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As Tesla's Autopilot Melts Down, GM's Cautious Super Cruise Looks to Win Out

In the face of Tesla's reckless, misleading Autopilot, GM's Super Cruise emerged as the more cautious, watchful system. Here's how it got there.

I just logged hundreds of mellow miles in a GMC Sierra Denali equipped with Super Cruise, convinced more than ever that GM’s hands-free driving tech is unsurpassed. How the worm has turned: While I was capital-C Cruising in New England, watching the Sierra pull off fully automated passes and lane changes with panache, Tesla was being spanked and sued by a California regulator for years of bad faith and broken promises over its Autopilot. The Cliff Notes version: Teslas still can’t drive themselves without human oversight. And I agree with experts who believe they never will (in current form), and certainly not safely, because of fundamental flaws in Autopilot’s design and philosophy.

Those flaws, and GM’s divergent approach — call it humanism versus hubris — trace to the origins of both systems. Beginning in 2014, Elon Musk defied a near-consensus among technologists in autonomy. Musk insisted cameras alone could create a fully self-driving car, thanks to near-magical software and reams of shared data from owners. Along with scoffing at redundant sensors, Musk rejected the need for a driver-monitoring system, despite growing evidence that keeping humans in the loop would be essential for safety. Keen for first-mover advantage, Musk pushed employees to make his vision a reality, despite deep misgivings from engineers who saw the literal blind spots. In October 2015, Tesla began equipping the Model S with Autopilot hardware. The next October, software was switched on to enable automated cruising, braking and lane keeping.

We know what happened next. The world was dazzled, if not bamboozled, by Musk’s increasingly bold promises of “full self-driving.” Shortly after its debut, Musk told reporters that Autopilot is “probably better” than a human driver. Within two years, he promised, owners would summon Teslas from across the country. Robotaxi Teslas would earn owners money as they slept. A credulous, slavering media seized on Autopilot as further evidence of Tesla’s insurmountable tech lead. Like the mythical flying car, we’d all soon be driving autonomous cars, and riding in sci-fi taxis with no garrulous dude up front. Roadway deaths and injuries would plummet. Seniors and the disabled would gain miraculous freedom. Parents would rest easy as their offspring attended proms and parties.

I’ll argue the root of that disillusionment traces directly to Tesla and Musk, who continues to overpromise and underdeliver on self-driving while letting his beta-testing customers sort out any mess — for a price of course. Surveys suggest the public mood has begun to sour over driverless cars: Pew Research found 44 percent of adults now view widespread use of autonomous cars as a bad idea for society, versus 26 percent who find it a good idea. (Men remain far more likely to want to ride in a robo-car than women, at 46 percent versus 27 percent).

GM, along with other legacy automakers, knows it can’t get away with Silicon Valley’s “breaking things” ethos, not without shedding billions of dollars in lawsuits or having cars recalled en masse. Fortunately, its driver-assistance tech — with zero claims to “autonomy” or “self-driving” — works as advertised.

That may be the best thing about Super Cruise, and a potentially revolutionary offshoot coming next year: They can make us remember when self-driving cars seemed like a great idea.

GM began working on the problem in suburban Detroit in 2013. Popular Mechanics honored the announced “Super Cruise” that fall. But in a familiar, sometimes frustrating pattern, it took GM four years to bring the tech to showrooms in the Cadillac CT6. GM had introduced plenty of innovative tech, often with great fanfare, yet its record of popularizing it had been dismal: The EV1, hydrogen fuel cells, Quadrasteer, Chevy Volt. Tesla’s vaunted Autopilot had beaten GM to market. Would Super Cruise be next in GM’s line of fizzles or failures? The pressure was on. Yet the tech’s creators, including then-Chief Engineer Jason Ditman and Mario Maiorana, stuck to first principles.

“The number-one thing was doing it responsibly, providing value to customers, but not at the expense of safety,” says Maiorana, now Super Cruise chief. One non-negotiable was an infrared camera to monitor facial position and eyes, ensuring a driver watches the road and can quickly retake control.

“We knew we wanted to be hands free, but we knew we wanted that driver-attention camera. It was always front-and-center of our focus,” Maiorana says.

In hindsight, it seems obvious, that these new systems — faith-based and fallible — still require humans to be active wingmen, without lulling them into distraction or overconfidence. Onboard Lidar maps provide another layer of vision and safety redundancy, geofenced to ensure Super Cruise only operates (for now) on divided Interstates with those minutely detailed scenes. The system’s light bar on the upper steering wheel rim was another illuminated stroke of genius, as I was reminded on my Sierra test: Flashing green, blue or red in various situations, the light bar greatly improves on the dinky-or-confusing IP telltales in some competing systems.

“It’s such a great indicator, properly placed to give a driver no confusion over who’s in control,” Maiorana says.

So what took so long? Maiorana said GM faced daunting challenges in fusing multiple sensors from varied suppliers with high-definition onboard Lidar mapping and software, all to get dead-accurate images.

The first, notorious fatal Autopilot crash in 2016 — in which a Tesla failed to spot the broad side of a blueberry-hauling semi — changed the equation again. Consumer Reports urged Tesla to disable Autopilot. GM took more heat when CEO Mary Barra announced the company would “step back” and delay Super Cruise’s planned debut on the Cadillac CT6 to 2017. Pressed for answers, Mark Reuss, GM’s global product chief, said, “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”

Ditman recalls the intense scrutiny: “It all came back to, ‘ Was the system ready to deploy to customers in a way that inspired confidence to let go of that steering wheel? That can be a difficult thing to do.”

Here in 2022, GM’s caution has been vindicated, though the company has remained stingy in offering Super Cruise throughout its lineup. (I’d argue that, as a technological calling card and goodwill-generator, Super Cruise is potentially more valuable than a six-figure, low-volume Hummer EV).

