A GM spokesperson got back to us this morning confirming the news that Cadillac’s Super Cruise hands-free driving system comes with a 3-year trial before requiring a subscription fee to continue to operate on the cars equipped with this feature.
“Yes, Super Cruise requires a vehicle connectivity plan in order to operate, and that plan is offered free for three years on current products,” said GM spokeswoman Katie Minter. “The first 2018 Cadillac CT6 owners with Super Cruise will see this free access plan expire in September.”
GM said that it will announce renewal options and pricing after communicating with current owners first. “Messaging is going out to these customers shortly with information on their renewal options, and after that messaging goes out, we will be able to share additional information on plan costs,” said Minter.
As for the company’s plans for cars from other brands in the group beyond Cadillac that will soon be offered with Super Cruise, Minter told us that, “At this time, I can’t provide specifics on plan details for future product.”
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Cadillac’s Super Cruise driver-assist technology is widely considered one of the best on the market and in the coming years, will be added to a whole host of additional General Motors vehicles.
The system uses adaptive cruise control, lane-centering self-steering functions, and high-definition maps to allow for hands-free driving on more than 200,000 miles (320,000 km) of highways across the United States. It also uses interior-mounted cameras to monitor the driver to make sure they are paying attention. All sounds great, doesn’t it? It is, but as Motor Trend recently discovered, it does come with a caveat.
Read Also: GM Developing Ultra Cruise For Hands-Free Driving On City Streets
It was recently discovered that Super Cruise is not a permanent feature on select GM models and actually comes on a three-year trial basis. Once that three-year trial period is over, vehicle owners will have to purchase an Onstar plan to keep Super Cruise enabled. This is the case for all 2018, 2019, and 2020 models with the Super Cruise Package.
According to a Cadillac spokesperson, the vehicle’s adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping functions will continue to work even without an active OnStar account. However, these systems will not be geo-fenced and will not use the driver-monitoring system, meaning drivers will be prompted to keep their hands on the steering wheel every 15 seconds or the system will turn off.
The cheapest OnStar subscription costs $25 a month and we suspect most Cadillac owners will be willing to pay that to keep using the Super Cruise function.
CarScoops has reached out to Cadillac for comment and will update this article when we hear back.