GM’s Hands-Free Super Cruise Now Available on 750,000 Miles of Road
General Motors is boasting that its Super Cruise hands-free advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are now available on 750,000 miles of roads in the United States and Canada, making it the largest network of roads available today for this type of technology. “GM is all-in on safely deploying Super Cruise as we make the technology available on more vehicles, more roads, and for more people to enjoy,” said Anantha Kancherla, GM vice president of ADAS. “A key part of that is expanding the road network—in this case nearly doubling it—with LiDAR-mapped highways. High precision LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) mapping gives us an operating domain where we are confident in Super Cruise’s abilities.”
Super Cruise was first made available on the 2018 Cadillac CT6 when it launched in 2017, and GM promised the technology would be able to assist drivers on more than 200,000 miles of roads by the end of 2019. The number had increased to 400,000 at the end of 2023. According to GM, this latest expansion makes Super Cruise “the largest truly hands-free operating domain in North America—nearly six times the coverage of other hands-free driver assistance technologies on the market today.”
We first experienced Super Cruise in the aforementioned 2018 Cadillac CT6, and the system has since expanded to other Cadillac models as well as GMC, Buick, and Chevrolet models. GM’s full-size truck applications are currently the only hands-free driving available for trailering and offer almost all of the Super Cruise features when towing, except for Automatic Lane Change, which is among the added features that have rolled out since the initial versions we tested back in 2018. Automatic Lane Change will change lanes by itself when a lane is ending or if there’s a slow vehicle in the current lane. Lane Change On Demand, another Super Cruise feature, is similar but relies on the driver to request a lane change by using the turn signal, at which point the vehicle will use its monitors to look for a safe opening in the selected lane.
Super Cruise was initially available on major freeways, and this latest expansion now includes smaller, more rural highways to better connect drivers with their destinations. While the driver still has to remain alert and focused, removing some of the workload can result in less fatigue, especially in traffic. We’re looking forward to exploring more of these roads when we get behind the wheel of a Super Cruise pickup shortly.
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While this works well this is not something we really need. We need drivers to remain engaged and yet you take the wheel from their hands and at this point their attention drifts.
To me this is like giving a driver 5 bottles of beer before driving. It is counter productive.
The tech works but the human element is just a major part of the failure.
Great — now I’ll know which roads to stay the hell away from.
I have yet to drive a Super Cruise equipped vehicle, but I do have a Ford with the full Blue Cruise system. On highway road trips, it makes a noticeable difference in my fatigue level during and after the drive. With it managing the minor in-lane corrections (I still keep my hands on the wheel, as the system monitors my hands and even where I am looking, it gets cranky if you look away from the road), and adjusting the speed (really more adaptive cruise control) it lets me pay attention to traffic, passing slower vehicles, road conditions, etc. In this application, the system doesn’t replace the driver, but just reduces the attention workload. End result, a more enjoyable experience with less stress.
WHY, WHY, do we need hands free driving?!!!! Every time I see that STUPID GM commercial with the SO cool dude pulling his 4wheelers on a trailer with his oh so slick Chevy pu & laughing as he lets the truck drive itself, I want to scream!! Driving is driving!! If you don’t want to control the vehicle, get in the passenger seat. In fact, next time you’re in your drive itself vehicle, slide over to the passenger seat & just ride there until you get close to your destination & see how that goes. If driving wears you out so much, get a designated driver!
Greg, if I could just scream loud enough. However, there is one solution for people who would rather be a sometimes driver/passenger than an engaged driver. Plenty of Lyft employees are looking for work. Get them to do your driving, sell your car and save a bunch on insurance and car registration. AND clear the road so the rest of us “drivers” don’t have to sit in traffic…………..
I actually enjoy driving.
I find this system to be yet another over reliance on unnecessary tech.
Lutz was talking about this 7 years ago and indicating GM was going to take the lead in restricting sentient drivers from public roadways.