There are many gearheads (read: every single solitary soul toiling at this publication, plus the vast majority of its readership) who simply like driving. Those of us with nitrous oxide in our blood and a gas tank for a brain would often much rather jump in a vehicle and drive to our destination instead of waiting for an interminable amount of time at an airport for the dubious privilege of sitting aboard a cigar-shaped aluminum petri dish.
But even the most diehard car-freak recognizes that driving long distances for the sole purpose of getting somewhere can be an arduously tiresome task. Plunk a human behind the wheel of a vehicle for eight or more hours and it’s nearly guaranteed there will simply be a soggy bag of skin behind the wheel at the end of a journey, instead of a sentient human being.
Automakers know this, which is why engineers with brains much bigger than mine have been working on anti-fatigue features for decades. The initial stabs at items like air conditioning and cruise control were intended to make vehicles more livable for their occupants — especially the driver. After all, driving while drowsy ranks up there with DUIs or believing a politician as one of the most careless and dangerous things a person can do.
Enter, then, Super Cruise. We’ve covered this bit of gee-whiz tech in detail on these digital pages after it showed up in select products available from the Cadillac side of General Motors. Perhaps recognizing it was too good of a tool not to share, Super Cruise is now available on the snazziest of half-ton pickup trucks from The General. We palmed the keys to a 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate and hit the highway to determine just how helpful this driver assistance tech can be in certain situations.
Super Cruise works on roughly 320,000 km of compatible roads (read: divided highways) across Canada and the United States. Maps are being constantly extended, to the point where this tech works even on newly constructed arteries in far-flung Nova Scotia. The short stretch of divided highway near St. John’s on Newfoundland Island is apparently next on the docket. The system utilizes a driver attention system and LiDAR map data in addition to real-time cameras, sensors, and GPS. These tools permit the truck to stick within its own lane at a set speed.
But its real party trick is its ability to sense itself closing in on a slow coach, look to another highway lane for safe empty space, and then pass that car without any input from the driver. In sequence, the message ‘Looking for an opening’ appears on the 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a vibration is felt through the seat under the driver’s left leg, and the truck activates its turn signal to safely change lanes. It repeats these tasks – giving the driver’s right leg a buzz this time – after overtaking the slowpoke to move back into the original lane and safely complete the pass.
As one would expect, there is a network of driver attention systems inside the cabin to ensure the pilot hasn’t climbed into the backseat to cook breakfast. A small camera is located on top of the steering column, working with infrared lights to determine in what direction the driver is looking whenever Super Cruise is in operation. If this all-seeing eye detects the driver has turned their gaze away from the road ahead for too long – looking at their phone or turned around talking to passengers, for example – the steering wheel light bar will change from comforting green to an angry red and prompt the driver to return their attention to the road. We can report the system works promptly and predictably. Fatigue begone.
Make no mistake — GM’s Super Cruise is better than Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving. This is a statement which will spur the delivery of a multitude of emails to my overflowing inbox, many of which will be from Teslarati inviting me to perform impossible sexual acts upon myself. But it’s true. Super Cruise accurately reads lane markings, even ones which I assumed would be far too faint to be of any useful purpose, keeping the pickup truck well within its intended lane. Vibrating the left or right side of the driver’s seat prior to an automatic lane change is a tremendous use of existing GM tech, and the whole system works seamlessly with a trailer in tow.
Contrast this to my experience of FSD’s propensity to blindly follow a highway lane’s righthand marking, a trait which caused my Turo-sourced tester – more than once – to try and zoom up an exit ramp instead of following the intended straight-ahead route. FSD was also flummoxed by direct Nova Scotia sunlight, though I will admit that FSD’s Summon feature (which Super Cruise could surely replicate, if not for bed-wetting GM lawyers) is a tremendous party trick. But that’s all it is for now — a party trick. On the highways, Super Cruise is smoother, communicates better with the driver, and is more confidence inspiring.
In their current iterations, Super Cruise beats Full Self-Driving. Period. Unless you’ve driven both – as I have, at length – don’t @ me.
And because this is a truck capable of hauling the better part of 10,000 pounds, it’s worth talking about how this system also works with a trailer in tow. Even more vigilance is required at the tiller when multiple tons are attached to the Sierra’s hitch, of course, but having the truck assist with lane-keeping and following distance without having to deploy an iron grip on the steering wheel is worth the cash.
GM has also seen fit to bake a raft of trailer-towing helpers into the new 13.4-inch colour infotainment touchscreen, including checklists for newbies and the ability to check trailer lights solo. Estimating the gross combined weight of yer truck and trailer (not as slick as Ford’s on-board scales) is handy, as are the abilities to track fuel economy with a specific trailer and permitting the blind-spot monitoring system to account for what’s being towed after inputting the trailer’s dimensions. I dubbed my trailer ‘Maritime King’ in this GMC’s system solely to annoy the Toronto-based journalists who will use this pickup later in July.
Note well: Super Cruise is part of a subscription service which is included free for just the first three years. After that, owners will need to front a monthly fee in addition to whatever they’re paying for the truck, so build that into your budget if you’re reading this in 2025 and looking at a second-hand Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate.
It is important to realize that features like Super Cruise and other advance driver assistance technology are not self-driving tools. The person behind the wheel still needs to be alert and in charge, ready to take the wheel at an instant. What they offer, and what Super Cruise does to tremendous effect in this Sierra 1500 Denali Ultimate, is the ability to mitigate fatigue. With them, driving long distances can be much less tiring — and a whole lot safer.
Keyword: Look Ma, No Hands: Super Cruising with the 2022 GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate