Super Cruise – The Better Driver Assistant

I will cover a somewhat controversial topic: GM’s Super Cruise and why I think it’s better than Tesla Autopilot. I believe Super Cruise is the best self-driving system available today in any car.

Those who don’t know Super Cruise is GM’s self-driving system. It is fantastic, and we recently drove the latest version of Super Cruise in the new Cadillac Escalade, and today, I’m going to explain how it works and what makes it so great.

Every new car brand has this. So you have Volvo Pilot Assist, Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive, Tesla Autopilot, and blah blah blah. Of course, they all have different names, but the basic idea is that the vehicle can drive itself based on specific criteria. These vehicles are equipped with various sensors and cameras that relay information to the car and tell it to speed up or slow down. The automation extends to the steering and braking functions as well.

Self-driving vehicles are getting common, especially in luxury cars. The second best system is Tesla Autopilot, but the best one is GM’s Super Cruise. Super Cruise will be in 22 different GM vehicles by 2023, and 10 vehicles by 2022. We have orders in for the Silverado 1500 High Country with Super Cruise. These vehicles are available to reserve now by clicking here. You can also get Super Cruise on your Silverado EV, and you can reserve yours here.

LET ME REPEAT. We have orders placed to build multiple Silverado 1500 High Country units with Super Cruise that have already been placed with GM. We anticipate ordering more, so if you want to get an order with the exact features and colors along with Super Cruise, contact us to start a sold order customized to your needs. Reach out to us to put an order in for exactly what you are looking for.

What is Super Cruise and What Does It Do?

GM came out with this truly fantastic high-tech self-driving system, and then they put it into lower sales volume vehicles like the Cadillac CT6 and the Chevrolet BOLT EUV. That is the main reason you haven’t heard much about Super Cruise. GM designed this fantastic technology and limited it to some less desirable vehicles. These vehicles were equipped with an older version of Super Cruise and did not have automatic lane change. This kind of limited rollout makes sense as a way to make sure Super Cruise is everything GM expected it to be. The newer version found in the Silverado 1500 High Country is the one we tested.

Super Cruise works in a very similar fashion to your standard cruise control. On the steering wheel, the cruise control buttons activate what at first looks like adaptive cruise control. Most luxury vehicles have a version of this, and it just means that your car will slow down if a vehicle is going slower than you are in your lane. Once the cruising speed is set and the car is ready, a gray steering wheel icon appears on the gauge cluster. That is when you know that Super Cruise is ready to be used. At this point, you don’t have to activate Super Cruise if you don’t want to and could continue to drive with standard adaptive cruise control.

There is a second button on the steering wheel to engage Super Cruise. This button has the same icon as the steering wheel icon on the dash. When you click it, your steering wheel will light up blue, letting you know that Super Cruise is activating. Once the blue light turns green, you know the vehicle is driving itself.

What happens next is pretty cool. As long as the green light stays illuminated, you can keep your hands off the wheel, and as long as you’re looking forward, the green light will remain illuminated indefinitely. There are a few exceptions that we will talk about. With over 200,000 miles of eligible roads, Super Cruise can drive for hours without needing any input from you. It will steer, brake, and accelerate all on its own. The only requirement is you remain facing forward. The newest version of Super Cruise can even change lanes.

When you’re ready to change lanes or come up to a slower car and need to pass it, press the turn signal, the vehicle will start searching for an opening. Once it finds one, it automatically moves over and changes lanes. You can then stay in the lane, or once you pass the slower vehicle, activate the turn signal again and go back to your original lane. The vehicle does all of this without you having to touch the steering wheel. The minimal input is a nice touch and helps keep me engaged with the road. Since Super Cruise can make drives from Birmingham to Nashville or Atlanta to Dallas, it seems like an important feature to remind people that they are still behind the wheel of a car going over 60 MPH.

There Are Two Limitations to Super Cruise

There are two crucial limitations. Number one, as I’ve mentioned, to use Super Cruise, you must be sitting in the driver’s seat and looking forward. You have to be watching the road. Super Cruise has this little camera mounted right in the middle of the steering wheel, and that camera watches your eyes. If your eyes aren’t looking at the road, Super Cruise knows that you aren’t paying attention and you’re not engaging with what’s happening in front of you, and you’re a risk behind the wheel. So the green steering wheel light will begin flashing to remind you to focus on the road. It is worth noting that you can look away from the road for a few seconds without Super Cruise getting upset with you. While I don’t recommend using those few seconds to text, the system was designed so you can change the radio station or climate settings without constantly being alerted to look at the road.

After like eight to ten seconds, that’s when it starts to flash the green light and Super Cruise begins the process of assuming you are no longer paying attention. Then, the nice green light will become an angry red flashing light, and Super Cruise will start to deactivate. The deactivation process begins by vibrating the seat, and it will start to slow the vehicle down. There will be an alert on the gauge cluster telling you to take control of the vehicle, as well as an audio alert. At this point, you will be forced to drive the vehicle yourself, and you will have to go through the activation process again if you want Super Cruise to continue driving you.

The second limitation is Super Cruise will only activate on mapped roads. Those familiar with Tesla’s Autopilot might scoff at the idea it will only work on specific routes, but GM has mapped almost every interstate in the USA. Here is a picture of the most up-to-date map.

This limitation means Super Cruise is best used during a long road trip. However, GM is constantly adding highways, and they are currently making an effort to include major local roadways to the list. So while this version of Super Cruise can’t get you from your driveway to your local store without any input, it does make tedious long distant driving much more enjoyable.

Yes, Tesla owners, I know that is a significant limitation but be honest. Are you using Tesla’s Autopilot on small in city roads? Do you trust that much? I think Tesla’s Autopilot does a good job on the highway, but it is slow and scary to drive around town. So I don’t feel like this limitation is a fundamental limitation. I love future technology, but I am not comfortable letting Autopilot drive a vehicle around an urban area.

Why Super Cruise Is The Better Driver Assistant

I feel like Super Cruise beats out Tesla because you are totally hands-off. The camera system that watches your eyes means you don’t have to constantly tap the steering wheel to let it know you are paying attention. That is the method used by Tesla, and it gets frustrating on longer drives to have one hand loosely on the steering wheel, or if you do take your hands off the steering wheel, the alerts you get to tap the wheel. GM’s system, by comparison, doesn’t have constant alerts because it knows if you are paying attention from your eyes alone. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but you need to try them both. Trust me, that slight distinction was enough for me to give GM’s Super Cruise the nod.

If I were comfortable trusting Autopilot on street roads, I would say Tesla is better, but I simply do not. Instead, I want a system that requires very little input on my part and only for straightforward drives. That means the mapped road system GM uses suits me perfectly. I love it going through Atlanta. It handles traffic perfectly and makes it so I don’t have to manage the break and gas, and the vehicle gets me where I am going.

Super Cruise will require your vehicle to be connected. This means some sort of data program through OnStar. You will receive a 3 year trial period when you buy your Silverado, and after the trial ends, it will be $25 per month for Super Cruise.

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