General Motors customers have logged more than 34 million miles with Super Cruise. From my initial test in a CT6 in 2017, I can attest to that uncanny-valley aspect of trusting a robotic car. But a system that’s transparent and trustworthy imbues confidence. The latest iteration solves a major frustration with transparency, when Super Cruise would often disengage with no clue as to “why.” When the system does shut down in the Sierra Denali, the instrument cluster flashes reassuring messages: “Roadway Not Mapped,” or informing me I can’t drive hands-free in an exit lane. Ultra-accurate lane centering lets me sit back with hands crossed behind my head — I love seeing the look on other driver’s faces — while the Sierra threads the needle between semis at 75 mph.

That unerring path control is a clear differentiator versus some competing systems, including Ford’s Blue Cruise that I sampled in Texas on the F-150 Lightning. The otherwise-brilliant electric pickup often struggled to stay centered in its lane, and the system disengaged constantly, to the point that I lost faith in operating hands-free. For good reason, it turns out: Crossing an overpass on a busy San Antonio freeway, the Lightning lost its way entirely. The pickup crossed a lane marker and threatened to bash a concrete median, forcing me to yank the Ford back on path.

Fully automated lane changes are another new Super Cruise trick. (Drivers can still choose to use a manual turn signal to initiate a lane swap). Encountering a fast-lane dawdler in Connecticut, the Sierra checks over its brawny shoulder to make sure the lane is clear, flicks the turn signal, and executes a lane change smooth enough to satisfy a persnickety Driver’s Ed instructor. The truck sometimes slides back into its original lane, or sticks with a lane for a clearer path through traffic. It’s impressive stuff, not least in a loaded, three-ton pickup truck with restricted rearward vision.

GM just announced that later this year, Super Cruise will more than double its geofenced domain, to operate on more than 400,000 miles of North American roads. That includes two-way roads for the first time, encompassing some of America’s most epic byways, from the Pacific Coast Highway and U.S. Route 66 to the Trans-Canada Highway. The idea of doing “look Ma, no-hands!” through Big Sur on the PCH, the Pacific Ocean a semi-autonomous plunge away, raises similar concerns that Tesla has faced with its expanded Autopilot. Engineers insist the system will handle it.

“We make sure the maps and sensors are capable of what we’re asking,” Maiorana says.

The more-sophisticated system will recognize intersections and road crossings, yet keep those crossings entirely in human hands: It will alert drivers and disengage at least 350 meters before an intersection. To avoid annoying disengagements, engineers envision Super Cruise handling long stretches of two-laners, shutting down in towns with closely-strung stoplights, then allowing re-engagement beyond city limits.

The potential game-changer is called Ultra Cruise. A bit ironically, this all-new system promises much of what Tesla has failed (so far) to deliver: Hands-free driving on every mile of paved road in North America, from 42nd Street in Manhattan to a snowbound town in Alaska. GM says the system will autonomously follow navigation routes, react to stoplights and other traffic-control devices, make 90-degree turns, support close-object avoidance and even park in residential driveways — ideally without squashing your kid’s bicycle. Diagnostic and learning systems can identify tricky driving scenarios and trigger data recordings that can GM can process to continuously improve performance.

GM says Ultra Cruise will ultimately work in 95 percent of operating scenarios. (Still waiting for the autonomous car that can handle Times Square on New Year’s Eve). GM plans to launch Ultra Cruise next year, and limit it to “premium entries” for now. The system will kick off with 2 million miles of roadways, and eventually 3.2 million miles in the U.S. and Canada.

Where Super Cruise’s vision relies on the aforementioned Lidar map scans, Ultra Cruise will use new types of multi-modal data — details to come — to create an in-house map of some of the most obscure roads and outposts in North America.

“It’s not practical to drive a (survey) vehicle with a Lidar sled on it over every possible mile of roadway; that would take forever to do,” Ditman says. Fusing all those new sensors “will let us paint a richer picture of the scene and do all the maneuvers.”

Engineers aren’t ready to divulge the full suite of Ultra Cruise sensors, but a Lidar laser scanner is among them. The system definitely requires the newfound computing might of GM’s Vehicle Intelligence Platform and Ultifi — the slick software platform that debuts next year — to work its magic. Ditman notes that early Ultra Cruise prototypes were all Escalades, because “the compute box took up the entire cargo hatch behind the second row,” and required liquid cooling and a second alternator.

Now, “it’s the size of maybe three stacked laptops for production, and air cooled.”

The system will remain geofenced, and the company can turn off sections of road if there are any concerns.

“If you think it’s hard to get someone to let go of the steering wheel on highways,” Ditman says, imagine city streets clogged with pedestrians, or a rainy country road at night.

Refreshingly, in the wake of Musk’s more-Barnumesque claims, GM underscores that even cars equipped with Ultra Cruise won’t be “autonomous” by any stretch.

This is simply a more advanced form of driver assistance, one that still requires a sentient human at all times. For full-on autonomy, GM is still counting on its Cruise division, despite $5 billion in losses since 2018 as it tries to ramp up a robotaxi business in San Francisco.

Skeptics, including some driving enthusiasts, suggest tech like SuperCruise is the answer to a question no one was asking. Asked the ultimate point — especially since drivers must keep watching the road — Maiorana says Super Cruise frees drivers from the most mundane parts of the task. Among extensive feedback from owners, he says, many insist they’d never buy another GM car without it.

“Owners feel more refreshed, they feel more relaxed, yet they are still attentive,” he says.

After letting Super Cruise do the driving for about two hours of a boring run on I-95, I concur. These systems aren’t buzzkills, nannies or evil robots, determined to replace us.

They’re a useful tool, easing the burden anywhere that driving isn’t fun or rewarding. As well know too well, that describes too many of our modern hours behind the wheel.

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We tow hands-free with GM's next-gen Super Cruise

We test the next-generation, hands-off driver aid on a 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali while towing a big trailer.

