Cadillac has announced that it will begin to roll out its Super Cruise feature to all of its vehicle models in 2020, making driving a little simpler for those who own compatible vehicles. That said drivers will need to have an active OnStar service plan with emergency service for the Super Cruise feature to work. This expansion of the driver assistance feature means more drivers will be able to hit the road in just a couple of years and let the vehicle do the driving for them. In particular cases, at least.
Super Cruise is not intended to be a full replacement for the driver behind the wheel and act as a fully autonomous driving system like the ones that can be found on Tesla vehicles such as the Model S. It does use LiDAR technology (specifically LiDAR map data) to help drivers be hands-free behind the wheel, but it will only work for various limited-access freeways in the U.S. and Canada, meaning you won’t be able to use it while driving through town on normal city roads. Still, it will allow drivers to allow the vehicle to take over the handling of steering and acceleration/deceleration on those limited-access freeways, and with it coming to more vehicle models that Cadillac offers more people will have the option to engage it.
Additional vehicle models from Cadillac are also just the first step of this expansion. Starting after 2020 at some point the Super Cruise feature (which Cadillac boasts is the first true hands-free driver assistance feature) will make it to other car models under the GM brand. Cadillac doesn’t specify what other car brands will be getting the feature though, just that they will be brands under the GM umbrella, which makes sense as Cadillac itself is a GM brand. Alongside the expansion of the Super Cruise feature Cadillac is also planning to expand the V2X Communications technology, which it uses to alert drivers to various things such as hazardous road conditions and changing work zones among other things, to a “high-volume crossover” by 2023, and eventually to other vehicles that Cadillac will have in its lineup.