The Surprising Leader in Hands-Free Driving Isn’t Tesla

GM’s reaping the fruits of more than a decade of work. Super Cruise was announced in 2012, deployed on the first Cadillac model in 2017 (after a delay to add more safety features), and it’s been updated steadily since.

Super Cruise enables hands-free driving on mapped highways, but uses a camera to track the driver’s head and eyes to ensure they stay attentive.

By the end of 2025, Super Cruise will be available on about 750,000 miles of roads across the U.S. and Canada. It also works while towing a trailer on certain models.

Getting Super Cruise requires spending at least $2,000 for the trim level that includes it. After a three-year trial ends, owners can continue the service for $25 a month or $250 a year.

About 20% of customers driving Super Cruise-enabled models opt to subscribe after the trial period, GM announced in Q1 2025. People are paying for it—and that’s a big win for GM.

“It is still the best true hands-free system in terms of its capability, functionality, reliability, and where it can operate,” Abuelsamid said.

It seems like automakers and tech companies are just now starting to deliver on the autonomy promises of the 2010s.

Simply put, they invested billions of dollars in automated driving over the last decade, and they haven’t seen any notable returns yet, Abuelsamid said. Now the check is due.

Hence, a shift to consumer applications—making your next car drive hands-free on the highway.

It’s cheaper and easier than running a full-blown autonomous taxi service. Once, Uber billed a driver-free car network as a source of “magic profits,” he said, only for those dreams to collapse amid scandal.

“If you look at the prices, the cost for a ride in a Waymo is substantially higher” than a normal taxi, Abuelsamid said. “That’s not a solution that’s going to be mainstream, affordable.”

So now, these automated driver assistance systems (ADAS) also offer carmakers a path to their holy grail: recurring revenue from software subscriptions.

“There definitely seems to be some customer willingness to pay a subscription for features like this,” he said, as GM has shown.

Abuelsamid said not all of these systems are created equal.

“These differences may affect the customer experience and brand loyalty, especially as the worst of these systems may result in preventable injury or worse,” he wrote in the study.

Ford’s BlueCruise launched after GM’s did, but quickly established itself as a worthy competitor. In 2024, Ford owners logged 140 million miles on BlueCruise, up 33% over the previous year, and used nearly 50% of the time when driving longer than one hour.

Mercedes-Benz has a more advanced system called Drive Pilot, which lets you fully take your hands off the steering wheel and your eyes off the road. But it’s only legal in California and Nevada, and under certain conditions.

Similar features are available from BMW, Nissan, Rivian and so on. Meanwhile, others like Hyundai offer excellent radar-guided lane-keeping cruise control, but don’t allow you to go hands-free.

Then there’s Tesla, which is hanging its future on camera-only ADAS tech—no other sensors like radar or Lidar.

Tesla does not disclose subscription rates for Full Self-Driving, but one executive recently claimed 50%-60% of Model S and Model X owners purchase it outright. The take rate among its more mainstream cars could be much lower.

Abuelsamid called FSD “dangerously mis-marketed,” and it’s been the subject of scores of lawsuits and safety investigations. Yet Tesla is hanging its future on “solving” autonomy with its Robotaxi service.

“If you look at what is claimed versus what is delivered, I think GM is a lot closer to delivering what they claim,” Abuelsamid said. Most others are too. “Whereas Tesla makes huge claims, but doesn’t deliver on that.”

“It’s been pretty significant” in the field’s development as of late, Abuelsamid said. “Especially on the higher levels of autonomy.”

In other words, he said, AI is being used to train this technology to one day be capable of true self-driving, not just glorified cruise control.

“Manufacturers and suppliers are using it more and more, particularly on the perception stack—to understand the environment around the vehicle before it starts to make any decisions.”

In the U.S., the safety systems on your car are intensely regulated. These systems? Not so much. “Essentially nothing, especially at the federal level,” Abuelsamid said.

There are some restrictions on going completely eyes-off at the state level, which is why Mercedes’ system is so limited, he said.

Meanwhile, China has been much more heavy-handed with regulations, especially following a high-profile ADAS-involved fatal crash earlier this year.

The Trump Administration says it wants to provide more of a framework for ADAS tech and autonomous cars as they become more common. But Abuelsamid is skeptical.

“I'll believe it when I see it… when they have some real standards, performance standards, for the way these systems function,” he said.

In the meantime, third-party safety rating organizations like the IIHS could pick up the slack, he said. Some may implement a “testing framework” that pushes safety forward and tells consumers what they need to know.

