GM made a splash at CES as the company unveiled the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV and provided a glimpse of the upcoming Equinox EV. They were joined by the Cadillac InnerSpace concept as well as news of thousands of BrightDrop orders.
However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg as GM also revealed a handful of other interesting details.
In particular, the company hinted the highly-anticipated Cadillac Celestiq will arrive in 2023 and be the first vehicle equipped with Ultra Cruise. Essentially the next evolution of Super Cruise, Ultra Cruise will allow for door-to-door hands-free driving.
Originally announced last fall, Ultra Cruise will be exclusive to GM’s premium vehicles and use a combination of cameras, radar and LiDAR sensors to get a 360° view of a vehicle’s surroundings. The system is far more advanced than Super Cruise as it reacts to permanent traffic control devices, supports automatic and on-demand lane changes, can handle left and right-hand turns, and can park in residential driveways – among other things.
We’ll learn more about the system closer to launch, but GM has previously said Ultra Cruise can be used on more than 2 million miles (3.2 million km) of roads in the United States and Canada. That’s nearly ten times more than Super Cruise and GM noted Ultra Cruise has the capability to support more than 3.4 million miles (5.5 million km) of roadway in the future.
As the company explained at the time, Ultra Cruise will enable customers to “travel truly hands-free” on “nearly every road including city streets, subdivision streets and paved rural roads, in addition to highways.” GM added the system has been designed to “ultimately enable hands-free driving in 95 percent of all driving scenarios” and will eventually be capable of being used on “every paved road in the U.S. and Canada.”
Besides talking about Ultra Cruise and the Celestiq, the automaker revealed they’re “pursuing a comprehensive path to autonomous mobility” with Cruise. This will see General Motors deliver the “first personal autonomous vehicle” as early as mid-decade. That’s big news as many autonomous vehicles – such as the Cruise Origin – are designed for ride-hailing applications and now GM is aiming to bring that technology to your personal vehicle.