Cadillac’s Super Cruise ranked as best automated driving system by Consumer Reports, leading Tesla at #2

• Capability & Performance
• Ease of Use
• Clear When Safe to Use
• Keeping Driver Engaged
• Unresponsive Driver

Consumer Reports highlights how it considers all the systems to offer driver assist features rather than self-driving features.

CR experts stress that the systems are not intended to be self-driving features. However, in the right circumstances, such as on long highway drives or in stop-and-go traffic, they can help relieve driver fatigue and stress.

CR says that Super Cruise won out as it believes it offers the best balance of features with safety, earning a score of 4/5.

Cadillac’s Super Cruise (shown above) was top-rated because our testing shows it does the best job of balancing high-tech capabilities with ensuring that the car is operated safely and that the driver is paying attention.

Tesla Autopilot landed with a 3/5 rating, with it beating out all the other systems for both the “Capability & Performance” and “Ease of Use” categories.

Nissan’s ProPilot Assist came in third scoring 2/5, while Volvo’s Pilot Assist scored poorly with 1/5.

In our Super Cruise review, we noted that it was sometimes inconsistent and difficult to engage, but it was almost as reliable and smooth as Tesla Autopilot once activated. While the light embedded in the steering wheel offers some benefits, we did find it to be distracting.

There is a huge green light in the steering wheel, as you can see in the video above, which was somewhat distracting, but it was also nice not to have to worry about keeping pressure on the steering wheel while driving.

As we noted last year, GM is walking a fine line by calling Super Cruise a “hands-free” system.

By not requesting that the driver keeps their hands on the wheel, it could be argued that the system sounds like the level 3 autonomous driving system described by SAE International and adopted by the DOT.

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But at the same time, GM is requesting that the driver stay attentive at all time, which is not exactly level 3, and it even implemented what is likely the first driver-facing camera to monitor the driver’s attention.

A big advantage for Autopilot is that Tesla vehicles receive OTA updates that add and improve features.

The v9 Autopilot update has brought new features like Mad Max mode, path planning, and Navigate on Autopilot. We got our first look at Mad Max mode in action this week.

Notably, Tesla also has a big advantage over other automated driver systems with its fleet already totaling over 1.2 billion miles so far. When including data from shadow mode, Tesla may have valuable data on almost 8 billion miles of driving.

Check out the full review from Consumer Reports here.