I’ve used nearly all of the systems listed here, and Super Cruise is the one I trust the most. Tesla’s FSD has certainly improved over the years, but it’s still erratic, unpredictable and not especially useful in non-highway driving.

GM got a lot right here. But it took a lot of hard work to get there. Like EVs, this is a long-term investment with an unclear payoff point.

Automakers that don’t pursue hands-free and eventually eyes-free ADAS risk falling behind as these systems become key brand differentiators.

The global ADAS market is expected to nearly double to $67 billion by the 2030s, according to some studies.

But consumer education is critical: no car for sale in America today can fully “drive itself,” and that will probably be the case for decades.

As electric-vehicle tax credits end, almost every automaker that sells EVs had a blowout third quarter. [CNBC]

Here’s how Volvo’s notorious software headaches led to a rethinking of how it builds cars entirely. [InsideEVs]

It’s not just EVs; China’s newcomer auto brands are conquering the hybrid market in Europe, too. [Bloomberg]

The U.S. government shutdown—which includes the EPA and other agencies—will certainly impact the auto sector. [Automotive News]

Tax credits are gone. To sell EVs now, automakers are turning to aggressive deals, discounts, price cuts and even eating the $7,500 themselves. But for how long? [InsideEVs]

Is the U.S. really seeing a domestic car manufacturing renaissance, thanks to tariffs on imported vehicles? Not exactly—and the anti-EV whiplash is adding costs, too. What will all of that look like a year from now? [Reuters]

Foreign car companies have never really made a dent in Japan, where buyers overwhelmingly favor their domestic brands. Here’s why China’s BYD wants to be the first to change that. [Bloomberg]

More evidence that the auto industry is facing an affordability crisis: “Down payments fell to their lowest level in nearly four years, while the share of $1,000+ monthly payments and 84-month loans held near record highs.” [Edmunds]

Tesla’s new Model Y Performance is finally capable of vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging, so it can power your appliances—putting Tesla on par with many new competitors. [InsideEVs]

Mini’s new ChargeForward program “helps customers earn financial incentives and reduce carbon emissions by optimizing charging times.” [Mini]

America’s first residential “vehicle-to-grid power plant” is running on Ford F-150 Lightning trucks. [Electrek]

Finally live: another fast-charging hub at Newark Airport from Zapp, bringing the total number of ports to 16. [Airport Industry News]

“The vast majority of (single-day trips connecting major U.S. cities) now have a fast charger at least every 100 miles; most have far more than that.” [New York Times]

“It's clear to me that charging anxiety isn't a problem on this continent anymore,” writes my European colleague Andrei Nedelea after a long EV road trip across multiple countries. [InsideEVs]

250 miles of range in five minutes: BYD is chasing ultra-fast charging, but there are notable downsides to this, too. [Financial Times]

The new Porsche Cayenne Electric makes significant changes to how batteries are packaged and even repaired. [InsideEVs]

Are solid-state batteries really a game-changer, or are they still unproven and likely limited to expensive, higher-end performance cars? Steve LeVine examines the claims many solid-state companies are making. [The Information]

Chinese battery giant CATL is sending 2,000 workers to help build out a new battery factory in Spain. [Financial Times]

South Korea is a battery titan, but here’s how it remains outclassed by China. [Rest of World]

After last month’s immigration raid, LG Energy has begun sending Korean workers back to the U.S. [Bloomberg]

Law enforcement officials face a new challenge: how do you ticket a driverless car that breaks the rules? [New York Times]

Kodiak Robotics, which is working on self-driving heavy trucks, has gone public. [TechCrunch]

Mobileye has updates on its consumer ADAS systems: Supervision (eyes-on) and Chauffeur (eyes-off). Chauffeur will launch with Audi in 2027, but it won’t be entirely eyes-off at first. [Investing]

As Mercedes ups its autonomy and ADAS game, it’s looking for ways to turn your car into an office on wheels with features like in-car video meeting support. (I hate this as much as you probably do.) [Automotive News]

Mercedes has spun out a group of in-house chipmakers. This new company, Athos Silicon, aims to make energy-efficient chips for autonomous vehicles and other new tech. [Reuters]

There’s a lot of emphasis on how autonomous cars “see” the world. But external microphones and AI are helping them learn to “hear,” too. [IEEE Spectrum]

Meanwhile, Opel is working on predictive AI software that uses flashing exterior lights to communicate with drivers and pedestrians. [Automotive News]

“It is evolving very fast, probably faster than we even expected several years ago. But at the same time, the overall state of real intelligence is still very nascent.” Autonomous mobility company Pony.ai’s CEO James Peng on AI in China. [Time]