Super Cruise was superb, in my limited drive-time, and when it was willing to operate. It's a hyper-conservative approach to Level 2 autonomy — the level at which the driver must monitor the system, but can consider taking his or her hands off the wheel while being prepared to resume control when prompted.
Caddy bills Super Cruise as the first true hands-free self-driving technology for the highway, and if you accept the parameters, you can take your hand off the wheel for relatively long stretches and, if you keep you eyes engaged with the instrument cluster and don't defy the surveillance of the monitoring camera (which can deal with sunglasses and glare, by the way), it can feel as if an adult is piloting the vehicle.
But it really needs to stay in its Lidar-mapped box, on exactly the right type of freeway, to work.
Autopilot is vastly more ambitious, but in practice, it's still awkward. Then again, it's also learning on the fly, sharing data with Tesla's entire fleet of Autopilot capable vehicles and the mother ship in Northern California. So, in theory, it should benefit from future network effects and be able to match or surpass Super Cruise's highway talents once Full Self-Driving Capability arrives and gets regulatory approval. The bottom line is that Autopilot could be hands-free in many more environments that Super Cruise.
But Super Cruise is impressive and shows that if you test, test, test before launching and drastically restrict the range of hands-free opportunity, you can deliver a confidence-boosting hands-free system.
Now for the big question: Would I accept hands free with Super Cruise? After all, I won't with Autopilot.
I didn't spend enough time with Super Cruise to make that call definitely, but right now I'd answer no. But I think I'd be more comfortable with Super Cruise over time.
But don't forget that actually using Super Cruise is going to happen less frequently than using Autopilot.
What we ultimately have here is a difference in self-driving philosophy, each consistent with the company's culture. Cadillac and General Motors are Detroit and more conservative, but also far more experienced with testing and launching systems that aren't likely to need a lot of post-launch adjustment. Tesla is a Silicon Valley, boundary-pushing company and is willing to enlist owners in the development and refinement of its technology. This actually means that Tesla is trying to increase safety by getting more real-world data.
But it also means that Autopilot asks more of you. If you can deal with that, then you're going to like Autopilot much more than Super Cruise.