When on an approved road (GM now says there are more than 450,000 miles of mapped and approved Super Cruise roads throughout the U.S. and Canada with more being added constantly) the system uses a suite of cameras, sensors, GPS, and high-definition maps to take over full control of the throttle, brakes, and steering to allow for truly hands-free driving. In 2022 Super Cruise became the first—and still only—hands-free driving system capable of towing a trailer. Here's how that works.

002 2024 Chevy Hands Free Towing Interior

How Does the System Tow a Trailer?

Super Cruise can detect a trailer has been attached through either the electrical connection for the trailer brakes and lights or by sensing the trailer's presence via the short-range radar units it uses to monitor the truck's rear rearward blind spots. The vehicle then computes a rough guess at the gross combined weight (total weight of the vehicle, payload, and trailer combined) by comparing accelerator input to vehicle acceleration. This information is used to adjust the gap needed for safe braking distance when traffic is detected in front of the vehicle.

The Hands-Free Towing Experience

Wanting us to experience hands-free towing for ourselves, Chevy hitched a 24-foot enclosed utility trailer up to its 2024 Silverado High Country and invited us to give it a go. This wasn't our first time towing with Super Cruise (GMC has demonstrated the feature twice previously), but we weren't about to turn down the opportunity for more extended seat time with the feature.

Using Super Cruise with a trailer is no different than using it without one. While on an approved highway and with the adaptive cruise system enabled, a steering wheel icon will appear on the instrument panel when Super Cruise is available. Pressing the steering wheel-mounted button (with the image of a steering wheel on it) activates Super Cruise. When the indicator lights illuminate green, your hands can be removed from the steering wheel until the system requires driver intervention or the Super Cruise-capable road ends.

Super Cruise works exactly as advertised, even with a trailer in tow. Acceleration and braking events are smooth, and the additional distance the system leaves between the truck and traffic in front is enough to instill confidence that the truck and trailer would be able to adequately slow should things come to an unexpected halt. Traveling in the right-most lane brings an interesting challenge, with the system going into its "blue state" where the driver needed to retake control of steering when approaching merges from on-ramps or freeway transitions. Moving one lane over to the left alleviates this annoyance.

Without a trailer, Super Cruise tends to often bias the vehicle toward the inside of a curve, mimicking normal driver behavior. However, while towing, Super Cruise keeps the vehicle and trailer more centered in the lane. Because Super Cruise only functions on roads that have been mapped with high-definition lidar, the precise curvature of the road is known to the system, and that information is used to properly slow the vehicle before negotiating said turn. What it doesn't do, however, is adjust for traffic beside the vehicle. One of the only unsettling encounters using Super Cruise while towing is semi-truck creep. It's not unusual when towing to need adjust slightly in the lane to account for larger box trucks, buses, and semis traveling in adjacent lanes. At times, Super Cruise hesitates when these vehicles move alongside and, occasionally, into our truck's lane, leaving us with the choice of retaking full control or hoping the lane creeper moves back into its own lane.

One Super Cruise feature that isn't available while towing is the automated lane change function. Unladen, the current generation of Super Cruise is equipped with the ability to make lane changes and pass slower vehicles on its own or with a simple tap of the indicator stalk. With a trailer attached, the system's rear-facing radar is blocked, which leaves the system "blind" to faster-moving vehicles in other lanes, necessitating manual lane changes. Changing lanes with Super Cruise enabled is an easy task, though. As soon as the lane change indicator is activated the system readiness lights on the steering wheel will change from green to blue and the driver can move lanes. When the directional indicators are deactivated, Super Cruise will take over steering as soon as it is able.