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GM’s hands-free ‘Super Cruise’ achieves milestone in the Great White North

Published May 30, 2026  •  Last updated 20 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

General Motors Canada has announced its Super Cruise hands-free driving assistance technology now works right across the country. Photo by Handout /General Motors Canada

Canadians can now drive coast to coast – and barely touch the wheel.

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General Motors (GM) Canada has announced its Super Cruise hands-free driving assistance technology works right across the country for the first time, with the addition of supported roads in Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland.

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And so, whether it’s a summer road trip with the family, your daily commute (with stop-and-go traffic) or running errands after work, Super Cruise can transform a stressful experience into a way more relaxing one – if my hands-on (er, hands-off) experience is any indication.

Currently, Super Cruise is available in 23 GM vehicles across all brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick – and that includes both gas and electric vehicles.

It’s not an aftermarket add-on, so your vehicle either has Super Cruise or it doesn’t (many models beginning in 2018 do). It’s a subscription service you’ll need to pay for to use, usually after a multi-year free trial.

Here’s a primer on what it is, how it works, and the Canadian innovation driving it.

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General Motors Canada has announced its Super Cruise hands-free driving assistance technology now works right across the country. Photo by Handout /General Motors Canada

What is Super Cruise, exactly?

Part of GM’s OnStar family, Super Cruise might best be considered the evolution of Cruise Control.

But instead of simply maintaining your speed, it accelerates and decelerates, steers the vehicle for you (to keep you in your lane), and even changes lanes for you on the way to your destination.

To date, it works on more than 960,000 kilometres of mapped highways and other roadways across Canada and the United States.

Super Cruise is a Level 2 driver-assist system, meaning you must remain attentive and ready to take control at any moment. That is, while your hands may be off the wheel, your eyes must be on the road; a small camera is mounted to the top of the steering wheel column to ensure you’re staying alert.

If the technology determines you’re not paying attention, you’ll receive numerous alerts – sounds, lights, and even vibrations – and if you still don’t take the wheel, the vehicle safely pulls off to the shoulder, comes to a complete stop, turns on your hazard blinkers, and contacts an OnStar representative to ask if you’re okay.

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Also note, for added safety, the system will disengage automatically during severe weather, in heavy construction zones, or if lane markings become too difficult to read.

View of the 2025 Cadillac OPTIQ steering wheel with standard Super Cruise and steering wheel light bar activated. Photo by Handout /General Motors Canada

How it works, plus trailering support

Super Cruise operates through a fusion of high-tech sensors, cameras and mapping data.

This includes radar and LiDAR (to create detailed 3D blueprints of compatible highways), GPS (to track its position and monitor surrounding traffic) and other technologies that work together to help the vehicle discern exactly where it is on the road and stay in its lane.

If the vehicle is on a compatible highway, a small icon on the dashboard will illuminate, which indicates you can now press the Super Cruise button on the lower left of the steering wheel and a green light bar on top of the wheel confirms Super Cruise is engaged. Immediately, you’ll feel the vehicle take over. It’s wild.

An industry first, Super Cruise also supports trailering. Available on select trucks and SUVs, this allows hands-free driving while towing a boat, camper, horse trailer, snowmobiles and so on – automatically adjusting for the added length, wright and height of what you’re hauling.

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As of this spring, North Americans have driven more than 1.6 billion km with Super Cruise enabled.

While it won’t arrive until 2028, GM is currently testing the next stage in the evolution of Super Cruise: hands-off the wheel and also eyes-off the road. Therefore, you can safely read a book, play on your phone, look at your passengers while chatting, and perhaps even catch a catnap.

The Cadillac Escalade iQ will be the first vehicle to support this advanced Super Cruise.

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Tech developed in Canada, too

As if Super Cruise wasn’t cool enough, much of the technology was developed and tested at GM’s Canadian Technical Centre (CTC).

With three locations in Markham and Oshawa, Ont., the CTC leads Super Cruise’s control intelligence and precision map updates. In fact, the engineers in Markham built this system for Canadian roads, weather and conditions – and then exported it to the world.

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The CTC is GM’s second-largest automotive software development cluster in North America.

More than 1,100 engineers work at GM’s Canadian Technical Centre. Photo by Handout /General Motors Canada

Visiting the CTC in Markham

I visited the sprawling Markham Campus last week to see some of the behind-the-scenes work by the teams.

“We’re excited to have more than 1,100 engineers at our centre, who work on technology that goes into millions of vehicles globally across the GM lineup,” says Regan Dixon, senior manager for CTC.

Dixon says the four main areas of focus at the CTC are: vehicle software and electronics engineering, including thermal systems; automated driving and active safety (of which Super Cruise is part of); the digital vehicle experience, including the center console and phone support, and integration with Dolby Atmos audio; and data engineering.

“The data engineering team develops the pipeline to connect data from the vehicle, so we can improve all of our features and functions as the vehicle is experienced by our customers,” explains Dixon.

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GM Canadian Technical Centre Senior Manager Regan Dixon. Photo by Supplied

Over-the-air software updates delivered to the vehicle are also worked on at the CTC.

“The Oshawa Center is where we take it from the bench and we do more vehicle development, in our garages and machine shop, for our engineers and technicians to work with the vehicles there,” Dixon explains.

CTC’s Oshawa footprint also houses the McLaughlin Advanced Technology (MAT) track, a 55-acre testing facility that allows engineers to immediately put their code and autonomous systems to the test. (This is where I first tested Super Cruise with trailering, in fact, but it now works on public roads and not just a private test track.)

More than 100 patents come out of GM’s CTC every year.

“We’re so proud of the innovation of this organization,” Dixon says. “They’re always looking at ways that we can improve technology … it’s a part of the culture here to think about how to innovate and make something better.”

– Marc Saltzman is the host of the Tech It Out podcast and is the author of the book, Apple Watch For Dummies (Wiley).

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