As part of an announcement that the 2022 GMC Sierra would receive GM’s Super Cruise “hands-free driving-assistance” system (GM’s phrasing, not ours), GM confirmed that the system will work while towing and trailering.
The Sierra won’t be the only GM product getting Super Cruise. The system is already available on some Cadillacs, the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, and a smattering of other GM products, and it’s now set to expand to the Sierra, the Chevrolet Silverado, the upcoming GMC Hummer EV pickup, and more Cadillac models.
Your author has not yet had a chance to use the system, so I can’t tell you if it’s good or not based on first-hand experience, but by all accounts, it does seem to work fairly well. As a reminder, Super Cruise only works on certain roads and in certain conditions.
Even without experience with the system, we’d imagine that it could make trailering easier. We’re also wondering how, if it all, it integrates with GM’s other tow/trailer assist features that we’ve tested, such as the camera system.
This news could be cause for long-haul, um, haulers to rejoice.
[Image: GM]
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“hands-free driving-assistance” while towing.
What could go wrong?
You’d think that GM would have learned something from reports of all of those Tesla crashes.
Hmm! Same as Tesla. But with a few extra tons of weight behind a vehicle!
Hilarity ensues, unless you’re in the T-bone crosshairs of one of these when their’s nobody paying attention at the helm!
More hood!! Who needs to see the road any any closer than 100 yards/meters ahead? This body styling looks to be the equivalent of basically blocking off the lower half of the windshield of any normal vehicle. But then maybe that is what the automated driving is compensating for.
Commercial trucks for the most part have gone to lowered hoods for aerodynamics. Pickups have gone the opposite route. The worst I’ve been i
was the aftermarket Tuscany F350 with stupid faux hood scoops.
‘“You’d think that GM would have learned something from reports of all of those Tesla crashes.”
Your joking right? GM doesn’t learn from their own mistakes why in a million years would they learn from someone else’s.
Well…It did not roll off the tongue all that easily when I said it. LOL
I just read that the majority of pickup owners tow something less than once a year and haul something once per year so maybe they are being typical GM and are hoping once again that the odds will be in their favour.
If this works, and maybe it’ll be a while to work the bugs out, this could be a real asset for towing. If you’ve ever towed you know that even in light winds there is always some tail-wagging-the-dog going on. It’s worse in gusty conditions. It’s also worse when you have a tow vehicle that is slightly lower in capacity than it should be. I’m not talking tow rating or tongue weight, but you could theoretically tow a huge “lightweight” trailer behind a F150. It’s within the tow rating and tongue weight but you have a massive sail behind you that wants to go with the wind.
When towing a trailer there is going to be more steering input than without a trailer. You’re always correcting for even light winds. (I should add that I’m talking about travel trailers here. You could easily tow something low and heavy – say a low dump trailer with gravel – and not worry much about wind.) If Super Cruise was able to deal with these conditions before the driver could react that would be a great thing.
This may not be a perfect analogy, but some aircraft, mostly in fighters, they are designed to be inherently unstable. This gives them the ability to maneuver more quickly than an inherently stable aircraft. But to make it flyable it’s all about the software behind the controls.
Then again, I can see a downside. Someone gets a F150 and hooks onto a 35′ trailer and heads down the road and feels confident – until they get a strong gust sideways and flip over.
@Mike-NB2 – in this day and age we have high horsepower/torque pickups rated to tow huge loads. The pickups have more capability than the drivers. I see that time and time again. Someone who grew up driving a 1 ton with a 300 six/manual/drum brakes is going to be safer (usually) that John Q Public with a maxcumstroke diesel and a 30 ft trailer who’s driving history consists of hauling air and kids to soccer 3 times per week. All of the “nannies” will just make these people overconfident. There’s a saying, “you don’t know what you don’t know”. The “technical” term is “unconsciously incompetent”. I’d rather see more stringent driver’s testing/licensing than more electronic “nannies”.