GM's Super Cruise is arguably one of the most significant automotive innovations to come out in the last two decades. This hands-off driving aid is right up there with features like backup cameras and automatic emergency braking. Further improving Super Cruise, engineers have developed an enhanced version that's easier to use and offers additional features. We got to experience this updated system firsthand at the automaker's proving ground in Milford, Michigan, and it is seriously impressive.

Super Cruise: The basics

If you're not familiar, Super Cruise automatically controls vehicle speed and steering, allowing you to zip along with your hands off the wheel -- though there are a few caveats. Super Cruise is geofenced, meaning it can only be engaged on certain roads, specifically limited-access divided highways, of which about 200,000 miles' worth have been mapped in the United States and Canada. Beyond that, you also have to pay attention. A driver-facing camera ensures you're always situationally aware and ready to intervene at a moment's notice if the system needs a hand, not watching TikTok videos on your phone or taking a nap in the back seat.

Super Cruise launched about five years ago on the Cadillac CT6 sedan and since day one the system has worked phenomenally well . It's smooth, almost immediately confidence-inspiring and intuitive. Building on this foundation, the next-generation version can be engaged while towing and it's smart enough to change lanes automatically.

Super Cruise... GM is making a great feature even better.

Super towing

Making long drives with a trailer much easier, you'll soon be able to tow with Super Cruise, something I experienced in a heavily camouflaged 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali , a refreshed version of the GMC brand's full-size truck.

Anywhere normal Super Cruise works you'll also be able to tow with it. Typically, this would not include a GM proving ground, though the Milford facility track has been mapped so the system can operate there. Once you're on an appropriate roadway the system recognizes, you just hit the button and wait for the steering wheel lights to go green. When they do, this indicates you're super cruising and can take your hands off the wheel and relax… just not too much, because you have to remain alert and ready to take over.

I only experienced it for a few minutes, but towing with Super Cruise was a seamless experience. The system works just as well while dragging a huge box trailer as it does in a Cadillac CT6. The system is responsive and builds driver confidence in seconds.

Aside from being a godsend to drivers that regularly haul trailers, the ability to tow with Super Cruise should give GM a leg up on rivals that are developing similar hands-off driving aids. For instance, you won't be able to do the same thing with Ford BlueCruise , at least when it first comes out.

Automatic lane change

Another clever Super Cruise feature is the ability to change lanes automatically. If you have the system set at, say, 70 mph and you close in on another vehicle that's only doing 60, the vehicle recognizes this, changes lanes to pass the slower-moving obstacle and then moves back into the previous lane. These maneuvers are seamless: as smooth as a human could do. Super Cruise even flashes the turn signals while doing all this, something human drivers often neglect to do.

Automatic lane change works anywhere Super Cruise can be engaged, though it's unfortunately disabled while towing, which is probably smart. This feature can also automatically move a vehicle over if it's in a lane that's ending, an incredibly smart touch.

Super Cruise can be a godsend while slogging through rush-hour traffic.

Beyond that, enhanced Super Cruise  offers lane-change-on-demand functionality. If you want to move over, just tap the turn signal stalk and if it's clear, the vehicle will mosey on over. If you fully engage the stalk, it still only moves one lane at a time; you have to reengage the turn signal for each lane you want to shift.

Vehicle Intelligence Platform

The next-generation Super Cruise's innovative new features are enabled by several things. GM's new Vehicle Intelligence Platform electrical architecture provides more throughput for the system's various computers and sensors. Beyond that, 360-degree radar arrays have been added so this latest version of Super Cruise can see all around the vehicle. This addition allows the system to look at traffic, so it doesn't jump out in front of another car or truck that's zooming past. Enhanced Super Cruise is smart enough to accelerate or decelerate so it can try to find a suitable gap and change lanes.

With better radar units and other sensors (and likely unfathomable amounts of software tying all this together), engineers also improved the driver-attention monitor. It has better sun-glare performance so the system doesn't disengage when you're driving into the sun and it's low in the sky, the system can track head pose and eye gaze so it's better at knowing whether you're paying attention -- and it even works with polarized sunglasses.

The future, today

Super Cruise is GM's killer app. Since its release, it's been a seriously impressive bit of kit and the enhanced version feels like a  significant  step forward even in my admittedly limited testing. The abilities to tow with it engaged and use the automatic lane-change capability are slick features.

After years of being shackled to just one model at one of its divisions, it finally seems like the automaker is recognizing this technology's significance. You can get Super Cruise in the Chevy Bolt EUV all-electric crossover right now and GM is expanding its availability -- including the enhanced version -- to 22 different models by 2023, bringing the future a little closer to the present.

And at long last, GM is pushing this groundbreaking driver aid out across its products portfolio. You'll be able to get new Super Cruise in six 2022-model-year vehicles starting in Q1 2022. This includes the Cadillac Escalade , CT4 and CT5 models, the Chevrolet Silverado , GMC Sierra and Hummer EV pickup . By 2023, it should be available in a whopping 22 different models.

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What GM Wants Drivers to Understand about Super Cruise

GM wants you to get to know the technology better, and the reason has to do with automated driving systems from the competitor America’s largest carmaker won’t name.

• The point is to educate people about the Super Cruise driver-assist technology in new and upcoming Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, and Buick vehicles.
• GM is trying to make it very clear that, although the technology lets drivers ride with their hands off the wheel, they had better keep their eyes on the road where they belong.

General Motors has announced a new campaign to educate car shoppers and buyers on how its latest driver-assistance systems actually work. The tagline is simple: "Hands Free, Eyes On." That refers to the Super Cruise system it's rolling out in new models from all four of its brands: Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, and Buick.

GM worries its buyers, and the public at large, don't understand the different types of automated driver assistance systems (ADAS). The campaign's goal, it said, is to "encourage consumer confidence" in the benefits of ADAS systems overall and to "avoid concern and confusion." The campaign itself will be composed of "content" that covers "free educational resources and best practices" to be distributed on "GM social channels" and its website. GM also plans to host classes for personnel at the independent dealerships that sell its cars, to educate them as well.

