Some years back, I’m driving a Cadillac CTS-V around a race-track with a professional racing driver sitting shotgun. She’s critiquing my driving technique, a work in progress. I gear down for a corner, turn in, and then, I get blasted — third time this lap.
“Get your hand off of that shifter and back on the wheel! The shifter isn’t going anywhere!” she commands.
After years of similar instruction from similar professionals around the world, it’s a lesson that’s now been hard-wired into this driver’s brain: your hands belong at 9 and 3 at all times.
Today, Philip Asante is a young engineer working toward an opposite goal through cutting-edge electrification and driver assistance technologies for General Motors. His duties include leading a team which integrates all of the software components that power GM’s Super Cruise — a system designed to give customers of equipped vehicles push-button access to extended periods of hands-free driving.
“Super Cruise is the result of over five years of development,” says Asante. “From the research stages to development and validation, we made sure this technology worked safely, seamlessly, and was easy for our customers to use. It was important to bring comfort and convenience to our customers on their daily freeway commutes, and I really feel Super Cruise has enabled that.”
Asante graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from Carleton University. After developing a passion for unmanned systems and developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s), Asante went on to spend 6 years working in the aviation industry.
“I have always been fascinated in working with sensors to understand a vehicle’s environment and leveraging that information to have the vehicle navigate and make decisions within that environment” Asante explains.
I had my first experience with Super Cruise during a 1,500 kilometre highway-intensive test-drive in the 2022 Cadillac Escalade. My tester was set up in a configuration ideal for winter touring — proper winter tires, GM’s straight-six Duramax diesel engine for efficient cruising, and Super Cruise available at the press of a button.
2022 Cadillac Escalade Super Cruise driver monitor Photo by Justin Pritchard
The first thing I need to tell you about using Super Cruise is that it feels incredibly natural.
When activated, a green light appears on the steering wheel, the car magnetises to the centre of its lane, you release your hands, and off it goes. Provided the weather is good and road markings are visible, you could cruise like this for hours, as I did. It doesn’t even mind a little light to moderate snowfall, so long as road markings remain distinguishable.
Second, while I expected to feel nervous or uncomfortable about the car doing this much work for me, Super Cruise becomes easy to trust in a matter of seconds. When making a correction or following a corner, Super Cruise makes steering inputs predictably and with a sense that the adjustment was carefully pre-calculated, to be delivered as smoothly as possible.
On my watch, system operation was free of any sketchy, startling, or abrupt inputs. Heck, it’s probably smoother at the wheel than I am in some situations.
Over my first 120 kilometres using the system, I was only tempted to grab the wheel once as a precaution in a snow-covered corner.
2022 Cadillac Escalade Photo by Justin Pritchard
Before long, Super Cruise feels smooth, steady, and trustworthy, even if you’re a hard-wired 9 and 3 sort of driver like me. From behind the wheel, Super Cruise drivers can therefore expect lower stress levels, increased comfort, and the ability to enjoy the forward scenery with their hands comfortably on their laps for extended periods.
And there’s only one button. If you’re on a compatible highway with visible lane markings, the system turns on with a click. It’s easier than activating the popcorn setting on your microwave oven.
Just tap, wait a half-second for the green light and activation message, and it’s hands off.
Need to change lanes? Just tap the signal lever, and Super Cruise completes the lane change for you, hands free, after vehicle sensors determine the path is clear.
If the system needs the driver to take control, warnings are subtle but effective: a red light flashes on the wheel, a slight vibration is issued through the seat, and an on-screen infographic requests you take over. The point is made quickly, but it isn’t alarming.
2022 Cadillac Escalade Photo by Justin Pritchard
Super Cruise relies on a database of maps, made up of highly-detailed scans of available highways. This database gives Super Cruise a reference point and the ability to pinpoint the vehicle’s position with extreme accuracy, though it means the feature only works on pre-mapped highways. Currently, these include 320,000 kilometres of divided highways in Canada and the USA. You can check out the full map here.
Super Cruise is very serious about you keeping your eyes on the road at all times.
“Super Cruise is the only system on the market that provides hands-free driving at regular highway speeds” says Asante.
“It also monitors the driver’s eyes, allowing for true hands-free driving”
A built-in camera, located on the steering column, is used to make sure driver eyeballs are glued to the road ahead. Look away for too long, and the system cuts off. Also, the camera works if you’re wearing sunglasses. Ultimately, Super Cruise is designed to work with, not in place of your attentive and safe driving.
2022 Cadillac Escalade Photo by Justin Pritchard
Based on his experience in Aerospace engineering, Asante says that Super Cruise’s functionality achieves similar goals to auto pilot and auto throttle systems used by commercial aircraft pilots — specifically, enhancing safety and freeing up operator bandwidth that’s better used for observing your instruments, mirrors, and surroundings.
Whether using Super Cruise to lower stress levels, increase comfort, or to just watch a cutting-edge feature at work in your next car or truck, shoppers are getting very interested in this new wave of advanced driving tech.
Some 85 per cent of current Cadillac CT6 owners say they’ll only consider a vehicle equipped with Super Cruise, and Asante’s team is answering their call by helping roll the system out across more of GM’s portfolio.
2022 Cadillac Escalade Photo by Justin Pritchard
Initially, Super Cruise was introduced on the 2018 Cadillac CT6. The system I’m reporting on here is an enhanced version of the original, which is now available on the Cadillac CT5, CT4, Lyriq, and Escalade. It’s also available on the GMC Hummer EV, and it’s coming to the Sierra 1500 and Silverado 1500 later this year. By the end of 2023, it’ll be available on 22 vehicles with both combustion and electric power.
It’s a busy time for people designing the next generation of driver-assistance technology, and Asante has an important piece of advice for young and aspiring engineers and engineering students who hope to pursue a path like his.
“There was my academic work, and then there was also this opportunity to do what we could consider extracurricular. I participated in a lot of student competitions, notably Unmanned Systems Canada. I’d strongly encourage people looking to get into this space to look for those sorts of opportunities, and to be able to experiment with a certain technology. That’s how I find myself here today.”
Keyword: Deep Dive: GM Super Cruise explained by a Cadillac engineer