The Super Cruise is a great addition, Cadillac, but it isn’t THAT special
Cadillac created its own semi-autonomous driving system, called Super Cruise. It is, as they say, “the first true hands-free driving system for the highway,” which may sound like a breakthrough in this area but, well, it’s not. We now have a video in which we're explained how it works:
I remember my amazement when I first tested the Mercedes E-Class’ lane keeping assistant — that let me keep my hands off the steering wheel for ten seconds or so, before starting to yell at me and stop the car in the middle of the road immediately after. That was happening back in 2014 when the E (W212) got its mid-cycle facelift.
Now, from what I can understand here, the Super Cruise’s evolution over a 2014 technology is that it doesn’t ask you to keep your hands on the wheel. We all should know by now this — i.e. the autonomous driving system — is mainly a matter of legislative concern. Tesla was the first carmaker to take a higher risk and promote it boldly, and we all know what happened: people started letting themselves in the hands of the car like it was driven by Jesus, not some radars and cameras that don’t know how to interpret anything else besides what’s written on the tarmac.
Although it’s great to see more and more cars learn to drive by themselves, it’s a bit embarrassing to promote something as a “first” just because it hasn’t been done before in the exact same way. Just like the stupid Guinness World Records trend.