Cadillac Super Cruise is a subscription service

[GBrown #8092]

At least for the handsfree driving function

https://www.motor1.com/news/438458/cadillac-super-cruise-subscription/

I suppose it makes sense, but I don't recall it being advertised that way.

Glenn

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

May as well hop on a bus or take the train, but the word "Subscription" throws alarm bells at me.

The initial price of the car should cover everything, but I can see where the older cars, those without computers, will be the sought-after vehicle for drivers.

Just imagine when getting pulled up by the authorities for traffic checks, and the authorities scan the vehicle with a wifi tool, and issues out ten speeding tickets.   Or you travel under an overhead gantry, and the same wifi tool immediately shuts your vehicle down, after automatically sending the car to the side of the road to a stop.

Bruce.

[MaR]

It's a subscription because of the way it works. Supercruise relies on intricate mapping of the roads so it constantly has to be updated to function.

[Cadman-iac]

  Just one more thing they can suck money out of your wallet for each month.
 What ever happened to reading a map and just sitting behind the wheel and actually driving the car?

Rick

[dinhnguyen57]

Has anyone had experience with super cruise?

[Big Apple Caddy]

  Just one more thing they can suck money out of your wallet for each month.
 What ever happened to reading a map and just sitting behind the wheel and actually driving the car?

Nothing happened to those things.  No one is being forced to get, subscribe to, or use Super Cruise.  Maybe some day it will become a standard item like past new gadgets such as air conditioning, "traditional" cruise control, power windows, power locks, etc. but it's optional for now.

[GBrown #8092]

I was just curious if people were aware. I wasn't. Makes sense given the way it works, and teh amount of data it needs to work.

Still a better deal than BMW who will apparently start charging a subscription fee if you want to use the seat heaters.

Glenn

[MaR]

Has anyone had experience with super cruise?

It's on par with Tesla's Autopilot but it can only be used on premapped roads and adverse weather really throws it off.

[Rich S]

Cadillac will provide an individual who purchases a new vehicle equipped with the SuperCruise feature three years of updates and data as part of the "option" cost. After that, the subscription is required to continue the updates of the maps, etc. This is somewhat how the OnStar subscriptions were handled--the original purchaser received it for twelve months with the "option" cost, then a subscription was required to continue connectivity.

[James Landi]

Conjurers up the "boarder question" regarding certain technologies that were introduced and gradually proved irrelevant.  I'm thinking about the several car gps gadgets I purchased in the late 90's and early 2000's that I never use.  Or, m,ore to the point, the several more modern Cadillacs that have a full suite of data linkage to the car's computer, but I don't subscribed to.  The super cruise is an expensive option, so for the time being, virtually all owners will subscribe, however, will GM "support" the old technology in ten years?  Hate to sound cynical, however... we can all wish that brand loyalty would be a core value of this corporation... I suspect in the long term, maintaining a well designed Cadillac a decade or two (or three or four...) after it was produced makes one "Detroit's wore nightmare." James

[MaR]

Conjurers up the "boarder question" regarding certain technologies that were introduced and gradually proved irrelevant.  I'm thinking about the several car gps gadgets I purchased in the late 90's and early 2000's that I never use.  Or, m,ore to the point, the several more modern Cadillacs that have a full suite of data linkage to the car's computer, but I don't subscribed to.  The super cruise is an expensive option, so for the time being, virtually all owners will subscribe, however, will GM "support" the old technology in ten years?  Hate to sound cynical, however... we can all wish that brand loyalty would be a core value of this corporation... I suspect in the long term, maintaining a well designed Cadillac a decade or two (or three or four...) after it was produced makes one "Detroit's wore nightmare." James

It really depends if the systems have provisions to be upgradable in the future so they can still remain usefull. The first in car navigation systems started appearing around 2000 and I would say that they probably are not being updated anymore. They will still be useful for many years but at some point, their will be so out of date that they won't work. Same goes with connectivity. Early cars (10 years ago) already won't work as they were 2G. Many more modern cars have been shipped with 3G and that is going away in less than 2 years. I do know that most of these older systems do have upgrade paths but is someone willing to spend hundreds of dollars to upgrade a 10 year old car?

[Big Apple Caddy]

Hate to sound cynical, however... we can all wish that brand loyalty would be a core value of this corporation... I suspect in the long term, maintaining a well designed Cadillac a decade or two (or three or four...) after it was produced makes one "Detroit's wore nightmare."

As long as not having it (functioning) doesn't prevent the car from being used, it shouldn't be a significant issue.  Classic car enthusiasts have long still enjoyed cars even if they had faulty or non-functioning original features such as "traditional" cruise control, radio, power options, etc.

[David King (kz78hy)]

Has anyone had experience with super cruise?

Yes, I drove a 2018 CT6 from Detroit to the Grand National in San Marcos, TX and back, actually the car drove me.  The system worked great and after 100 miles, I finally got used to it and could relax.  Then I became upset when I could not use the system for road repair zones.  Since then, there have upgrades to the software and it works even better  now and I thought it worked fine then.

I gave test drives in the car during the GN and everyone who experienced it seem to really like it.

The car was GM captured test fleet car as I work for GM and was on the Omega program which is/was the CT6.

David

[TJ Hopland]

If the system is actually learning and sharing info with other cars and users that would be a good reason to make it a subscription service.    Got to pay people to keep things moving.    Construction zone would be a good example.   I think what triggers many of the systems to go into 'learn' mode is when the driver takes over.   One driver grabbing the wheel to swerve isn't noteworthy but when all the sudden there is a pastern and different drivers respond the same way in the same location you can start to assume that how they are doing it is the 'right' way and can send that new route to other cars,  basically updating the map.   

[Cadman-iac]

 So does it actually steer the car for you,  like an auto pilot, or just set the cruise control speed as posted wherever you are? I guess I don't understand exactly what this system is/does.

Rick

[cadillacmike68]

If the system is actually learning and sharing info with other cars and users that would be a good reason to make it a subscription service.    Got to pay people to keep things moving.    Construction zone would be a good example.   I think what triggers many of the systems to go into 'learn' mode is when the driver takes over.   One driver grabbing the wheel to swerve isn't noteworthy but when all the sudden there is a pastern and different drivers respond the same way in the same location you can start to assume that how they are doing it is the 'right' way and can send that new route to other cars,  basically updating the map.   

Could have used something like that when they shut down 3 out of 4 lanes on 8 mile long bridge from St Pete to Tampa last night, causing a 2 hour jam up and there was NO discernible reason for it when I go the the end of the jam. Ruined a good night out in the DvEille convertible.

Trapped on a loooong bridge, the engine slowly heated up...

[TJ Hopland]

I believe it does actually steer the car for you if conditions are right.   If it can talk to and learn from other cars that greatly increases the chances that conditions are right. 

And yes if its all talking live all the time and there are enough cars on the same network involved it could know about a traffic jam as soon as people started hitting the brakes or dropping speed in an area that normally doesn't require that and possibly start warning or rerouting people that much faster. 

And yes one step closer to the machines taking over   



 

[Cadman-iac]

  Thanks TJ,
 It sounds like it does more than just a regular cruise control. I appreciate the explanation.

Rick

[MaR]

It does steer like the Tesla system. it does not talk to other cars though. It can see other cars and avoid them but the data it uses to navigate is supplied and updated by GM or whatever division handles that.

[TJ Hopland]

No surprise the talk directly to other cars thing isn't anything more than testing at this time.  Makes sense tho not enough cars out there yet and then the likely lack of a standard and security issues. 

I wonder how often any of the cars that are out there now talk to the 'mother ship' and report things they have learned?