GM unveils hands-free driving system that works in almost all of the United States and Canada

GM and Cadillac drivers have driven more than 10 million kilometers with their hands on their knees since General Motors introduced its Super Cruise driver assistance system in 2017. On Wednesday, the company unveiled its new hands-free system. generation, a system that GM claims “will ultimately allow hands-free driving in 95% of all driving scenarios” – dubbed Ultra Cruise.

What sets Ultra Cruise apart from similar systems, such as Ford’s BlueCruise, is that Ultra is designed to work virtually anywhere in the United States and Canada. At launch, the system is expected to operate on 2 million miles of North American roads – which include freeways, city and subdivision streets, and paved rural roads – and will eventually expand to encompass some 3.4 million. miles of asphalt.

If you’ve just purchased a Super Cruise-compatible vehicle (or plan to purchase one of the 22 models GM will have available by 2023), don’t worry, it won’t get anywhere. GM plans to continue offering Super Cruise for its more mainstream vehicles such as the Escalade, CT4 / CT5, Silverado and Sierra, while the Ultra Cruise will be reserved for the company’s premium offerings. GM has not specified which vehicle will be the first to get it, although the company does note that some 2023 Cadillacs will top the list.

Built on GM’s recently announced Ultifi computer system (again, rhymes with “multiply”) and taking advantage of a myriad of optical cameras, radars and LiDAR sensors, Ultra Cruise will support automatic lane changes and on demand, left and right turns, obey traffic lights, avoid obstacles and even park in residential driveways. Further improvements and refinements to the system will be provided to vehicles via OTA updates. To avoid Tesla-style wrecks, GM will transfer Super Cruise’s driver attention camera system to the new system.