GM announces a huge Super Cruise expansion
Tesla’s full self-driving system gets a lot of attention, but it’s far from the only semi-autonomous driving assistance system around. General Motors has long offered Super Cruise, a hands-free system that works on hundreds of thousands of miles of highway in the U.S. and Canada. The automaker recently announced a significant expansion of the service, nearly doubling its availability across North America.
GM said Super Cruise now works on around 750,000 miles of compatible roads in the United States and Canada, up from 400,000 miles in the last expansion. The automaker made a big deal about that 750K number, saying it’s “like traveling one way from Earth to the Moon three times or taking a coast-to-coast road trip from New York City to San Francisco and back 130 times.”
The automaker improved its LiDAR mapping capabilities, enabling it to detect and map less prominent rural highways and other roads. Super Cruise also works with towing for some models, including the 2024 Chevy Traverse and GMC Acadia, which will now offer hands-free driving on many smaller roads, like those on the way to campsites and recreation areas.
While GM’s autonomous taxi division, Cruise, is working through some high-profile issues, vehicles equipped with its consumer-ready Super Cruise system have recorded very few crashes, and none were found to have been using the function at the time of the crash.
General Motors had planned to roll out a more feature-rich version of the system called Ultra Cruise with its new high-dollar Cadillac Celestiq EV but recently reversed course on that decision to focus on improving Super Cruise instead. In addition to the massive jump in miles available, Super Cruise has gotten improved lane changes on demand, automatic lane changes, trailering, steering functions, and curve handling. GM could still decide to offer more features on expensive models like the Celestiq than others, but for now, Super Cruise looks like the hands-free system to beat.
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