The Tesla Problem

The challenge is that one specific carmaker, Tesla, has gotten a great deal of attention for its so-called Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems. The attention has been good when it raises brand awareness; it's been bad when either system is implicated (rightly or wrongly) in a major crash. Last month the Washington Post reported there have been at least 736 crashes involving Autopilot reported to NHTSA, involving 17 deaths and five serious injuries. (GM staff declined to name any other automakers, but the implication is clear.)

In the case of the Full Self-Driving technology, Tesla has now rolled out its beta software to tens of thousands of drivers. The company has claimed it assessed the driving habits of those beta testers via data uploaded to its servers before allowing them to download the software. You can view lots of YouTube videos showing the experiences, pro and con, of drivers in Teslas that are operating under the beta version of Full Self-Driving. That function now costs the buyer of a new Tesla $15,000, with no delivery date given for a final or non-beta version.

Teslas have likely covered several billion miles under Autopilot, more than any other maker's vehicles using adaptive cruise control with active lane control. In part, that's because the company enabled the first version of the function eight years ago, in October 2015. GM said its vehicles had covered 77 million miles using Super Cruise as of early June. Tesla said in its Q1-2023 letter to shareholders its cars had covered more than 150 million miles under the more advanced Full Self-Driving system. Note that both of Tesla's systems currently require drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel .

Tesla says both systems "are designed to become more capable over time" but the set of features it currently enables "do not make the vehicle autonomous." Highly publicized videos of risk-seeking drivers who put defeat devices on Tesla steering wheels to trick the car into believing their hands are on the wheel—and in one notorious case, riding in the rear seat while the car "drove itself"—likely strike terror into the hearts of lawyers. (Tesla offers no way for the media to contact the company, so Car and Driver is unable to get comments from Tesla.)

Autonomous? Automated? Autopilot?

The thrust of GM's new campaign is that, unlike Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, Super Cruise and its upcoming Ultra Cruise variant allow hands-free operation: drivers can take their hands off the steering wheel as the vehicle centers itself in its lane and can even automatically change lanes to overtake slower vehicles. But GM's systems still require the driver to watch the road. They use eye-tracking cameras to ensure continued front-facing vision as long as the system is engaged. (Tesla does not currently use the interior-facing cameras in some of its EVs for that purpose.)

Though adaptive cruise control with active lane control is now found on a huge swath of the latest new cars, the majority still require the driver to keep their hands on the wheel—sensing continual minute steering inputs to ensure that remains the case. Eyeball tracking cameras are widely acknowledged as the only safe and reliable way to ensure continued driver attention without hands on the wheel, but they're also more expensive to fit and require more complex software. In our testing , Super Cruise wasn't impossible to fool, but it was more difficult than most other systems.

Words matter, and GM suggests public understanding of the differences among "automated" and "autonomous" driving and "Autopilot" is low. So "Hands Free, Eyes On" gets right to the heart of the matter: The car can drive itself on an increasing variety of roads, but you must always be ready to resume control within a couple of seconds. (And we'll make sure you remain that way.)

For GM, the challenge is greater still because it does actually build and operate fully autonomous vehicles through its Cruise Automation subsidiary. In San Francisco, Cruise now offers rides in driverless Chevrolet Bolt AVs (for autonomous vehicles) that bristle with sensors—not only the usual cameras and radar, but also lidar—that feed data to a powerful computer system that makes decisions in real time about what the car is doing and facing. Those vehicles face their own concerns about potentially unsafe behavior .

Ensuring that customers understand the differences should boost the appeal of Super Cruise, which works only on limited-access highways that have been premapped, and the upcoming Ultra Cruise, which broadly offers the same functionality on a wider set of roads. The goal of Ultra Cruise is "end to end" hands-free driving from one location to another, Andrew Farah, GM's executive director of software-defined vehicles and ADAS, told Car and Driver . The difference between the two is that Ultra Cruise requires both more advanced sensors and greater computing power to integrate the resulting data in real time and make decisions.

Still, both systems are defined only as Level 2 autonomy under the hierarchy established by the engineering group SAE International, meaning the car can drive itself under limited circumstances, but the driver must always be poised to retake control.

Those Tesla Crashes

GM and its undoubtedly large legal team very likely worry about the liability posed by drivers who don't understand or misuse its Super Cruise system. They too will have seen the headlines about multiple NHTSA investigations into Teslas that have crashed into tractor-trailers, fire engines, or other objects while operating on Autopilot. Each of those instances differs, but—like the Cruise vehicles—Tesla's sensors and software appear to have difficulty interpreting situations a human will instantly understand as an anomaly: a person waving their arms, a flashing light on a vehicle in the traffic lane, and so forth.

Crashes involving vehicles with ADAS systems or true autonomous driving must be reported to NHTSA within one day if they meet certain criteria. Crashes of autonomous vehicles under other criteria must be reported by the next calendar month.

GM told Car and Driver it has reported to NHTSA "a handful of crashes involving Super Cruise–equipped vehicles" but that none of those vehicles had the system engaged at the time of the crash.

John Voelcker edited Green Car Reports for nine years, publishing more than 12,000 articles on hybrids, electric cars, and other low- and zero-emission vehicles and the energy ecosystem around them. He now covers advanced auto technologies and energy policy as a reporter and analyst. His work has appeared in print, online, and radio outlets that include Wired, Popular Science, Tech Review, IEEE Spectrum , and NPR's "All Things Considered." He splits his time between the Catskill Mountains and New York City and still has hopes of one day becoming an international man of mystery.

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GM’s Super Cruise Hands-Free Driving Feature Blew My Mind Over 2,000 Miles

On a road trip deep into Canada with the loaded GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, one big thing stands out.

