General Motors to Double Network for Super Cruise

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy


It would seem the engineers at GM have been busy doing their sums. Super Cruise, their take on hands-free driver assistance technology, is set to double its reach. At present, SC will only work on certain divided highways and interstates around the nation. After this update, which is scheduled for later this calendar year, it’ll be functional on hundreds of thousands of additional miles of roads in the U.S. and Canada – including a combination of undivided and divided highway infrastructure.




For those unfamiliar, Super Cruise can correctly be described as a hands-free driver assistance technology that permits attentive drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel to let the vehicle handle acceleration and lane changes. At present, it is found on snazzy variants of GM’s burly SUVs and half-ton trucks like the GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate. This expansion of Super Cruise will enable the feature to work on many additional state and federal routes, notably including sections of Route 66 and the Pacific Coast Highway.


It'll be interesting to see how the system deals with traffic on non-divided highways since that type of infrastructure is vastly more predictable since all vehicles in the vicinity are headed in the same direction. Or at least they’re supposed to, assuming all is well. That’s why the driver needs to pay attention and not climb into the backseat for a nap, right? An infrared camera atop the vehicle’s steering column keeps tabs on the driver’s eyes to make sure that doesn’t happen, by the way.


Your author wants to get something clear: GM’s Super Cruise is far better than Tesla’s so-called Full Self Driving (which is a horribly inaccurate name). This statement will surely rankle Teslarati lurking in the comment section but it’s absolutely true. In my experience, Super Cruise accurately reads lane markings, even ones I assumed would be too faint to be of any useful function. Vibrating the driver’s seat prior to an automatic lane change is a tremendous use of existing GM technologies, for example.


Juxtapose this to my experience of FSD’s tendency to blindly follow a highway lane’s righthand marking, a trait which caused my Turo-sourced tester – more than once – to try and zoom up an exit ramp instead of following the intended straight-ahead route. I will admit FSD’s Summon feature is a tremendous party trick. But on the interstate, Super Cruise is smoother, communicates better with the driver, and is more confidence-inspiring. Unless you’ve driven both systems – as I have, at length with hundreds of miles behind the wheel of each – don’t @ me, bro.


The expansion will be available later this year and delivered at no additional charge via over-the-air updates on Super Cruise-equipped models.


[Image: GM]


Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by   subscribing to our newsletter.

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

More by Matthew Guy

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 8 comments
  • Lou_BC Lou_BC on Aug 04, 2022

    I'll pass. They are unable to sell a vehicle with heated seats or a functional A/C. This is much more complex than that.

  • Hifi Hifi on Aug 08, 2022

    Currently, GM's SC is not good. It is unsophisticated and doesn't offer many of the capabilities that other systems offer. It doesn't work on most roads, and the addition of "hundreds of thousands of miles in the US and Canada" is a drop in the bucket. Whoever suggested that it's better than Tesla's constantly-evolving AP must have rocks in their heads.

  • Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
Next