GM Patents A Camera That Watches The Drag Strip Lights And Automatically Launches Your Car

General Motors just won a patent for a launch control system that watches the Christmas Tree at a drag strip and launches the car for you. US Patent 12,780,203 was granted on November 3. It covers a camera-based system that predicts the green light and fires off the launch without the driver touching a pedal.

The filing describes cameras trained on the staging lights, software that reads the sequence, and a control system that handles braking, torque, and throttle through the start.

GM's Patent Automates The Drag-Strip Launch

Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X Quarter-Mile Run

Photo by: Chevrolet

Titled "Methods and Systems for Coordinating Launch Control for Vehicles for Racing," the patent was first filed in January 2025 and published in July 2026 before issuing this week. According to Road & Track, the system uses onboard cameras to identify the Christmas Tree and track its light pattern in real time.

Once the car is staged, the system can prepare for launch before the green light even appears. It holds brake pressure and stages torque automatically after the driver lets go of the pedals. The car does the holding and the timing, not the driver's foot.

Road & Track called it the possible dawn of push-button drag racing, saying the patent could change how amateur racers approach a starting line. The outlet added it would be "eager to see how close it can come to cutting a perfect light" if GM ever builds it.

GM has a history of automating sequences a driver used to handle alone. The automaker has also patented active aero control and an over-the-air camera update system, both aimed at software doing work that used to sit entirely with hardware or driver input.

Gallery: GM Launch Control System Patent Illustrations

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Source: General Motors

Pro Tree And Sportsman Tree Timing Explained

The patent's most specific detail is how it tells two different starting-light formats apart. A Pro Tree fires all three amber lights simultaneously, with the green appearing 0.4 seconds later, rewarding reaction time over anticipation.

A Sportsman Tree instead fires its ambers in sequence, spaced half a second apart, before the green comes on. The system is designed to recognize which format it's looking at and adjust its predicted launch timing to match.

The two formats reward different skills, and a system guessing wrong would either jump early or launch late. The patent doesn't specify how the camera tells them apart in poor lighting or at unfamiliar tracks, details that would matter to anyone actually racing with it.

Nothing in the filing names a vehicle, a model year, or even a vague production timeline, and GM hasn't confirmed any plan to bring the system to market.

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