General Motors (NYSE: GM) announced today that Ultra Cruise1, the company’s next-generation advanced driver assistance system2 designed to enable hands-free driving in 95% of all driving scenarios, will have a 360-degree view of the vehicle through a unique sensor suite when it launches on the ~$300,000 Cadillac CELESTIQ 3 in early 2024. There are of course many regulatory and insurance issues outstanding.

The destination-to-destination hands-free system will use a variety of cameras, short- and long-range radars, LiDAR behind the windshield, an all-new computing system and a driver attention system to monitor the driver’s head position and/or eyes in relation to the road to help ensure driver attention. These systems work together through what GM calls “sensor fusion” to provide Ultra Cruise with a 360-degree, three-dimensional representation of the vehicle’s surroundings.

There is a caveat: While GM expects that customers will be able to travel truly hands-free with Ultra Cruise across nearly every paved public road in the U.S. and Canada, including city streets, sub-division streets and rural roads, in addition to highways – this will happen over an unspecified period of time. Vehicles equipped with Ultra Cruise hardware will receive incremental enhancements through over-the-air software updates. GM is focused on expanding ADAS accessibility with the combination of currently available Super Cruise4 driver assistance technology and eventually, Ultra Cruise, bringing these technologies to more customers on more vehicles, in more regions at more price points.