A billion miles in less than a decade: GM's Super Cruise reaches a milestone

Source: Ars Technica

Background

When Super Cruise debuted in the Cadillac CT6 back in 2017, it showed there was a responsible way to give drivers a hands‑free assistance system. Unlike Tesla, General Motors geofenced the system to only work on restricted‑access highways that had been lidar‑scanned and HD‑mapped ahead of time. It also added a driver‑facing infrared camera to track gaze and ensure the driver’s eyes remain on the road for the system to stay active.

After starting out in the Cadillac flagship sedan, GM began adding Super Cruise to more and more of its models.

Milestone Achieved

The system has now passed a billion driven miles (1.6 billion km) across almost 750,000 vehicles in the US and Canada. “And we’re continuing to grow that, both with the new sales and also we have a very high renewal rate,” said Rashed Haq, vice president of autonomous vehicles at GM.

Renewal Rate and Customer Stickiness

The renewal rate is close to 40 percent for GM owners with Super Cruise, according to Haq. The feature is free for the first three years (source) and then tied to an active OnStar subscription.

“It really shows how Super Cruise is passing what I call the toothbrush test. The customers are using it continuously. Once they use it, they never go back. They continue to use it, and then they use it multiple times a day, just like a toothbrush. So it’s really past that kind of stickiness test,” Haq told me.

Expansion of the Mapped Road Network

When I first tested the system in a CT6 in 2018, it covered more than 160,000 miles (258,000 km) of highways. Today, Super Cruise can be used on close to 700,000 miles (1.1 million km) of mapped roads.

GM’s statistics show an average trip length of 17 miles (27 km) and 24 minutes per trip, with more than half of Super Cruise‑enabled drivers using it weekly or daily.