By Steve Mazzucchi

As convenient as flying can be, some places are remote enough that driving makes more sense. Such is the case with Murdochville, Canada, a tiny town (2016 pop: 651) nearly 400 miles northeast of Quebec City.

That’s the decision three buddies and I made when we chose to check this locale — which serves as a base camp for some pretty killer backcountry skiing and splitboarding in the Chic-Choc Mountains — off the bucket list. As our destination was also 869 miles from my New York City apartment, this trip proved the perfect occasion to put GMC’s most tricked-out SUV, the Yukon Denali Ultimate , through its paces.

Now, a lot of things stand out about this nearly $100,000 rig , including the boss 18-speaker Bose sound system, massage-ready front seats, luxurious wood-and-leather-lined interior, running boards that automatically deploy whenever you open the doors and tons of space for four dudes and all their ski and snowboard gear . But as we took the YDU on a nearly 2,000-mile adventure, one futuristic feature truly dominated our chatter: GM’s hands-free driving tech, known as Super Cruise. Here’s why — complemented by some Canadian atmosphere showing off the vehicle, of course.

Super Cruise Is Super Smart

I remember trying out Tesla’s self-driving feature several years ago on a test drive. While I was impressed, it still felt like a novelty. I had similar feelings about Super Cruise until I began playing with it on the relatively short drive from NYC to my buddy Giuseppe’s place in New Paltz the day before we’d make the nearly 800-mile push from there to Murdochville.

I started with simple cruise control and adaptive braking, which is pretty handy for giving your foot a rest on the highway. Then, at the touch of a button, the light bar on the steering wheel illuminated blue and then green, and Super Cruise was happening .

The most striking thing is once you set a cruise control speed, you’ve empowered the vehicle to do what it can to maintain it, most notably by using its cameras and radar to detect road markings and other vehicles. Doing so, it can then not only stay in its lane but also engage the turn signal and automatically change lanes when the moment’s right. If you set the cruise control speed high enough, you’ll be zigging and zagging through traffic like a robotic Lewis Hamilton.

But You’ve Gotta Stay Engaged — and That’s a Good Thing

It’s kind of scary how quickly I came to trust Super Cruise and let it do its thing while I rocked out to the Allman Brothers at 75 miles an hour. On that very first drive, I was texting Giuseppe brief updates on my ETA, and the next morning, after rolling out at 5:30 a.m., I let it handle much of the highway action, even while I chowed down on some breakfast empanadas picked up at our first pit stop.

But that isn’t to say you can watch TikToks or snooze while driving. A small camera on the dashboard tracks your head and eye movement, and if it senses a lack of attention, Super Cruise deactivates: the seat vibrates, the green light bar blinks and then turns red and the display tells you to grab the wheel and take control. It’s not quite as dramatic as, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger overpowering a Johnny Cab , but if you don’t respond, the vehicle will literally slow to a stop.

Giuseppe handled half of the miles and learned firsthand that Super Cruise has little tolerance for smartphone-addled drivers. He told me that while I was napping in the back, he texted one too many times — the system completely shut down and made him wait several minutes to engage Super Cruise again.

Super Cruise’s “Butt Haptics” Are Quirky

Along with the light bar and the display behind the steering wheel that indicates such usual metrics as your speed, cruise control speed and lane changes, the most noticeable sign of Super Cruise is what I call “butt haptics.”

Basically, anytime the vehicle goes to make a lane change — or it senses you doing something inadvisable, like veering out of your lane or backing into a snowbank — the seat vibrates. It has a bit of a language, too: a buzz on the left cheek when it’s switching to the left lane and one on the right cheek when it’s headed that way.

It takes some getting used to and sometimes feels superfluous, but I did find some of the pulsing kind of helpful and safety-enhancing in its own weird way. Speaking of weird, here’s a funky thing you can do when Super Cruise is engaged — flick the turn signal stalk on the highway, and if the road is clear, the vehicle will change lanes without you doing another thing.

Super Cruise Doesn’t Always Work — and Some of Its Moves Are Disconcerting

Not long after we crossed the border into Canada, I got a notification I hadn’t before: “Super Cruise Unavailable.” We all began to theorize that maybe the whole damn thing doesn’t work in Canada for Byzantine legal reasons.

We were totally wrong. Later on, it worked just fine. Basically, as long as there are clearly visible lane markings, the system seems able to function. But if the road is covered in snow — or it’s a dirt road like the one we encountered on one of our splitboarding jaunts — you’re SOL.

That’s understandable, but I do want to note a couple of moments where the AI gave me pause. First, if you set the cruise control too fast, it can occasionally accelerate into turns in a way no human would. Second, when it comes to passing large vehicles like semi trucks, a human driver typically will give them a wide berth. Super Cruise passes them like it would any other vehicle, and unless you like the feeling of “buzzing the tower,” so to speak, it can feel a bit freaky.

Super Cruise Is a Major Conversation Piece… for Now

Even with these quirks, however, the title of this story is accurate: Super Cruise really did blow my mind, and of all the features people commented on during this very long road trip — we drove all the way back in one day — it was easily top of the list. When our buddies thanked Giuseppe and I for driving, we felt kind of sheepish, like an airline captain who uses autopilot for everything but takeoffs and landings.

One thing that really stands out is something the YDU didn’t do, which is leave me feeling totally exhausted upon arrival at our lodgings after some 14 hours on the road. That says a ton for both the comfy interior and certainly for Super Cruise. It’s pretty awesome to endure such a punishing drive and wake up the next morning refreshed and ready to tackle a mountain.

GM has done impressive work creating a system that safely and efficiently makes driving less taxing, essentially letting the driver monitor highway maneuvers and take over when necessary. That alone makes Super Cruise something to talk about — while wondering how long it will be till such functionality is so standard it is taken for granted. As someone who still appreciates manual shifting , I hope that day doesn’t come too soon.

