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 Escalade-V are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Levante doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Cadillac Escalade-V 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 Levante doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Escalade-V 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 Levante doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
A passive infrared night vision system standard on the Escalade-V helps the driver to more easily detect people, animals or other objects in front of the vehicle at night. Using an infrared camera to detect heat, the system then displays the image on a monitor in the dashboard. The Levante doesn’t offer a night vision system.
The Escalade-V’s standard lane departure warning system alerts a temporarily inattentive driver when the vehicle begins to leave its lane and gently nudges the vehicle back towards its lane. A lane departure warning system costs extra on the Levante.
Both the Escalade-V and Levante have rear cross-traffic warning, but the Escalade-V has Rear Cross Traffic Braking (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Levante’s Rear Cross Path doesn’t automatically brake.
The Escalade-V’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Levante doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Escalade-V and the Levante 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, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors and rear cross-path warning.
The Cadillac Escalade-V weighs 1291 to 1525 pounds more than the Maserati Levante. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.