GM’s Super Cruise Hands-Free Driving Feature Blew My Mind Over 2,000 Miles

On a road trip deep into Canada with the loaded GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, one big thing stands out.

Published April 11, 2023

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Updated April 12, 2023

As convenient as flying can be, some places are remote enough that driving makes more sense. Such is the case with Murdochville, Canada, a tiny town (2016 pop: 651) nearly 400 miles northeast of Quebec City.

That’s the decision three buddies and I made when we chose to check this locale — which serves as a base camp for some pretty killer backcountry skiing and splitboarding in the Chic-Choc Mountains — off the bucket list. As our destination was also 869 miles from my New York City apartment, this trip proved the perfect occasion to put GMC’s most tricked-out SUV, the Yukon Denali Ultimate, through its paces.

Now, a lot of things stand out about this nearly $100,000 rig, including the boss 18-speaker Bose sound system, massage-ready front seats, luxurious wood-and-leather-lined interior, running boards that automatically deploy whenever you open the doors and tons of space for four dudes and all their ski and snowboard gear. But as we took the YDU on a nearly 2,000-mile adventure, one futuristic feature truly dominated our chatter: GM’s hands-free driving tech, known as Super Cruise. Here’s why — complemented by some Canadian atmosphere showing off the vehicle, of course.

Super Cruise Is Super Smart

I remember trying out Tesla’s self-driving feature several years ago on a test drive. While I was impressed, it still felt like a novelty. I had similar feelings about Super Cruise until I began playing with it on the relatively short drive from NYC to my buddy Giuseppe’s place in New Paltz the day before we’d make the nearly 800-mile push from there to Murdochville.

I started with simple cruise control and adaptive braking, which is pretty handy for giving your foot a rest on the highway. Then, at the touch of a button, the light bar on the steering wheel illuminated blue and then green, and Super Cruise was happening.

The most striking thing is once you set a cruise control speed, you’ve empowered the vehicle to do what it can to maintain it, most notably by using its cameras and radar to detect road markings and other vehicles. Doing so, it can then not only stay in its lane but also engage the turn signal and automatically change lanes when the moment’s right. If you set the cruise control speed high enough, you’ll be zigging and zagging through traffic like a robotic Lewis Hamilton.

But You’ve Gotta Stay Engaged — and That’s a Good Thing

It’s kind of scary how quickly I came to trust Super Cruise and let it do its thing while I rocked out to the Allman Brothers at 75 miles an hour. On that very first drive, I was texting Giuseppe brief updates on my ETA, and the next morning, after rolling out at 5:30 a.m., I let it handle much of the highway action, even while I chowed down on some breakfast empanadas picked up at our first pit stop.

But that isn’t to say you can watch TikToks or snooze while driving. A small camera on the dashboard tracks your head and eye movement, and if it senses a lack of attention, Super Cruise deactivates: the seat vibrates, the green light bar blinks and then turns red and the display tells you to grab the wheel and take control. It’s not quite as dramatic as, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger overpowering a Johnny Cab, but if you don’t respond, the vehicle will literally slow to a stop.

Giuseppe handled half of the miles and learned firsthand that Super Cruise has little tolerance for smartphone-addled drivers. He told me that while I was napping in the back, he texted one too many times — the system completely shut down and made him wait several minutes to engage Super Cruise again.

Super Cruise’s “Butt Haptics” Are Quirky

Along with the light bar and the display behind the steering wheel that indicates such usual metrics as your speed, cruise control speed and lane changes, the most noticeable sign of Super Cruise is what I call “butt haptics.”

Basically, anytime the vehicle goes to make a lane change — or it senses you doing something inadvisable, like veering out of your lane or backing into a snowbank — the seat vibrates. It has a bit of a language, too: a buzz on the left cheek when it’s switching to the left lane and one on the right cheek when it’s headed that way.

It takes some getting used to and sometimes feels superfluous, but I did find some of the pulsing kind of helpful and safety-enhancing in its own weird way. Speaking of weird, here’s a funky thing you can do when Super Cruise is engaged — flick the turn signal stalk on the highway, and if the road is clear, the vehicle will change lanes without you doing another thing.

Super Cruise Doesn’t Always Work — and Some of Its Moves Are Disconcerting

Not long after we crossed the border into Canada, I got a notification I hadn’t before: “Super Cruise Unavailable.” We all began to theorize that maybe the whole damn thing doesn’t work in Canada for Byzantine legal reasons.

We were totally wrong. Later on, it worked just fine. Basically, as long as there are clearly visible lane markings, the system seems able to function. But if the road is covered in snow — or it’s a dirt road like the one we encountered on one of our splitboarding jaunts — you’re SOL.

That’s understandable, but I do want to note a couple of moments where the AI gave me pause. First, if you set the cruise control too fast, it can occasionally accelerate into turns in a way no human would. Second, when it comes to passing large vehicles like semi trucks, a human driver typically will give them a wide berth. Super Cruise passes them like it would any other vehicle, and unless you like the feeling of “buzzing the tower,” so to speak, it can feel a bit freaky.

Super Cruise Is a Major Conversation Piece… for Now

Even with these quirks, however, the title of this story is accurate: Super Cruise really did blow my mind, and of all the features people commented on during this very long road trip — we drove all the way back in one day — it was easily top of the list. When our buddies thanked Giuseppe and I for driving, we felt kind of sheepish, like an airline captain who uses autopilot for everything but takeoffs and landings.

One thing that really stands out is something the YDU didn’t do, which is leave me feeling totally exhausted upon arrival at our lodgings after some 14 hours on the road. That says a ton for both the comfy interior and certainly for Super Cruise. It’s pretty awesome to endure such a punishing drive and wake up the next morning refreshed and ready to tackle a mountain.

GM has done impressive work creating a system that safely and efficiently makes driving less taxing, essentially letting the driver monitor highway maneuvers and take over when necessary. That alone makes Super Cruise something to talk about — while wondering how long it will be till such functionality is so standard it is taken for granted. As someone who still appreciates manual shifting, I hope that day doesn’t come too soon.