A Tesla FSD alternative: 2025 Chevy Blazer EV RS is offered with Super Cruise gen 2.
The choice for many EV buyers in 2025 will be among competing autonomous driving technologies. Choose carefully. Very carefully.
Background: these days I test a lot of electric vehicle Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, or ADAS. In the past six months I’ve tested: Tesla Autopilot and Tesla Full Self Driving, General Motors Super Cruise (on various GM EVs including the Chevy Bolt EUV Premier, Blazer EV and Cadillac Lyriq), Honda Hands Free Cruise, Ford BlueCruise, Rivian Highway Assist, and Subaru’s Eyesight (on the Subaru Solterra EV).
Choose carefully
If I were to suggest one single thing all EV buyers should do in 2025, it’s this: find out if the car you’re eying is offered with an ADAS. Then do a lot of research. Most legacy car dealers are not up front about (0r may not even know if) the EV they’re selling has an ADAS. And I would strongly suggest not skimping on an ADAS. If you dismiss it as a gimmick, you’ll eventually regret not having it, in my humble opinion. It makes a huge difference in the driving experience and makes you a better driver, to boot. Within five years, it will be as common as — and as necessary as — cruise control.
Tesla FSD — the leader
Tesla’s Full Self Driving, or FSD, is the clear leader. But that doesn’t mean I would recommend it. I did extensive testing of version 12 (have not tested version 13 yet). It was both mind blowingly impressive and scary at the same time. FSD will essentially drive the car anywhere (including right into your garage). There is no highway-only restriction, which is found on most competing ADAS. So Tesla FSD will negotiate complex local driving scenarios that competing ADAS won’t touch. Why won’t the competition do something similar to FSD? Because it’s really hard and it is fraught with unpredictability. Other EV manufacturers don’t want that kind of liability hanging over them like the sword of Damocles.
Bottom line: FSD is a religion for many Tesla owners who swear by it. My experience has been a little different. In Los Angeles (where I live), FSD was mostly amazing but in certain scenarios exhibited bizarre (and dangerous) behavior. (Note that Tesla Autopilot is more basic and similar to competing ADAS technologies so I’m not covering it here.)
GM Super Cruise
I would put Super Cruise in the No.2 position among ADAS offered in the U.S. It’s not only fairly stable and truly hands free but is being adopted on an increasing number of EVs, including: Honda Hands Free Cruise offered on the Acura ZDX Type S, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Optiq (standard), Cadillac Escalade IQ EV, Chevy Blazer EV, and Chevy Equinox EV.
I would recommend Super Cruise because it strikes the right balance between convenience and safety. You know where Super Cruise will work and where it won’t. Taking a long trip (or not-so-long trip) on an Interstate? Super Cruise will relieve you of the drudgery of long-distance driving and get you there with a lot less stress. On local roads, however, you do the driving (which is fine with me because I prefer negotiating local roads). The usual caveat applies, however. Super Cruise (like any ADAS) can behave unpredictably sometimes. So most of the time you can relax but you have to remain vigilant.
Bottom line: GM’s Super Cruise (gen 2) is reliable and predictable. It takes care of the most tedious highway driving and leaves local driving to you. (See this video of Honda Hands Free Cruise — aka GM’s Super Cruise gen 2 — tested on an Acura ZDX Type S.)
Ford BlueCruise
To be honest, Ford BlueCruise is not that different from GM’s Super Cruise (as spelled out above). So I’m not going to go into a lot of gratuitous detail about Blue Cruise. There is one crucial difference, however. Let me explain. I tested Blue Cruise 1.3 on a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT. And while its highway driving was impressive and very similar to GM’s Super Cruise gen 2, local driving was different. The Mustang Mach-E GT also has a lane-centering technology for minor two-lane highways and even some local thoroughfares. Call it a secondary ADAS that complements the main highway-based ADAS. Lane centering is a more primitive kind of ADAS and relies solely on reading the center line and shoulder line. Sometimes it works very well, sometimes it doesn’t (for example, if there are no clear center and shoulder lines). But I would call it a bonus. If your daily commute requires driving a long, minor two-lane highway, the lane centering technology can be a bonus and works where other satellite-based ADAS don’t.
Other ADAS systems: Rivian, Toyota/Subaru
Rivian has a good ADAS called Highway Assist that works a lot like GM’s and Ford’s. I’ve tested Rivian’s Highway Assist pretty extensively. And I would recommend it — with the usual caveats. No ADAS is flawless and you must always be ready to handle scenarios where the ADAS behaves unpredictably or suddenly disengages. The Subaru Solterra (a rebadged Toyota bz4x) has a decent lane-centering technology (as explained in the Ford BlueCruise discussion above) called Eyesight.
