Are there some vehicles you can drive without driving? Not yet. You can’t sit back and take a nap yet, but hand-free technology is getting better and closer to this reality.
Completely autonomous driving is likely still several years from being a reality. Drivers like to have control of their vehicles and aren’t used to giving up this control to computers and machines. Toss in the transition time, which will be painstakingly slow, the security concerns, which are many, and the costs associated with self-driving tech, and it’s not likely we’ll experience full autonomous driving on the open road soon, but some vehicles come close to allowing you to take a nap behind the wheel.
GM Super Cruise System
The GM Super Cruise is a Level 2+ hands-free system with more than 750,000 miles of mapped roads in the United States and Canada in its database. This system has been named MotorTrend’s 2025 Best Tech or driver assistance feature, allowing drivers to remove their hands from the wheel and take their feet off the pedals. The system requires you to monitor the road and stay engaged with the drive, but on the highway, a GM vehicle equipped with this feature can do most of the driving.
Tesla Autopilot
Naming the hands-free technology from Tesla, Autopilot, has been problematic, but the company has always maintained it is not a fully autonomous system. Even in the Full Self-Driving package, it’s a Level 2 system. This means a Tesla vehicle can handle most of the controls, and the system uses cameras, radar, and LIDAR to handle the driving duties on many streets. In many situations, you can keep your hands off the wheel, but the NHTSA has probed the company over safety monitoring.
Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot
The Drive Pilot system from Mercedes-Benz is a true hands-free system and the first Level 3 system legally available in the United States. It can be had in the 2025 CLA, EQS, and S-Class models and allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel in slow highway traffic that is moving at less than 40 MPH. Clear conditions are required, but this is the most advanced system available right now. It’s only legal to use in California and Nevada, and both states have added restrictions for drivers to only use it during the daytime and in good weather.
Genesis Highway Driving Assistant
This system comes standard in the G90 and offers hands-free technology to handle specific stretches of highways. It requires the driver’s hands to remain on the steering wheel to operate, but it has some customization features, which allow the driver to follow a car ahead in stop-and-go traffic or determine the vehicle should alert that it’s safe to proceed.
BMW Driving Assistance Professional
You can drive a BMW X5 with this feature and enjoy some semi-automated driving on certain highways. It uses the GPS and navigation data along with the vehicle safety systems to handle some hands-free driving. The Highway Assistant feature monitors the driver’s attention with an infrared camera and issues warnings if the driver is inattentive. This means you can have a hands-free experience, but you must continue to pay attention to the road ahead.
Ford/Lincoln BlueCruise
Not to be outdone by GM, Ford and Lincoln offer the BlueCruise technology in many vehicles. This is an elegant, hands-free technology feature that is intuitive and user-friendly. You can drive without your hands on the wheel during some stretches of road for short periods of time. It uses the advanced adaptive cruise control system along with acceleration, braking, and steering controls to stay centered in the lane while driving. This system has a camera that faces the driver to monitor attentiveness. If it sees that the driver’s head and eye position and movements aren’t sufficient for driving, it will alert the driver before disabling.
Nissan ProPilot Assist 2.0
The Nissan ProPilot system has been around for a little while, and it’s now in the second generation of the technology. This system facilitates hands-free driving and comes standard in the top trim of the all-electric Nissan Ariya. The Platinum+ trim is decked out, and this feature is used to help alleviate driver fatigue by taking some of the labor out of the task of accelerating, braking, and steering. The system uses hands-free and pedal-free driving on certain roads and illuminates when the system is available on the dashboard.
Automakers are improving hands-free technology, and you might be able to take a nap in your vehicle while driving in the future. Will you trust self-driving technology to get you where you need to go safely?
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