Related Topics

2024 GMC Sierra EV pickup increases range, towing capacity with prices starting at $97,500

G MC’s 2024 Sierra electric pickup that goes on sale this summer will get up to 440 miles on a fully charged battery. That's a 10% increase from earlier projections.

The improvement comes courtesy of optimizing the pickup’s electric drivetrain, GMC said Tuesday. The announcement mirrors one fellow GM-brand Chevrolet recently made for its electric Silverado pickup.

GMC dealers are taking orders now for the top of the line Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 pickup. Prices start at $97,500, plus a $1,995 destination charge. GMC plans to build Sierra EVs for more accessible prices, too.

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GMC also said the pickup’s towing capacity and payload will increase 500 and 150 pounds, respectively, to 10,000 and 1,450 pounds.

Software and other improvements to increase an EV's performance are not uncommon. Continuous improvement and features updates are among the benefits automakers tout for EVs.

350 kW charging, Super Cruise and more

The Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 will offer GM’s crab walk feature , which allows the truck to angle its front and rear wheels in the same direction to move diagonally in tight spaces.

Features available on the 2024 Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 include:

• 754 horsepower and 785 pound-feet of torque in maximum power mode.
• 800-volt (350 kW) DC fast-charging compatibility to add up to 100 miles range in 10 minutes.
• Super Cruise hands-free driving system.
• Adaptive air suspension.
• Four-wheel steering to reduce turning circle and improve maneuverability in other ways that crab walk.
• A midgate that opens the crew cab’s rear seat to the bed, increasing cargo length to up to almost 11 feet.

Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or  [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter  @ mark_phelan . Read more on  autos  and sign up for our  autos newsletter .  Become a subscriber .

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2024 GMC Sierra EV pickup increases range, towing capacity with prices starting at $97,500

2024 GMC Sierra EV arrives with 440-mile range, CrabWalk

GMC on Tuesday announced updated specifications for its 2024 Sierra EV electric pickup truck, which was first shown in 2022 and is finally due in showrooms this summer.

The first version to arrive will be a limited-edition range-topper dubbed the 2024 Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, though some of the specifications should be common with lesser grades arriving at a later date.

Many of the specifications are also common to the related 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV, which like the GMC will start sales this summer for retail customers, also initially as a limited-edition range-topper known as the Silverado EV First-Edition RST . A Silverado EV Work Truck has been available for commercial buyers since last year.

The 2024 Sierra EV Denali Edition arrives with up to 754 hp from a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system. That output is only a temporary figure, available when the truck is in its Max Power mode. GMC hasn't said how much horsepower the truck normally delivers.

Estimates for towing capacity and payload have been revised higher, coming in at 10,000 pounds and 1,450 pounds, respectively. The towing capacity is 500 pounds higher than previously announced, while the payload is up 150 pounds. The bed benefits from a reconfigurable midgate that in combination with split-folding rear seats and a reconfigurable tailgate results in a bed length of up to approximately 11 feet. The standard bed measures 5-foot-11.

The estimate for maximum range is also 40 miles higher than previously announced, coming in at 440 miles. EPA-rated numbers haven't been published. GMC is still holding back detailed specifications on the battery, which is thought to have a capacity of 205 kwh. The automaker has confirmed, however, that an 800-volt electrical system will enable DC fast charging at up to 350 kw, or enough for 100 miles of range to be added in around 10 minutes.

Air suspension is standard and can raise or lower the truck by approximately two inches. Rear-wheel steering is also included, and it allows the truck to enter a CrabWalk mode similar to GMC's Hummer EV Pickup and Hummer EV SUV , with movement in a diagonal direction. The rear-wheel steering also shrinks the truck's turning circle, helping with maneuverability in tight situations.

2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1

Inside, the Sierra EV diverges from the current GMC lineup and its Chevy sibling with its own dashboard and design. Instead of a wall of screens on the dash, the Sierra EV splits things up with an 11.0-inch digital gauge cluster and a 16.8-inch portrait-style touchscreen featuring a volume knob mounted to the screen and seven hard toggles mounted beneath. Premium features such as a head-up display, a glass roof, and General Motors' Super Cruise automated driver-assist feature are all included as well.

Pricing for the 2024 Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 starts at $99,495, including a $1,995 destination charge. That's well down from the previously announced starting price of $108,695. More affordable Sierra EV grades, including Elevation and ATV, are expected to arrive starting with the 2025 model year.

Production takes place at GM's Factory Zero plant near Detroit, where the Hummer EV and Silverado EV are also built. Production is scheduled to be expanded in 2025 to GM's Orion Assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan.

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2018 Primetime Emmy & James Beard Award Winner

In Transit: Notes from the Underground

Jun 06 2018.

Spend some time in one of Moscow’s finest museums.

Subterranean commuting might not be anyone’s idea of a good time, but even in a city packing the war-games treasures and priceless bejeweled eggs of the Kremlin Armoury and the colossal Soviet pavilions of the VDNKh , the Metro holds up as one of Moscow’s finest museums. Just avoid rush hour.

The Metro is stunning and provides an unrivaled insight into the city’s psyche, past and present, but it also happens to be the best way to get around. Moscow has Uber, and the Russian version called Yandex Taxi , but also some nasty traffic. Metro trains come around every 90 seconds or so, at a more than 99 percent on-time rate. It’s also reasonably priced, with a single ride at 55 cents (and cheaper in bulk). From history to tickets to rules — official and not — here’s what you need to know to get started.

A Brief Introduction Buying Tickets Know Before You Go (Down) Rules An Easy Tour

A Brief Introduction

Moscow’s Metro was a long time coming. Plans for rapid transit to relieve the city’s beleaguered tram system date back to the Imperial era, but a couple of wars and a revolution held up its development. Stalin revived it as part of his grand plan to modernize the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s. The first lines and tunnels were constructed with help from engineers from the London Underground, although Stalin’s secret police decided that they had learned too much about Moscow’s layout and had them arrested on espionage charges and deported.

