The Detroit Free Press recently interviewed GM Chief of Maps Dave Craig about the Super Cruise hands-free highway driving system. One of the biggest things revealed in the interview is that the number of miles mapped by Super Cruise could exceed one million sooner rather than later.
Currently, GM officially says Super Cruise will expand to 750,000 miles of North American highways by the end of 2025. 2024 was a big year for the hands-free feature, with about 40,000 miles worth of mapped highways being added to the network every quarter.
Super Cruise gets its map data from Dynamic Map Platform based in Livonia, Michigan. Dynamic Map Platform has mapped more than 850,000 miles of roads and is shooting for 1.2 million miles by the end of 2025. It’s uncertain when all of that map data will be available to real-world Super Cruise users, but it’s a sign that the network will continue to grow quickly.
This partnership is the key to the huge advantage of GM’s of its much larger network than competing hands-free systems, namely Ford’s BlueCruise system. BlueCruise is constantly improving, but only operates on about 130,000 miles of North American highways.
The U.S. has a regulatory framework that’s favorable to hands-free driving systems and their availability for civilian use. “In the U.S., the only regulations around surveying or mapping are related to military installations,” Craig said. “Since Super Cruise doesn’t work on military grounds, this really isn’t an issue for us.”
Craig also gave an interesting description of how Super Cruise works, using the human body as an analogy. “The [Super Cruise-equipped] vehicle has sensors very similar to a human’s sensory systems that are connected to vehicle computer systems just like a human’s sensors are connected to the brain through the nervous system. The HD map represents what a human would have as memory,” Craig said. “The map is indicating what the road should look like, just a human’s memory would recall what the road looked like the last time they were on that road, but the map has stored things that perception cannot detect.”
According to GM, about 360,000 GM drivers are currently using Super Cruise, and the General intends to double that number to 720,000 drivers by the end of 2025. GM expects about 15 percent of all its vehicles in 2025 to be equipped with Super Cruise. The hands-free feature is now available across all four of GM’s North American retail brands and comes standard in some models like the 2025 Cadillac CT5, 2025 Cadillac Escalade, and GMC Hummer EV.
Comments
gm touts Super Cruise as a safety system, which I agree (I have ridden with numerous drivers I would love to replace with a computer). With less than 30% opting to pay for the subscription, and the number of vehicles with SC increasing rapidly, I would hope that gm leadership sees the available golden opportunity. gm should slash the monthly subscription cost, to drive the % of customers using SC significantly higher.
Years ago safety did not sell, but it sure does now. Building an advertising campaign around ‘SC vehicles are the safest on the road’ could be huge.
Isn’t it free for three years?
Super Cruise is a great system. More roads and cars on the road with it in place and collecting data should only improve the system’s accuracy. I’m looking forward to the continued expansion.
Super Cruise vehicles don’t collect mapping data. Only the Celestiq and maybe the Escalade IQ have Lidar built into them. Other Super Cruise cars use GPS, radar, and cameras to compare the data to the pre-mapped data. It’s one of the reasons the Celestiq technically could potentially be used on roads not pre-mapped and navigate to your home. It can use pre-mapped data when available, but use its own data when not.
you are assuming GM is using the data actively. Its most likely chaos behind the scenes.
they need to get a lane centering system into their lower priced vehicles. they have one of the best infotainment systems in the market but the worst lane assist and adaptive cruise. Bad enough that customers come in thinking there’s an issue with the alignment. if a base Toyota corolla can almost self drive, why can’t Chevy get this figured out.
Now if they could just expand its availability.
If GM wants to increase Super Cruise use and subscriptions, then why did they fail to pair Super Cruise and the diesel engine on 2025 Suburban/Tahoe? Why treat the Chevrolet buyers as if they don’t matter?