GM’s Super Cruise revenue jumped 60% YoY in Q3
Dive Brief:
- General Motors reported that recognized revenue from its Super Cruise automated highway driving feature grew by roughly 60% year-over-year in Q3 and is on path to reach its 2026 target of roughly $400 million, according to its earnings report released Tuesday.
- GM said it’s on track to reach 850,000 Super Cruise subscribers by the end of the year as the hands-free highway driver assist system rolls out to additional GM vehicles. The company delivered 83,000 additional Super Cruise-equipped vehicles in Q3, with YTD sales reaching over 243,000 units, per its earnings report.
- As a result of GM’s growing Super Cruise subscriber base, deferred revenue for its OnStar digital business climbed to $6.8 billion, a YoY increase of roughly 40%.
Dive Insight:
Digital services and subscriptions plans for unlocking vehicle functions are generating new revenue streams for GM and other automakers. GM offers both monthly and yearly subscription plans for Super Cruise. Customers can pay $39.99 a month or $399 for a yearly plan available through its OnStar subsidiary and the service requires an active data connection. However, customers who purchase a model year 2025 or newer GM vehicle equipped with Super Cruise get three years of OnStar One, its all-in-one subscription bundle that includes the feature, for free.
GM continues to add new Super Cruise subscribers, which led to rapid growth in its digital business in 2026. The company added around 50,000 new Super Cruise subscribers in Q1 and another 70,000 in Q2. Earlier this month in its Q3 vehicle sales report, GM said its on target to add 1 million new OnStar subscribers in 2026, bringing its total subscriber count to 13 million customers.
Super Cruise allows for hands-free driving on compatible roads. Along with automatic and turn signal-activated lane changes. The system works with a GM vehicle’s adaptive cruise control using real-time cameras, sensors, GPS and lidar map data to help detect curves, helping make long drives more comfortable.
Super Cruise is currently available on more than 20 GM vehicles across its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands. GM is also offering Super Cruise on select trims of the next-generation Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups, two of its best-selling U.S. models. The feature can be activated on roughly 630,000 miles of mapped roads across North America.
In a letter to shareholders, GM CEO Mary Barra said that the company is betting on its truck division to be a “big driver of incremental Super Cruise adoption and digital revenue” as the automaker offers it standard on high-end trims of the new Sierra and Silverado, and as an option on most other models for the first time.
Barra said that Super Cruise penetration in its truck portfolio is expected to grow four to five times in 2027, which she said reflects strong customer demand and the company’s ability to scale the technology across additional customer segments. She added that GM is on track to reach $7.5 billion in “margin-accretive deferred revenue” from its software and services business for the full year, which includes both Super Cruise and Onstar plans.
“The compelling products, technology, and services we are delivering for customers around the world make us confident in the consistent, long-term growth of our earnings and cash generation, as well as our ability to return capital to shareholders,” Barra wrote in GM’s Q3 letter to shareholders.
GM is also planning to roll out a more advanced version of Super Cruise beginning with the Cadillac Escalade IQ electric SUV in 2028. It will allow drivers to take their eyes off the road on pre-mapped highways in North America.