The beauty of its stations (if not its trains) is well-documented, and certainly no accident. In its illustrious first phases and particularly after the Second World War, the greatest architects of Soviet era were recruited to create gleaming temples celebrating the Revolution, the USSR, and the war triumph. No two stations are exactly alike, and each of the classic showpieces has a theme. There are world-famous shrines to Futurist architecture, a celebration of electricity, tributes to individuals and regions of the former Soviet Union. Each marble slab, mosaic tile, or light fixture was placed with intent, all in service to a station’s aesthetic; each element, f rom the smallest brass ear of corn to a large blood-spattered sword on a World War II mural, is an essential part of the whole.

The Metro is a monument to the Soviet propaganda project it was intended to be when it opened in 1935 with the slogan “Building a Palace for the People”. It brought the grand interiors of Imperial Russia to ordinary Muscovites, celebrated the Soviet Union’s past achievements while promising its citizens a bright Soviet future, and of course, it was a show-piece for the world to witness the might and sophistication of life in the Soviet Union.

It may be a museum, but it’s no relic. U p to nine million people use it daily, more than the London Underground and New York Subway combined. (Along with, at one time, about 20 stray dogs that learned to commute on the Metro.)

In its 80+ year history, the Metro has expanded in phases and fits and starts, in step with the fortunes of Moscow and Russia. Now, partly in preparation for the World Cup 2018, it’s also modernizing. New trains allow passengers to walk the entire length of the train without having to change carriages. The system is becoming more visitor-friendly. (There are helpful stickers on the floor marking out the best selfie spots .) But there’s a price to modernity: it’s phasing out one of its beloved institutions, the escalator attendants. Often they are middle-aged or elderly women—“ escalator grandmas ” in news accounts—who have held the post for decades, sitting in their tiny kiosks, scolding commuters for bad escalator etiquette or even bad posture, or telling jokes . They are slated to be replaced, when at all, by members of the escalator maintenance staff.

For all its achievements, the Metro lags behind Moscow’s above-ground growth, as Russia’s capital sprawls ever outwards, generating some of the world’s worst traffic jams . But since 2011, the Metro has been in the middle of an ambitious and long-overdue enlargement; 60 new stations are opening by 2020. If all goes to plan, the 2011-2020 period will have brought 125 miles of new tracks and over 100 new stations — a 40 percent increase — the fastest and largest expansion phase in any period in the Metro’s history.

Facts: 14 lines Opening hours: 5 a.m-1 a.m. Rush hour(s): 8-10 a.m, 4-8 p.m. Single ride: 55₽ (about 85 cents) Wi-Fi network-wide

Buying Tickets

• Ticket machines have a button to switch to English.
• You can buy specific numbers of rides: 1, 2, 5, 11, 20, or 60. Hold up fingers to show how many rides you want to buy.
• There is also a 90-minute ticket , which gets you 1 trip on the metro plus an unlimited number of transfers on other transport (bus, tram, etc) within 90 minutes.
• Or, you can buy day tickets with unlimited rides: one day (218₽/ US$4), three days (415₽/US$7) or seven days (830₽/US$15). Check the rates here to stay up-to-date.
• If you’re going to be using the Metro regularly over a few days, it’s worth getting a Troika card , a contactless, refillable card you can use on all public transport. Using the Metro is cheaper with one of these: a single ride is 36₽, not 55₽. Buy them and refill them in the Metro stations, and they’re valid for 5 years, so you can keep it for next time. Or, if you have a lot of cash left on it when you leave, you can get it refunded at the Metro Service Centers at Ulitsa 1905 Goda, 25 or at Staraya Basmannaya 20, Building 1.
• You can also buy silicone bracelets and keychains with built-in transport chips that you can use as a Troika card. (A Moscow Metro Fitbit!) So far, you can only get these at the Pushkinskaya metro station Live Helpdesk and souvenir shops in the Mayakovskaya and Trubnaya metro stations. The fare is the same as for the Troika card.
• You can also use Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Rules, spoken and unspoken

No smoking, no drinking, no filming, no littering. Photography is allowed, although it used to be banned.

Stand to the right on the escalator. Break this rule and you risk the wrath of the legendary escalator attendants. (No shenanigans on the escalators in general.)

Get out of the way. Find an empty corner to hide in when you get off a train and need to stare at your phone. Watch out getting out of the train in general; when your train doors open, people tend to appear from nowhere or from behind ornate marble columns, walking full-speed.

Always offer your seat to elderly ladies (what are you, a monster?).

An Easy Tour

This is no Metro Marathon ( 199 stations in 20 hours ). It’s an easy tour, taking in most—though not all—of the notable stations, the bulk of it going clockwise along the Circle line, with a couple of short detours. These stations are within minutes of one another, and the whole tour should take about 1-2 hours.

Start at Mayakovskaya Metro station , at the corner of Tverskaya and Garden Ring,  Triumfalnaya Square, Moskva, Russia, 125047.

1. Mayakovskaya.  Named for Russian Futurist Movement poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and an attempt to bring to life the future he imagined in his poems. (The Futurist Movement, natch, was all about a rejecting the past and celebrating all things speed, industry, modern machines, youth, modernity.) The result: an Art Deco masterpiece that won the National Grand Prix for architecture at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. It’s all smooth, rounded shine and light, and gentle arches supported by columns of dark pink marble and stainless aircraft steel. Each of its 34 ceiling niches has a mosaic. During World War II, the station was used as an air-raid shelter and, at one point, a bunker for Stalin. He gave a subdued but rousing speech here in Nov. 6, 1941 as the Nazis bombed the city above.

Take the 3/Green line one station to:

2. Belorusskaya. Opened in 1952, named after the connected Belarussky Rail Terminal, which runs trains between Moscow and Belarus. This is a light marble affair with a white, cake-like ceiling, lined with Belorussian patterns and 12 Florentine ceiling mosaics depicting life in Belarussia when it was built.

