Thanks to Cadillac’s upgraded Super Cruise technology even a boy with scissors for hands can experience the thrill of driving on the open road.
That’s the unusual scenario that played out in Cadillac’s Super Bowl LV TV commercial on Sunday night. Starring Timotheé Chalamet and Winona Ryder, the 90-second spot acts as something of a spiritual sequel to the 1990 film Edward Scissorhands, while giving the automaker a clever platform from which to shows off its first EV, the Lyriq, and its hand-free driver assistance technology.
In the Tim Burton-approved ad, Chalamet plays Edgar Scissorhands, the son of Edward and Ryder’s Kim Boggs. Just like his father, who’s nowhere to be seen in the clip, Edgar has scissors for hands, a feature that makes it all but impossible to live the life of a normal teenager. But after his mom sees him driving a car on his VR headset, she gets an idea. Enter the Lyriq and its cutting-edge Super Cruise hands-free driving tech, which allows young Edgar to hit the road like any other 16-year-old without his razor-sharp fingers getting in the way.
The Cadillac Lyriq’s hands-free Super Cruise driving technology at work Cadillac/YouTube
True, most of us don’t have to deal with having scissor-like hands like Edgar, but that’s beside the point. The Lyriq’s Super Cruise driving assistance tech, which has come a long way since its introduction in 2018, aims to make driving easier for everyone. As it stands, the semi-autonomous driving suite does allow for hands-free driving, but the small print at the bottom of the image is quick to note that you still need to “pay attention while driving and when using Super Cruise.” In other words, don’t confuse this for Level 5 autonomous driving.
Cadillac’s nostalgic TV spot wasn’t the only noteworthy car commercial to air during Sunday’s big game. The automaker’s parent company, General Motors, aired an ad featuring Will Ferrell, in which the comedian challenged Americans to buy more EVs than Norwegians (50 percent of the cars sold in the Scandinavian country are battery-powered, while they make up just 4 percent of sales in the US). Meanwhile, Bruce Springsteen made his commercial debut, helping Jeep celebrate its 80th anniversary.
