gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeI love a good road trip. Getting out there, seeing parts of our continent that can only be experienced from a long-distance drive. I firmly believe one could spend their entire lifetime roaming around North America, and still not see everything this massive chunk of land has to offer.The only real downside to a long road trip is fatigue. Eight to twelve hours behind the wheel can get tiresome, especially if the scenery is less than inspiring. Over the years, automakers have been taking the burden off drivers, though. Advanced safety systems help us maintain speed, even in traffic, while other technologies assist in keeping our vehicles in their lanes. But one form of technology is really revolutionizing the great North American road trip: hands-free driving.What is General Motors Super Cruise?gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeLaunched in 2017, Super Cruise is the next level of driver-assist technology. It uses sensors, radars, cameras and GPS mapping to know current road conditions and vehicle location. Super Cruise controls a vehicle's steering, braking, and accelerating. On a road where it is available, it can change lanes automatically and even change highways, but more on that later.AdvertisementAdvertisementSuper Cruise allows the driver to be hands free when it is activated. A camera mounted to the steering column watches the driver to ensure they're paying attention to the road, but they do not actually have to control the vehicle. If Super Cruise detects an area where it cannot operate, it gives the driver advanced warning to take over operation of the vehicle.Where and When to Use Super Cruisegm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeCurrently, just under 600,000 miles (960,000 km+) of compatible roads in North America have officially been mapped and entered into the Super Cruise network. This includes most major freeways and highways.Super Cruise can be turned on at any time when the white steering wheel icon is displayed in the driver information center. It's also possible to load a route through Google Maps built into the infotainment system, which informs the driver how much of that planned trip can be used with Super Cruise. Once on and operating, the LED bar within the steering wheel will illuminate green. If it is illuminated blue, that means the system needs to be centered within the lane.gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeAs of now, General Motors offers 23 vehicles across the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac lineups with Super Cruise. The company states around 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kms) have been driven completely hands-free using Super Cruise to date. One interesting feature to Super Cruise that not many hands-free systems allow for is trailer towing. Currently, Super Cruise can work while towing a trailer up to 30 feet long and 8 feet wide. It just won't do automatic lane changes for the driver while towing.2,000 km Testgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailAdvertisementAdvertisementgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailAdvertisementAdvertisementgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailgallery thumbnailAdvertisementAdvertisementPart of the mapped road network Super Cruise can be used on is the Trans Canada Highway. It's a network of roads that goes from the massive country's west coast all the way to the east coast. In total, it runs for 7,821 kilometres (4,860 miles). To celebrate Super Cruise being available on the entirety of this route, GM Canada set up an event to run a group of vehicles from coast-to-coast, running on Super Cruise as much as possible.My leg would be driving from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Toronto, Ontario over the course of three days. Although Manitoba and Ontario are neighbouring provinces, Ontario is a massive piece of land, some 60% larger than Texas. It takes a long time to drive across the province, and my total distance would cover over 2,000 km (1,250+ miles) over the three days.Super Cruising for Daysgm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeMy tester for this Super Cruise adventure is a 2026 Chevrolet Traverse RS. It has a large digital driver information center (DIC) that would be the hub for my drive, informing me of all things Super Cruise. At the start of each day, I would enter several points of interest into the onboard Google Maps system, to see along the way. Day 1 was Winnipeg to Thunder Bay.Leaving Winnipeg, I hit the highway and spent the next few hours on a four-lane, divided highway heading east. Super Cruise worked flawlessly, for the most part, the same way it has in my previous experiences in the Toronto area.gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeOn the highway, when the Traverse would approach a slower moving vehicle, the Super Cruise system would check to see if the lane on the left was clear and proceed to undertake a lane change without requiring any driver input. My seat would vibrate on the left; the DIC would show that the SUV was about to make a clean left lane change and then complete it. After the pass was made, the same process would occur, but this time vibrating the right side of my seat as the car looked to move back into the right lane. My one gripe with Super Cruise is how closely it changes lanes back in front of vehicles we had just passed.Two-Lane Super Cruisinggm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeAn area I had never experienced Super Cruise before was on a regular, undivided two-lane road. Here, the margin for error is greatly reduced, as there is no lane to the right of the vehicle and the lane to the left contains oncoming traffic.AdvertisementAdvertisementI would guess close to 620 miles (1,000 km) was driven hands-free on these roads during our epic adventure. For full disclosure, the first few miles were the most stressful. Not because Super Cruise was doing anything wrong, but rather due to the unnatural feeling one must get accustomed to. Having the Traverse enter a high-speed right bend, with an 18-wheeler coming at me in the other lane, requires a lot of trust in Super Cruise. But in the hundreds of corners it drove hands-free during my journey, there were only a handful of times I had to intervene and take the wheel.gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeOnce, a big-rig hauler was starting to drift over the center line into my lane, so I gave the vehicle a slight nudge to the right to move over. Another two times, the vehicle didn't have reliable information on the corner and gave me ample warning to take control through the bend. While on the topic of speed, since the roads are all pre-mapped and stored in the map database, when I approached a few tighter corners, the Traverse, or more specifically Super Cruise, knew to slow down before entering the corner and did it all automatically, without me needing to do a thing.The Super Cruise Present and Futuregm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeIn all, of the roads that had been mapped for Super Cruise, I would wager it was engaged and working flawlessly 95-98% of the time. There are moments when the system has to disengage, mainly in areas where road configurations have changed, data is low, or there is construction. That stated, the latter does not stop Super Cruise, as I had it enabled and working through plenty of less intrusive construction zones. The system even knows we were in a construction zone, giving me a visible display on the DIC.As it stands, Super Cruise is a great companion on long-distance drives. After 8-10 hours behind the wheel each day, I felt far less fatigued than I normally would from such an exhausting day. Especially my shoulders and back felt more relaxed, having not supported my arms on the steering wheel for hours on end.gm super cruise road trip review 1 250 miles hands freeGM has lots of plans for the future of Super Cruise, including mapping more and more roads within North America. The big update I can't wait to try is the eyes-off capability that's touted to come in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade iQ.AdvertisementAdvertisementBecome an AutoGuide insider. Get the latest from the automotive world first by subscribing to our newsletter here.
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