Driving the Future
BY REBECCA WINTERS

When a manufacturer introduces a concept car, it's a test of an idea, a way to gauge whether someone will really want to drive a designer's vision of tomorrow. Historically, some manufacturers' concepts have proved to be more dream than reality. Fly ing automobiles, creative alternative fuels and exotic styling may have raised eyebrows, but they didn't sell cars. Cadillac's sleekly angular Evoq fits in that rare space between futuristic fancy and realistic possibility. General Motors isn't saying whe ther it plans to mass-produce the convertible two-door roadster, but GM vice president John Smith is calling Evoq a "promise about what customers can expect in the years ahead." Its innovations, like cameras replacing side- and rearview mirrors and tires that stay inflated long after a puncture, are designed with real drivers in mind. The car is filled with sensors and computers, with voice-recognition and military technologies, yet it's also a vehicle we could reasonably see ourselves driving. The Evoq c harges full speed ahead, but it doesn't leave us behind.