Expanding access to Super Cruise, GM plans to enable drivers to utilize the hands-free advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) on approximately 750,000 miles of roads across the United States and Canada. This extension, set to nearly double the automaker’s Super Cruise network by 2025, encompasses rural and minor highways linking smaller cities and townships.
Automakers increasingly explore advanced driver-assistance systems to attract customers and diversify revenue beyond vehicle sales. Super Cruise integrates lidar map data, high-precision GPS, cameras, radar sensors, and a driver-attention system, ensuring the person behind the wheel remains attentive. Activating the system enables acceleration or braking to maintain a chosen following distance, lane positioning, and automatic lane changes to overtake slower traffic, with the option to engage the system while towing a trailer, albeit sans automatic lane change.
However, access to the expanded Super Cruise network excludes owners of the Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Bolt EUV, and Cadillac XT6. Unlike Tesla’s Autopilot, Super Cruise users need not keep their hands on the wheel but must maintain a forward-looking eye direction. Ford offers a competing hands-free system named Blue Cruise, launched in 2021.
Introduced in 2017 as the industry’s premier true hands-free ADAS, Super Cruise faced limited accessibility, confining its availability to the Cadillac CT6 and select divided highways for three years. GM gradually broadened its Super Cruise highway network, expanding from 200,000 to 400,000 miles in 2022 and incorporating the system into more brands and models, totaling 15 globally, including the Chevy Bolt EUV, Suburban, Tahoe, Silverado, Hummer EV SUV, and all Cadillac models. New models like the 2024 Chevrolet Traverse or 2024 GMC Acadia will offer Super Cruise with the trailering feature.
While GM advanced incrementally, Tesla gained momentum due to its accessibility, making Autopilot standard across all vehicles and available on all highways. Tesla’s enhanced systems, notably the $12,000 Full Self-Driving software, offer expanded capabilities, including use on city streets.