Transfer onto the 1/Brown line. Then, one stop (clockwise) t o:

3. Novoslobodskaya.  This station was designed around the stained-glass panels, which were made in Latvia, because Alexey Dushkin, the Soviet starchitect who dreamed it up (and also designed Mayakovskaya station) couldn’t find the glass and craft locally. The stained glass is the same used for Riga’s Cathedral, and the panels feature plants, flowers, members of the Soviet intelligentsia (musician, artist, architect) and geometric shapes.

Go two stops east on the 1/Circle line to:

4. Komsomolskaya. Named after the Komsomol, or the Young Communist League, this might just be peak Stalin Metro style. Underneath the hub for three regional railways, it was intended to be a grand gateway to Moscow and is today its busiest station. It has chandeliers; a yellow ceiling with Baroque embellishments; and in the main hall, a colossal red star overlaid on golden, shimmering tiles. Designer Alexey Shchusev designed it as an homage to the speech Stalin gave at Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941, in which he invoked Russia’s illustrious military leaders as a pep talk to Soviet soldiers through the first catastrophic year of the war.   The station’s eight large mosaics are of the leaders referenced in the speech, such as Alexander Nevsky, a 13th-century prince and military commander who bested German and Swedish invading armies.

One more stop clockwise to Kurskaya station,  and change onto the 3/Blue  line, and go one stop to:

5. Baumanskaya.   Opened in 1944. Named for the Bolshevik Revolutionary Nikolai Bauman , whose monument and namesake district are aboveground here. Though he seemed like a nasty piece of work (he apparently once publicly mocked a woman he had impregnated, who later hung herself), he became a Revolutionary martyr when he was killed in 1905 in a skirmish with a monarchist, who hit him on the head with part of a steel pipe. The station is in Art Deco style with atmospherically dim lighting, and a series of bronze sculptures of soldiers and homefront heroes during the War. At one end, there is a large mosaic portrait of Lenin.

Stay on that train direction one more east to:

6. Elektrozavodskaya. As you may have guessed from the name, this station is the Metro’s tribute to all thing electrical, built in 1944 and named after a nearby lightbulb factory. It has marble bas-relief sculptures of important figures in electrical engineering, and others illustrating the Soviet Union’s war-time struggles at home. The ceiling’s recurring rows of circular lamps give the station’s main tunnel a comforting glow, and a pleasing visual effect.

Double back two stops to Kurskaya station , and change back to the 1/Circle line. Sit tight for six stations to:

7. Kiyevskaya. This was the last station on the Circle line to be built, in 1954, completed under Nikita Khrushchev’ s guidance, as a tribute to his homeland, Ukraine. Its three large station halls feature images celebrating Ukraine’s contributions to the Soviet Union and Russo-Ukrainian unity, depicting musicians, textile-working, soldiers, farmers. (One hall has frescoes, one mosaics, and the third murals.) Shortly after it was completed, Khrushchev condemned the architectural excesses and unnecessary luxury of the Stalin era, which ushered in an epoch of more austere Metro stations. According to the legend at least, he timed the policy in part to ensure no Metro station built after could outshine Kiyevskaya.

Change to the 3/Blue line and go one stop west.

8. Park Pobedy. This is the deepest station on the Metro, with one of the world’s longest escalators, at 413 feet. If you stand still, the escalator ride to the surface takes about three minutes .) Opened in 2003 at Victory Park, the station celebrates two of Russia’s great military victories. Each end has a mural by Georgian artist Zurab Tsereteli, who also designed the “ Good Defeats Evil ” statue at the UN headquarters in New York. One mural depicts the Russian generals’ victory over the French in 1812 and the other, the German surrender of 1945. The latter is particularly striking; equal parts dramatic, triumphant, and gruesome. To the side, Red Army soldiers trample Nazi flags, and if you look closely there’s some blood spatter among the detail. Still, the biggest impressions here are the marble shine of the chessboard floor pattern and the pleasingly geometric effect if you view from one end to the other.

Keep going one more stop west to:

9. Slavyansky Bulvar.  One of the Metro’s youngest stations, it opened in 2008. With far higher ceilings than many other stations—which tend to have covered central tunnels on the platforms—it has an “open-air” feel (or as close to it as you can get, one hundred feet under). It’s an homage to French architect Hector Guimard, he of the Art Nouveau entrances for the Paris M é tro, and that’s precisely what this looks like: A Moscow homage to the Paris M é tro, with an additional forest theme. A Cyrillic twist on Guimard’s Metro-style lettering over the benches, furnished with t rees and branch motifs, including creeping vines as towering lamp-posts.

Stay on the 3/Blue line and double back four stations to:

10. Arbatskaya. Its first iteration, Arbatskaya-Smolenskaya station, was damaged by German bombs in 1941. It was rebuilt in 1953, and designed to double as a bomb shelter in the event of nuclear war, although unusually for stations built in the post-war phase, this one doesn’t have a war theme. It may also be one of the system’s most elegant: Baroque, but toned down a little, with red marble floors and white ceilings with gilded bronze c handeliers.

Jump back on the 3/Blue line  in the same direction and take it one more stop:

11. Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square). Opened in 1938, and serving Red Square and the Kremlin . Its renowned central hall has marble columns flanked by 76 bronze statues of Soviet heroes: soldiers, students, farmers, athletes, writers, parents. Some of these statues’ appendages have a yellow sheen from decades of Moscow’s commuters rubbing them for good luck. Among the most popular for a superstitious walk-by rub: the snout of a frontier guard’s dog, a soldier’s gun (where the touch of millions of human hands have tapered the gun barrel into a fine, pointy blade), a baby’s foot, and a woman’s knee. (A brass rooster also sports the telltale gold sheen, though I am told that rubbing the rooster is thought to bring bad luck. )

Now take the escalator up, and get some fresh air.

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