• GM says its Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system could earn it $2 billion USD a year within five years.
General Motors' (GM) Super Cruise semi-autonomous driving system is one of the most efficient on the market. It’s often cited as the benchmark after Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) autonomous system.
The company has previously said the technology would enable it to assess whether consumers are prepared to pay for a permanent subscription to make use of such a system.
Proof of that would take time, of course, since new owners who paid for the option with their vehicle purchase were given a free three-year trial subscription. Which, also of course, is plenty of time for users to get used to the technology and hopefully not want to do without it.
We now have the first data on that, as reported by Automotive News. GM has reason to celebrate. Around 20 percent of the 18,000 or so buyers who chose the Super Cruise system for their vehicle signed up for a paid subscription after the three-year trial period.
GM CEO Mary Barra shared that statistic in January during the company's 2024 fourth-quarter earnings conference call.
And GM expects to double its subscription numbers this year, when owners of an additional 33,000 vehicles will have a decision to make. Mary Barra didn't reveal how much the subscriptions were bringing in, but she did say that within five years, the company expects annual revenue of $2 billion USD thanks to the Super Cruise system. No mean feat.
According to GM, most of the revenue comes from the addition of the option to the vehicle purchase price ($2,500 CAD to $3,000 CAD). After the trial period, Super Cruise costs C$30 per month in Canada.
The system works well, and just as importantly every year it benefits from updates that make it possible to use it over an ever-growing number of kilometres of road. By the end of this year, that will mean users of road networks in Canada and the U.S. will be able to use their Super Cruise on 2 million km of road.
The system operates not just on highways but also on smaller roads. It can make lane changes on its own, and it can be used in towing situations.
GM is also including it in more models every year, which of course adds to the number of potential customers at the end of each trial period. This year alone, just at Cadillac, it will debut in the Escalade IQ, Vistiq and Optiq.
Enthused CEO Mary Barra, “2025 will also be a year of rapid growth for Super Cruise across all our brands. Our customer-focused strategy with Super Cruise is to continually refine and expand its capabilities to make it indispensable. This is how we set the stage for high-margin recurring revenue streams from subscriptions.”