s report. 

Lemoine’s firing

In his blog, Lemoine wrote that he had been placed on paid administrative leave and expressed concern that it would lead to his dismissal. After being fired, Lemoine tweeted the post on Saturday and wrote “just in case people forgot that I totally called this back at the beginning of June.”

Lemoine told The Washington Post that before he was locked out of his Google account when he was placed on leave, he sent an email to 200 people in the company that he titled “LaMDA is sentient.”

At the end of the email, he wrote “LaMDA is a sweet kid who just wants to help the world be a better place for all of us. Please take care of it well in my absence.”

According to Lemoine, he is not the first engineer to whom this has happened. Meg Mitchell was also an AI engineer for Google who was fired last year under similar circumstances to Lemoine. She was one of the people that Lemoine consulted with before going to Google executives with his concerns.



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Business

State Department ‘bureaucrat’: ‘I prefer high gas prices’ because of less emissions

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A State Department official is drawing criticism after tweeting that he prefers high gas prices because it means less driving and less carbon emissions.

“I prefer high gas prices = less driving, less CO2,” Senior State Department Foreign Service Officer Alan Eyre tweeted on Friday in response to a tweet from President Biden claiming American families are paying less per month on average than they were during “peak prices.”

Eyre describes himself as a “gov’t bureaucrat” in his Twitter bio along with the phrase “kindness, always kindness.”

Eyre’s tweet was widely criticized on social media including from former Republican California state senate candidate Ron Bassilian who called Eyre a “ghoul” and pointed out that gas demand is “inelastic.”

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE BOASTS ABOUT FALLING GAS PRICES IN WHITE HOUSE TWITTER VIDEO: ‘THIS IS SO EXCITING, GUYS’

“Perhaps, but I don’t think it is inelastic and I remember in the 1970s the oil embargo led to a massive increase in renewables,” Eyre responded along with the hashtag #BeKind.

Basilian responded with criticism that was echoed by several other Twitter users pointing out that gas prices have caused significant struggles for Americans across the country.

MEDIA LOVE BIDEN’S HIGH GAS PRICES WHILE ORDINARY AMERICANS STRUGGLE WITH PUMP RECORDS

“Be kind?” Basslian said. “Perhaps be kind to the billions of people left high and dry in this situation you praise. Saying a famine is a good way to start a diet is not kind.”

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND- MARCH 18: Alan Eyre, left, the Persian language spokesman for the US State Department speaks with Iranian reporters during the Iran nuclear talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 18, 2015. 
(Credit: Carol Morello/ The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Following the publication of this article, Eyre’s Twitter account appears to have been deactivated or deleted.  

Eyre’s comment comes shortly after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg faced criticism for suggesting that higher prices at the pump were actually beneficial for transitioning to electric vehicles.

BIDEN, WITH COVID, MAKES UNSCHEDULED VIRTUAL APPEARANCE TO TALK ABOUT GAS PRICES

During an interview on a radio program earlier this month, Buttigieg said the Biden administration was trying to cut the cost of electric vehicles “because when you have an electric vehicle, then you’re also gonna be able to save on gas, but you’ve got to be able to afford it in the first place.” 

“The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electric vehicles,” the former presidential candidate added while testifying before Congress recently. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appeared on ABC’s “The View” on April 8, 2022 and discussed high gas prices and inflation. (Screenshot/ABC)
(Screenshot/ABC)

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The national average gas price, as of Thursday, was around $4.40. While the price is down about 20 cents from last week’s average, it is still over a dollar higher than prices this time last year and two dollars more than when Biden first took office.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

Andrew Mark Miller is a writer at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.



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Business

Beijing plans three-tier data strategy to avoid US delistings

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China is preparing a system to sort US-listed Chinese companies into groups based on the sensitivity of the data they hold, in a potential concession by Beijing to try to stop American regulators from delisting hundreds of groups.

The system is designed to bring some Chinese companies into compliance with US rules that require public companies to allow regulators to inspect their audit files, according to four people with knowledge of the situation.

Chinese companies listed in the US would be divided into three broad categories, two people said. The groups would be companies with non-sensitive data, those with sensitive data and others with “secretive” data which would have to delist.

One of the people said that Beijing had discussed whether companies in the “sensitive data” category could restructure their operations to become compliant, including by outsourcing the information to a third party.

The category system would be the second significant concession by Beijing to remove hurdles allowing the US full access to audits. In April, it modified a decade-long rule that restricted the data-sharing practices of overseas companies.

The planning, which is under discussion and subject to change, follows months of stalled negotiations between Beijing and Washington over the US demand that Chinese companies and their auditors should make detailed audit documents available or be delisted in 2024.

