GM’s Super Cruise will cover 400,000 miles of roads in North America, doubling coverage

Super Cruise will soon be available on a lot more roads in the US and Canada. The ADAS system will be able to operate on 400,000 miles of roads later this year, which will double the coverage of Super Cruise in the US and Canada.

At a time when US regulators are scrutinizing driver assist features more closely and safety advocates are calling for more transparency, it represents a major expansion of Super Cruise.

Super Cruise uses information from cameras and radar sensors embedded on the car to allow for hands-free driving and, in some cases, automatic lane changes. In case Super Cruise needs to hand back control to the driver, it pairs this capability with a driver monitoring system that uses a camera to make sure the driver pays attention to the road.

Super Cruise, which can be activated on almost any highway or road as long as the system spots visible lane markers, is only available on highways that GM has approved for use. Up until now, only 200,000 miles of limited access highways had concrete barriers.

Super Cruise will be available on non-divided state and federal highways, which are sometimes called routes, starting later this year. The US Route 66, which runs from Chicago to Los Angeles, the Pacific Coast Highway, the Overseas Highway, and the Trans-Canada Highway are included.

"Super Cruise is helping redefine vehicle ownership and it's part of our wider path to autonomy at General GM," said Mario Maiorana, Super Cruise chief engineer.

The expansion will be delivered via an over-the-air software update and there will be no additional charge for it. Vehicles not built on the electrical architecture will have to wait a bit longer. Super Cruise will be in 22 models by the end of the year.

Ultra Cruise, which GM says will cover 95 percent of driving tasks, will make its debut in a few premium vehicles starting in 2023. Ultra Cruise will be reserved for the automaker's luxury models while Super Cruise will be available in more mainstream vehicles.

There are a lot of driving tasks that Super Cruise won't be able to do. The system does not allow drivers to input a destination in a way that allows the car to make all the necessary turns and lane changes.

Super Cruise can't handle traffic signals and stop signs, meaning that if an intersection is 350 meters away, the system will alert the driver so they can take control of the vehicle. Automatic lane changes won't be allowed by Super Cruise. It won't cross broken yellow or solid yellow lane markings

It will be able to drive on a section of road that is more complex. Some sections of the Pacific Coast Highway are very curvy with only a small amount of space between opposing lanes of traffic. The system will be able to deal with every twist and turn thanks to the high-definition maps it uses.

David Craig is the chief of maps at GM. We are in control of the speed longitudinally because we know the curve of the road coming up.

Super Cruise is a Level 2 system based on the six tiers of vehicle autonomy. The human driver needs to be ready to take control of the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires automakers to give data on crashes that occur with Level 2 systems.

The Super Cruise options for the Chevy Bolt EUV are around $2,200. GM isn't planning on raising its prices for the system, but the automaker has expressed a desire to sell more features as monthly subscriptions

A variety of models at all price points offer features like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, and lane centering. Super Cruise is more advanced and allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel. Researchers are studying what happens to a driver's attention when they are not in total control of the vehicle's operations.

Maiorana said that the driver monitoring system was the linchpin of Super Cruise's approach to safety, but that it was mostly a convenience feature.

He said that the benefit you get is the Super Cruise system handles the mundane portion of driving. I feel much more relaxed when I drive Super Cruise because I am not a neuroscientist and I am attentive.