General Motors Looks to Double Number of Vehicles With ‘Super Cruise’ Driver Assistance
Earlier this week, General Motors outlined plans to increase driver assistance technology across its lineups for the coming year, reports Reuters.
Following the failure of Cruise, GM’s self-driving taxi business, the automaker plans to double the number of vehicles equipped with Super Cruise this year, which is currently around 360,000.
CEO Mary Barra said driver assistance technology is an area with growth potential, with GM estimating that Super Cruise could generate about $2 billion in total annual revenue within five years.
Super Cruise functions similarly to Tesla’s Autopilot, though it is equipped with a more extensive sensing system to detect distracted driving, said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research for Telemetry Insights.
The Super Cruise system also comes with additional hardware costs for components such as cameras, the radar, and the driver attention system; but Edward Jones analyst Jeff Windau noted that the profitability of software could mitigate that.
“Additionally, if it is a feature the customers value, you could see a high renewal rate (recurring revenue) and it could drive customer loyalty to the brand when they look for a new car,” added Windau.
