In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Lyriq are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Q4 e-tron Sportback doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Cadillac Lyriq has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Q4 e-tron Sportback doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Lyriq has standard Reverse Automatic Braking that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Q4 e-tron Sportback doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
Both the Lyriq and the Q4 e-tron Sportback have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras and rear cross-path warning.
The Cadillac Lyriq weighs 727 to 955 pounds more than the Audi Q4 e-tron Sportback. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.