General Motors Super Cruise, the only hands-free driving system available on production vehicles, will add a couple of key new features to the 2022 model: the ability to tow trailers and 100% automated driving when you get on a slower vehicle.
The features will debut on GMC Sierra’s light and heavy pickups. This makes the addition of hands-free driving during towing a particularly big thing.
Super Cruise, which combines sensors and an extremely accurate map of restricted access routes in the United States and Canada, has so far only been available in advanced Cadillacs. Only the Cadillac Escalade offers it for the 2021 model. If you add it in segments as full-size pickups, it will be available to a wider audience.
GM is adding Super Cruise to vehicles quickly, following a deliberate rollout that began with a single vehicle, the 2018 Cadillac CT6 sedan.
Super Cruise only works on roads covered by its detailed digital maps.
In addition to the Sierra, 2022 models of Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup, Cadillac CT4 and CT5 sports sedans and GMC Hummer EV pickup will offer Super Cruise. It will be available on a total of 23 vehicles under the 2023 model, including the upcoming Hummer SUV and Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicles.
Tesla’s often mentioned “autopilot” driver assistance function is intended to be used only with the driver’s hands on the steering wheel, a fact that is often obscured by the carmaker’s claims and policy of testing potential updates on public roads in customers’ personal vehicles.
Hands-free driving during towing
I tested both the new features that drove the 2022 Sierras on a closed track at GM Proving Grounds in Milford.
They worked as advertised, convincing me that Super Cruise will reduce drivers’ cognitive load on long journeys, increase safety and how far the driver can go before they get tired.
In the case of a trailer, driver assistance functions such as sway control remain active. The system also adjusts the following distance and how brakes and acceleration are applied to reflect the trailer weight. Towing capacity with Super Cruise will be less than the total nominal capacity of the vehicle, but GMC would not say how much.
The system worked well to tow a 20-foot trailer that weighed about 5,000 pounds around Proving Ground’s long high-speed track.
Depending on how big a trailer or boat Super Cruise works with, it is easy to see pickup owners rejoicing over the hands-free capability.
More:Fire breaks out at the Faurecia plant in Michigan, which manufactures parts for Tesla, Ford
More:The Ford F-150 Hybrid can fully charge electric vehicles in an emergency
Fully automated fitting
Automatic lane change, which GM calls the ability to pass slower vehicles on the highway without human intervention, is a major step that comes in the wake of a feature called lane change on demand that debuted in the 2021 Cadillac Escalade.
Automatic lane change allows the vehicle to check around for other vehicles and change lanes to drive around slower vehicles in front. It can adjust the speed up or down slightly to create enough space to pull out behind the lag. The vehicle returns to its original lane when there is space.
The function was fast and accurate in repeated sessions on GM’s test track. Acceleration and steering inputs were so smooth that I did not feel them when the Sierra changed speed and lane.
I can not wait to test automatic lane change during a long drive on public highways. Its closed track performance suggests that it will be a major improvement on a feature that I have already found to be exceptionally effective on thousands of highway miles.
The new features will be available on Sierras during the first quarter of 2022.
Neither on-demand file change nor automatic file change is available when towing a trailer as the trailer blocks some of the sensors required to make file changes safe.
Super Cruise operates on more than 200,000 miles of digitally mapped restricted access routes in the United States and Canada. It is currently available in the 2021 Cadillac Escalade and the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt.