We reported last month that, according to GM, about 20 percent of people who own a GM model with Super Cruise pay to keep it after the three-year trial expires. That’s been described by S&P Global Mobility director of connected car and vehicle experience Brian Rhodes as “a good number” for a take rate on a digital service. Now, Automotive News reports just how strong of a revenue stream Super Cruise subscriptions could be for GM.
When GM CEO Mary Barra gave us that 20-percent number in the Q4 2024 earnings call last month, she did not disclose how much revenue has been generated so far by Super Cruise subscriptions. However, she did say that GM is targeting nearly $2 billion in revenue with subscriptions to the hands-free system within five years.
“2025 will also be a year of rapid growth for Super Cruise across all of our brands,” she said. “Our customer-focused strategy with Super Cruise is to continuously refine and expand its capabilities to make it indispensable. This is how we are setting the stage for recurring high-margin revenue streams from subscriptions.”
Super Cruise as a potential revenue stream is one reason it’s becoming more widely available. Originally exclusive to Cadillac, Super Cruise is now available from all four of GM’s retail brands in North America. Also, with the 2025 refresh of the CT5 and Escalade, it’s becoming more common as a standard feature in Cadillac models.
“You have to try to monetize it now when you can,” Morningstar autos analyst David Whiston said, citing that hands-free tech could one day be so common that it’s expected as a free feature that comes with the car.
Looking ahead, GM will greatly expand the availability of the semi-autonomous system across its portfolio, with 24 models expected to equip the feature by the end of 2025. Roughly 360,000 Super Cruise-enabled vehicles are on the road today, and that figure is expected to double in the coming year.
The General Motors Super Cruise system is considered to be Level 2 autonomous technology, which means that it provides driver assistance rather than full automation. The system incorporates visual cameras, LiDar mapping, GPS, and radar sensors to autonomously steer and brake the vehicle while traveling on the highway, including features like full-speed range adaptive cruise control and lane centering.
Comments
So, 80% don’t care for it.
Basically. I have radar cruise control in my Cadillac and it never gets used. I also have basic cruise control in my 2016 Rav4 and must have used it only twice in the cars 9 years I owned it. GM can keep its Super Cruise. I enjoy the floaty cruising my Caddy does and prefer to experience it without machine intervention.
Your take is not entirely correct. 80% don’t subscribe after the trial period ends, which is 3yrs. The cars that can be optioned with SuperCruise are ones that are typically leased, so many are turned in on or around the time they would need to subscribe to continue using the feature.
I hope they don’t. Subscription services in cars need to die.
This is just a bad take. Tech like SuperCruise requires ongoing maintenance/improvement. I’d rather pay them $500/year on my $100k truck to incentivize such support (e.g. they recently expanded from 350k to 750k miles of roads in North America), then let my vehicle software become outdated over 8 years I might hold that truck, the way software in all my previous cars did.
Where will it end? XM radio, On -Star, Google Built-in, and Super Cruise. You pay
$60,000 for a vehicle that includes bells and whistles, you shouldn’t have to pay an ongoing subscription fee to use the bells and whistles.
If the customer doesn’t like to drive, then why not just take a taxi, shuttle, Uber, or Lyft?
The cost of a loans keep going up (some are $1000 or so a month), and subscription fees for self driving cars are getting tacked on. At some point taking a taxi, shuttle, Uber, or Lyft makes financial sense.
Arguably for a single-earner urban household like mine Uber (instead of a second car) already makes a lot of financial sense.
But you don’t need to not like to drive to use SuperCruise. I go skiing (4h one way) every 2 weeks and SuperCruise is able to cover 90% of that route. Just supervising the drive, choosing the lane to drive and operating music makes it so much more fun and relaxing then holding the wheel for 4 hours just to keep the truck in the lane.
I have super cruise and like it. It is a much safer operator than I am. It makes long trips a lot easier to drive. I am getting it for free and think that the rate they are quoting now is reasonable. I probably wouldn’t pay muskie rates.
+1, I love mine and will def extend.
So what will NET profit be after subtracting Liability Awards for collisions or dragging pedestrians under the front bumper ?
0? No accidents yet due to Super Cruise.
https://gmauthority.com/blog/2024/02/gm-super-cruise-users-traveled-160-million-miles-so-far/
Yep, that’s been my question since these poor-performing, self-driving, robot cars were first attempted. Who is going to be “at fault” in a collision and how are the Courts going to decide it, since technically, you were not the driver at the time ? Super Cruise is a form of a robot and does it limit your speed ( that hardly anyone obeys, conditions permitting) to the posted limit on rural Interstates and highways? Great question that none of these articles ever addresses.
I think younger users will be willing to pay for a recurring subscription than older users – younger users are more accustomed to subscriptions for music and data. Older drivers pay subscriptions, but NOT for cars. If GM had me pay $1K for Super Cruise and lifetime updates, I pay it. But I think they’ll charge increasing amounts each year, and I’m just not going there. I have a Lyriq, and Super Cruise, and I use it (it’s ok, not great), but I’ll be joining the 80% who don’t renew.
I don’t see how GM can say 20% renewal is a good figure. And, in time, as more cars by more makers get some level of driving assistance, then GM will have to re-look the fees if other companies don’t charge. And at least some won’t. And I’ll buy those cars….
Subscriptions for car features is a rip-off. GM is just greedy (what a surprise!) and their attempt to sell subscriptions will just turn a lot (80%!) of customers against the brand.
GM forced a three year upfront charge for Onstar I assume because not enough people were willing to pay the subscription price for it after their free 3 month trial ended. I’m in my 70’s and retired and don’t want to to pay for any subscription services.
Same here, and I am looking forward to joining this class action that is suing GM for OnStar selling your driving habits to the Insurance Agencies, without your permission or knowledge, even though the OnStar Spy system was not subscribed to and you assumed it was turned off. People seem to just love being constantly monitored and spied on as to their whereabouts and anything else the data miners can dig up on you.
billj598, Baby boomers don’t like being monitored or spied on. They have always figured that companies and big brother-government should respect that.
Some of the younger generations have no expectation of privacy, and they are fine with it.
They go on social media sites and tell the world everything about themselves.
I myself find that strange.
I think its more about whether or not your driving area has the compatible roads. If you can only use it on one road in your area and would only benefit on a once a year family trip then why bother.
Save a buck and take your hands off your juicy box or tool and drive the vehicle.
budlar, Sitting in a vehicle with your hands off the wheel, not paying attention and daydreaming, is a disaster waiting to happen. If you have to make a split second decision and you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on around you it is likely not going to end well for you.
There was a video a while back where a person was driving a jeep, I think it was, and wasn’t paying attention to what was in front of him and around him. He swerved last second to miss a large piece of plastic in the road and stuffed his vehicle under a tractor trailer to the right of him.
I am not alluding this was caused by some driver assisted device. I am saying that this person wasn’t watching the road, and paying attention to what was in front of him, and happening around him. These driver assisting devices promote that type of behavior.
I can’t understand why people today are so willing to have devices do their thinking for them. This is all leading to self-driving cars which I believe is a bad idea.
If you do not want to drive take another mode of transportation, instead of possibly endangering other drivers on the road.
Do we really have to take our hands off the steering wheel. Not interested.
I’m against subscription pricing for any options in a vehicle. You choose a car or truck based on options, etc. at the time of purchase.
Bad enough they rat you out to insurance companies through on star. No subscriptions for me ! Not even radio