Here's why Cadillac's Super Cruise handsfree highway-driving technology is the luxury brand's killer app

• At GM's EV day in Detroit, the carmaker also provided details on updates to Cadillac's Super Cruise system, which enables fully handsfree highway driving.
• Super Cruise has been limited to a single Cadillac model, the CT6 sedan, but it's coming to new Cadillac vehicles in 2020, including the Escalade SUV.
• A crossover SUV version of the all-electric Chevy Bolt will be the first non-Caddy to get the Super Cruise tech.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

General Motors held an electric-vehicle day event at the company's Technical Center near Detroit this week to showcase a range of forthcoming electric cars and a new battery technology.

But GM also spent some time talking about Super Cruise, its fully handsfree self-driving system, which has only been available on one Cadillac model, the CT6 sedan.

Here's the staggering statistic: 85% of owners who drive Super Cruise-equipped cars told Cadillac that they'd never considering buying a vehicle that doesn't have the tech. That's 85% of a relatively small number of people. But still, it's 85%.

I tested Super Cruise a few years ago when it first hit the market, and I was extremely impressed with the early iteration of the system. It's the best semi-self-driving technology on the market.

It can't perform in as many different environments as a major competitor such as Tesla's Autopilot. But in its carefully-defined operational context - mapped highways - it's more or less faultless. Since its introduction in 2017, Cadillac hasn't had a single issue with the system. (Super Cruise combines on-board cameras and radars with sophisticated GPS and detailed laser-radar maps to enable a vehicle to know exactly where it is at a given point in time.)

Many of the upgrades to Super Cruise, coming in 2020, are minor and related to consumer feedback about how to engage that tech.

But one new feature stands out.

With the current version, if a driver wants to move from one highway to another, he or she needs to take back control while their vehicle negotiates an interchange. In the future, Super Cruise would be able to handle that maneuver while Super Cruise is engaged.

Super Cruise will also tweak how it monitors whether a driver is paying attention while in the handsfree mode, which while operating displays a large green light bar on the steering wheel. The improvements are designed to prevent the system from over-intervening.

The technology is now a $2,500 option for CT6 buyers.