Hands-Free Super Cruise More of the USA Thanks to GM's Expansion of Mapped Roads

While its use has been limited to "only" U.S. interstates, GM's Super Cruise hands-free semi-autonomous driving system has given owners of vehicles such as the Chevrolet Bolt and Bolt EUV, Cadillac XT6, and others so equipped plenty of truly hands-free (but attention-required) driving opportunities since landing last year. With the introduction of the Vehicle Intelligence Platform (VIP) on newly released GM vehicles, Super Cruise's capabilities expanded, allowing hands-free trailer towing and driving on up to 200,000 miles of pre-mapped U.S. and Canadian Interstates. Now, GM is expanding the capabilities of Super Cruise even further by adding state and federal highways to its growing cache of pre-mapped routes

This news means now more places in America and Canada can be driven in Super-Cruise-equipped vehicles without your hands needing to be on the wheel. It's also not a "Beta" system that's being tested on the public—yes, that's a dig at Tesla's "Full Self Driving" functionality that the automaker is testing in real time on its customers—with GM having tested the system itself for "hundreds of thousands of miles."

That last point is key, because right now, only Tesla, GM, and Ford (with its Blue Cruise setup) offer truly hands-free driving modes. While Tesla has allowed its Full-Self Driving (FSD) system to be utilized by certain owners in public—and to the ire of bicyclists, jet owners, and NHTSA—it technically enables drivers to ride hands free in nearly all environments. GM, on the other hand, has taken a more steady, cautious approach of testing, testing, and more testing before releasing Super Cruise and its updates to the public at large piecemeal. That's why the driver assist was limited to interstates for so long and why Ultra Cruise (a true, fully self-driving system from GM) has yet to be released.

The Mother Roads of America

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This latest expansion opens up the use of Super Cruise to more states, especially west of the Mississippi River. From 200,000 miles of interstates, Super Cruise's capabilities will expand to around 400,000 miles of roads total when it's updated in Q4 of 2022. Even better, the routes included in this update will include some of the greatest driving roads America has to offer, such as Route 66, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), U.S. Route 1, and the Trans-Canada Highway. Yes, there will also be an expansion of Super Cruise routes in Canada, it's not just the USA.

New Roads Means A New Challenge: The Intersection

Of course, these state and federal routes and highways come with new challenges for GM and its Super Cruise system. Many of those new roads include intersections and stop lights. Will Super Cruise be able to travel on those roads? Yes, but with a catch: the drivers will have to retake control the vehicle within a certain distance of those intersections, depending on which electrical architecture it's on. On older electronics platforms like the Cadillac XT6, CT6, and the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, these vehicles will return control to the driver about 1,640 feet (500 meters) out from the traffic light or intersection. For the newer VIP architecture (GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Escalade, CT4, CT5, and Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra), that hand-off distance is reduced to around 984 feet (300 meters). Yes, you can also drive hands-free on these new roads while towing on vehicles with Super Cruise Towing. Other models that are being built on VIP and will have Super Cruise (including towing capabilities) soon are the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, GMC Yukon, and the Cadillac Lyriq.

More Map, but No Extra Cost

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That electrical architecture will also determine when you get an update. For new vehicles equipped with Super Cruise and the VIP, they will have these new routes installed straight from the factory. For vehicles released earlier and on VIP, they will begin getting their new maps via over-the-air (OTA) update in Q4. Around that same time and into the beginning of 2023, those older electronic architectures will get their OTA update to expand their Super Cruise driving capabilities. The good news is that this update does not increase the cost of GM's hands-free driving subscription nor do you have to pay to update to this new map, it comes to you for free and is available for all Super Cruise equipped vehicles.

GM Throws A Bit of Shade On Tesla and FSD Beta Public Testing

As mentioned earlier, unlike Tesla, GM is taking the approach of fully testing a hand-free and self-driving vehicle before releasing it to the public. With Super Cruise, GM is working toward eventually releasing Ultra Cruise (GM's version of full self-driving), but moving more cautiously than Tesla. During the virtual press conference on the updates to Super Cruise, Mario Maiorana, GM's chief engineer of Super Cruise, said, "Yeah, I mean, I think I can speak intelligently to our approach, obviously I don't know much about the back room discussions of Tesla and their decision making, but I think it's really called out for it. And what we talked about with respect to our approach going forward of safety and calling it the safe deployment of hands-free driving."

Rather than just releasing something, even limitedly, into the public's hands via unpaid, untrained "Beta" testers, GM's approach is to not only work directly with the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) but to also not release something until engineers know it's going to do what it's intended to. "That's the key thing for us," Maiorana continued, "We're not going to put it out until we thoroughly test it. We know our sensing is fully capable of what we're asking it to do and that includes the map that was just mentioned (earlier in the conference), as well as the driver attention system is very key."

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That driver attention system is something GM is very proud of. Tesla's recent incidents of cars crashing into emergency vehicles while running Autopilot (with drivers not intervening a collision is imminent, if at all), offer just one example of the difference in car-to-driver communication at play here.

Per GM, "We believe that is the linchpin of safety for our system in that we're ensuring the driver is always attentive and aware, because there are situations that can be thrown at you at any point in time and you need to have the driver attentive and ready to take control if need be." If you're unfamiliar with it, GM has a three-stage driver attention system when Super Cruise is enabled. First, if the driver isn't paying attention to the road enough, LEDs in the steering wheel flash green to warn the driver to return their eyes to the road. Next, those LEDs blare red and haptic feedback kicks in with vibrations in the seat, and trust us, that gets your attention. The final state begins to slow the vehicle down and activate the hazards before bringing the car to a complete stop. While it may be in the lane, it is gradual and drivers behind the vehicle will be able to drive around. It will also initiate a call with OnStar to see if the driver is in trouble and needs emergency assistance. With Tesla's Autopilot and FSD, there is no driver attentiveness monitor outside of the car occasionally asking for the driver to touch the steering wheel, a system that's proven easy to fool, as evidenced by some Tesla drivers even leaving the driver seat entirely and the system continuing to operate in their absence.

"Us using our maps, relying on our sensors, and expanding at this, I'll call it, careful but steady rate," said Maiorana as he closed his thoughts on GM Super Cruise versus Tesla FSD and Autopilot, "but we make sure that the maps and the sensors are capable of what we're asking. We have tested exhaustively over hundreds of thousands of miles to make sure that we're ready to put it out to the public and that's our strategy. And that's how we believe we should be doing the safe deployment of hands-free driving."

400,000 Miles of Hands-Free Roads Without Worry and Hassle

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If you're ready to cruise down Route 66, the PCH, or just more roads in Canada and the western half of America, GM's new maps for Super Cruise will get you more places with hands-free driving. Before you poke fun at the utility of a hands-free driving system that nevertheless requires you to pay attention to the road, we've found that Super Cruise puts you in a more relaxed state of mind throughout the long, dull parts of road trips, helping you arrive at your destination a little more refreshed than you otherwise might. Being able to enjoy that feeling at more destinations sounds like a good upgrade to us.