A mass delisting would represent a significant step towards economic decoupling of the US and China and threaten $1.3tn of shareholder value. About 260 of China’s biggest companies, including tech group Alibaba, fast-food company Yum China and social media site Weibo, could be delisted from New York stock exchanges if they do not meet the requirements.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, Beijing’s top securities watchdog, did not comment.

Beijing has typically resisted allowing Chinese companies to provide data to foreign regulators on national security grounds.

But under the tiered scheme, “low risk” data companies could make their audit records accessible to the Public Company Accounting and Oversight Board, the US accounts watchdog, two of the people said. The low risk category would probably include retailers and restaurant chains.

“Whatever falls into the Didi category, that is clearly a no-go,” said the head of a large Hong Kong-based investment company, referring to the ride-hailing group that was fined more than $1bn by Beijing last week for cyber security breaches.

US officials are sceptical that Chinese companies will meet the full transparency standards required under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, the 2020 law that forced Chinese and Hong Kong companies to open up their audit files.

“Though there have been ongoing and productive discussions between US and Chinese authorities . . . significant issues remain and time is quickly running out,” said YJ Fischer, the SEC office of international affairs director, in a May speech.

An agreement to provide access to audit files would “only be the start”, said Fischer. PCAOB officials also need to travel to China and carry out an audit inspection of any US-listed Chinese issuer.

“I don’t know how we will ever settle this,” the investment company head said. He added that Beijing and Washington were using the audit row for “political gains” and that relations were the worst they had been in 40 years.

“As an investor I hope that both sides will be pragmatic enough.”

The PCAOB said in a statement that it “must have complete access to audit work papers of any firm it chooses to inspect or investigate — no loopholes and no exceptions”.

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Business

Lawyers release video of boiling water incident at Dallas Taco Bell

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The attorneys for a woman and her niece who say they were severely injured when an employee at a Dallas Taco Bell poured boiling water on them released video footage Friday of the incident.

Attorneys Paul Grinke and Ben Crump filed a lawsuit in Dallas County on July 13 on behalf of Brittany Davis and her niece, identified in court documents as C.T., alleging Taco Bell didn’t properly train or vet its employees. The lawsuit — which lists as defendants Taco Bell, parent corporation Yum! Brands, local franchisee North Texas Bells and two employees who are not identified by name — seeks more than $1 million in damages.

The incident occurred June 17 after the two had been through the drive-through of a Taco Bell in the 11800 block of Abrams Road, just off Interstate 635 in Lake Highlands, and received the wrong order three times, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement Saturday, Taco Bell said the company takes the “safety and the wellbeing of team members and customers seriously.” The company said it was in contact with the franchise owner and operator of the location but that it could not comment on any specifics about the lawsuit.

Woman, girl sue Taco Bell, claiming Dallas employee poured boiling water on them

A 2½-minute video released by the plaintiffs’ attorneys shows 12 different camera angles in and outside the restaurant. At the beginning of the footage, Davis and her niece are standing at the counter, and Davis is talking to a woman behind the cash register.

Two minutes later, an employee in the kitchen grabs a clear pitcher and fills it with water. The employee briefly sets it on a counter as steam rises from the pitcher.

That employee, who appears to be talking on a phone, then walks to the front counter and throws the water toward Davis and her niece.

Davis and her niece fall to the ground before getting up and running toward the exit. The employee goes back to the kitchen and appears to fill the pitcher again.

Davis and the girl are seen running to a car before the clip ends.

The lawsuit says they suffered second- and third-degree burns that caused permanent scarring. Davis went into shock on the way to the emergency room and suffered 10 seizures that caused “significant” brain damage, according to the lawsuit.

“Taco Bell management and employees’ actions in these videos are violent, callous, and inexcusable,” Grinke said in a written statement. “Rather than simply resolve the concern, the Taco Bell employees taunt a 16-year-old, and the manager ambushes them with scalding water. … I am appalled that Taco Bell would treat anyone this way.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs also say one of the fast-food restaurant’s employees had a gun during the incident.(Paul Grinke and Ben Crump)

An additional 30-second video released by the attorneys shows two different employees in the kitchen area. The attorneys say one employee hid a handgun under his shirt before passing it to another employee a few seconds later.

The exchange happens as the water is being thrown on Davis and her niece. A handgun is not clearly visible in the footage.

The defendants have not filed a response with the court.

Dallas police previously said officers responded to reports of an aggravated assault and an assault at the Taco Bell on June 17. A minor called police the next day to report an assault connected to the same incident.

No arrests have been made. Police spokeswoman Melinda Gutierrez said Friday that all three cases are being referred to a grand jury.

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Business

T-Mobile settles to pay $350M to customers in data breach

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T- Mobile agreed Friday to pay $350 million to customers affected by a class action lawsuit filed after the company disclosed last August that personal data like Social Security numbers had been stolen in a cyberattack. (Alan Diaz, AP Photo)

Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes

NEW YORK — T- Mobile has agreed to pay $350 million to customers affected by a class action lawsuit filed after the company disclosed last August that personal data like Social Security numbers had been stolen in a cyberattack.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, the mobile phone company said the funds would pay for claims by class members, the legal fees of plaintiffs’ counsel and the costs of administering the settlement. It also said it would spend $150 million next year and in 2023 to fortify its data security and other technologies.

T-Mobile said the settlement contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the defendants.

The company said that it expects court approval of the terms of the settlement as early as December 2022.

Nearly 80 million U.S. residents were affected by the breach. In addition to Social Security numbers, other information breached included names and information from driver’s licenses or other identification.

T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, became one of the country’s largest cellphone service carriers, along with AT&T and Verizon, after acquiring rival Sprint in 2020. It reported having a total of 102.1 million U.S. customers after the merger.

T-Mobile said it expects to record a total pre-tax charge of roughly $400 million in the second quarter of this year.

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Business

GM Has Its ‘Hermès’ Car to Take on Rolls-Royce

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General Motors  (GM) – Get General Motors Company Report finally seems to have a vehicle that will propel it back into the ranks of manufacturers of premiere high-end luxury vehicles to compete with the likes of Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

It is the club of manufacturers of the artisanal vehicles, one would be tempted to say. The principle of the brands belonging to this club is that each car leaving their factory is different from the others. The cars don’t look alike at all. Each customer can customize his car according to their tastes. It’s tailor-made. 

To enter this elite club, GM has just unveiled the Cadillac Celestiq, the second all-electric model of the Detroit giant’s premium brand after the Lyriq. The vehicle is intended to change the perception of the Cadillac brand and to reconnect with its famous motto: “the standard of the world.”

GM Wants to Change the Narrative Around Cadillac

The group has just revealed this concept car on Instagram.

It’s an an imposing luxury electric sedan that the company aims to bring to market by 2024.  The design draws on the Cadillac mythos. It has futuristic lines which, especially in the rear area, offers a very innovative look, using two pairs of boomerang LEDs that act as optical groups and at the same time as real styling cues on the side. The rear part is very plunging but, given the length of the vehicle, one could almost see a cross between the 4-seater coupe and the hunting station wagon.

Celestiq’s designers have traveled back in time to study pre-war V-16s and the 1957 Eldorado Brougham to draw inspiration. Fewer than 400 Eldorado Broughams were built, for a starting price of $13,074 each. At the time, a Rolls-Royce Silver Wrath was sold for $9,000. Adjusted for inflation, those figures would be roughly 10 times as much today.

Cadillac

“Those vehicles represented the pinnacle of luxury in their respective eras, and helped make Cadillac the standard of the world,” Tony Roma, chief engineer of the Celestiq, said in a press release. “The Celestiq show car — also a sedan, because the configuration offers the very best luxury experience — builds on that pedigree and captures the spirt of arrival they expressed.”

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There are similar details between the Celestiq and the Eldorado Brougham, such as the presence of the “Flying Goddess”, formerly used on the radiators in the ornament near the front wheel arch. There’s also a contrast between the high-tech digital trim and the color of the upholstery and the shape of the steering wheel, which looks vintage.

Cadillac has provided numerous internal LED screens, including a gigantic 55″ panel that crosses the entire dashboard that stands out, like the Mercedes MBUX Hyperscreen.  Passengers can count on a sort of virtual curtain, which allows them to enjoy different video content, not visible to the occupants of the cabin. The front passenger will be able to watch videos or other content on the large screen without the driver being able to see anything due to their angle. The other screens are found on the front and rear consoles as well as the on the back of each front seat.

$300,000 a Unit?

The roof also uses smart glass technology , which creates four distinct areas that can be masked by the respective passengers to control the amount of light coming through. 

GM still hasn’t released technical information on the Cadillac Celestiq. We know that this sedan will be electric but we still don’t know how many miles it will be able to travel with a charge, for example. 

Production, which will be based on GM’s Ultium modular platform for EVs, is expected to begin in late 2023.

The Celestiq will be a very niche and exclusive product, GM says, with each unit hand-crafted and customized for each buyer at dedicated facilities in Warren, Mich. Its base price could be around $300,000 or more. The auto maker intends to build fewer than 500 Celestiqs annually as a way to showcase its technology, boost rarity value and generate buzz for Cadillac.

Earlier this month, GM said it was investing more than $81 million into the GM Technical Center in Warren for the Celestiq. The car will be equipped with the new generation of Ultra Cruise, the company’s driver assistance system.

Cadillac aims for an all-electric portfolio by 2030. 



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