Something extraordinary is unfolding
Hanna INFINITI of Wilmington
Easy Miles to Topsail: ProPILOT Assist and the 2027 INFINITI QX60 on the US-17 Run
Thirty miles of US-17 separate our Market Street showroom from the Surf City bridge, and thousands of people drive some version of that road every weekday. ProPILOT Assist and Google built in do not make the trip shorter. They make it stop being work.
What ProPILOT Assist Actually Does on a Road Like US-17
ProPILOT Assist is two familiar things working together. Adaptive cruise control holds your set speed and your gap to the vehicle ahead, including down to a stop and back up again in traffic. Lane centering reads the markings and helps steer the QX60 to stay between them. Neither is new on its own. Running both at once on a 30-mile corridor is what changes the drive.
What it is not is autonomous driving. ProPILOT Assist is a hands-on system: your hands stay on the wheel, your eyes stay on the road, and the vehicle nags you if they do not. What it removes is the constant small workload of a corridor like US-17, where the speed limit changes, the traffic bunches at every light between Ogden and Hampstead, and you spend an hour a day making the same hundred micro-corrections.
Read this part twice. ProPILOT Assist is a driver assistance system, not a self-driving system. It cannot see everything, it does not replace safe driving, and the driver remains responsible for the vehicle at all times.
Grade to look at: ProPILOT Assist is standard on LUXE, SPORT and AUTOGRAPH. It is the single strongest reason to step past PURE if your miles are highway miles.
The Hampstead to Wilmington Commute, Five Days a Week
Pender County has been growing into Hampstead and Scotts Hill for years, and a lot of those households still work in Wilmington. That produces one of the most repeated drives in the region: south on US-17 in the morning, north on US-17 in the evening, past Poplar Grove Plantation both ways, with the bunching at the Ogden lights that everyone plans around.
A commute you drive 400 times a year is worth optimizing more than a trip you take twice. This is where the QX60's assist suite pays back daily rather than occasionally. Set the gap, let the adaptive cruise handle the accordion, and arrive at Market Street without the shoulder tension. Blind Spot Warning is standard on every 2027 grade for the merges, and the new Front Wide View camera helps at the corridor's blind side-road pull-outs.
Along the corridor
- Ogden and the Market Street junction on the Wilmington end
- Poplar Grove Plantation at Scotts Hill
- The Hampstead stretch of US-17 through Pender County
- Holly Ridge, where NC-50 splits off toward the island
Grade to look at: LUXE. Assist suite, heated front and second-row seats and the 16-speaker Klipsch system, without stepping up to a six-seat layout you may not want.
Google Built In and the US-17 Detour You Did Not Plan
US-17 is a single corridor with limited good alternatives. When something closes it, everybody who lives north of Wilmington finds out at the same moment, usually while already sitting in it. This is the practical case for Google built in, which is standard on every 2027 QX60 grade.
Because Google Maps runs natively on the 12.3-inch center display rather than through a phone, the traffic layer and the reroute are there whether or not your phone connected that morning. Google Assistant takes a spoken destination without a tap. The Play Store puts your audio apps on the head unit directly. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard as well, so a passenger's phone can still take over. It is a small thing until the morning a wreck closes a lane at Scotts Hill.
What the built-in nav is good for here
- Live traffic on the US-17 corridor before you commit to it
- Rerouting around the Ogden bottleneck without touching a phone
- Voice destinations for the Surf City and Topsail Beach turns
- Timing an arrival at the Surf City bridge on a summer Saturday
Grade to look at: any of them. Google built in and the dual 12.3-inch displays are standard equipment across the 2027 QX60 lineup, PURE included.
The Weekend Version of the Same Road: Surf City and Topsail
The road that is a commute Monday through Friday is a beach run on Saturday. From our showroom it is roughly 30 miles and 40 to 45 minutes to Surf City by way of US-17 and NC-210, then over the bridge onto Topsail Island. Keep going and the island runs south to Topsail Beach and north toward Sneads Ferry and the Camp Lejeune gate.
Same assist suite, different job. On a Saturday the QX60 is carrying seven people instead of one, which is where the three-row layout and the 75.4 cubic feet of maximum cargo room matter. On the way home, when everyone in the second and third rows has fallen asleep and you have another 40 minutes of US-17 in front of you, the assist suite is the reason you arrive without needing to sit in the driveway for five minutes first.
The weekend end of the run
- Surf City and the high-rise bridge onto Topsail Island
- Topsail Beach at the island's south end
- The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City
- North Topsail Beach and the Sneads Ferry side
Grade to look at: AUTOGRAPH if the weekend miles matter as much as the weekday ones. Massaging front seats and 20-speaker Klipsch Reference Premier audio change what an hour on US-17 feels like.
Which 2027 INFINITI QX60 Grade Fits a US-17 Commuter
One engine across the lineup. What separates the grades on this page is the driver-assist content and how the second row is arranged.
| Grade | Driver Assist | Seats | The Commuter It Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| PURE | Blind Spot Warning, Forward Collision Warning | 7 | Google built in and the dual displays are here, but ProPILOT Assist is not. Fine for short runs, thin for a daily US-17 commute. |
| LUXE Our pick | ProPILOT Assist standard, 3D Around View Monitor, Front Wide View | 7 | The commuter grade. The assist suite that does the daily work, seven belts for the weekend, Klipsch audio for both. |
| SPORT | ProPILOT Assist standard | 6 | Same assist content as LUXE with captain's chairs, Intelligent AWD standard and the gloss black exterior treatment. |
| AUTOGRAPH | ProPILOT Assist standard, ProPILOT Assist 2.1 available via Technology Package | 6 | The long-haul grade. Hands-off capability on compatible mapped divided highways, massaging front seats, 20-speaker Klipsch audio. |
Deciding between six seats and seven first? Our 2027 QX60 seating guide breaks the layouts down grade by grade. Full specifications are on INFINITI USA's 2027 QX60 specs page, and EPA ratings are published at fueleconomy.gov.
Questions US-17 Drivers Ask
What does ProPILOT Assist do on the 2027 INFINITI QX60?
ProPILOT Assist combines adaptive cruise control with lane centering. It holds a set speed, keeps a gap to the vehicle ahead, and helps steer the QX60 within its lane. It is a hands-on driver aid. You stay in charge of the vehicle at all times.
Which 2027 INFINITI QX60 grades come with ProPILOT Assist?
ProPILOT Assist is standard on LUXE, SPORT and AUTOGRAPH. The hands-off ProPILOT Assist 2.1 system is available on AUTOGRAPH through the Technology Package.
Can I use hands-off driving on US-17 between Wilmington and Hampstead?
Not on every mile of it. ProPILOT Assist 2.1 permits hands-off operation only on compatible mapped divided highways, and much of the US-17 corridor north of Wilmington does not qualify. On those stretches the system works as hands-on ProPILOT Assist, which is still the version that does the most work in traffic.
How far is Surf City from Hanna INFINITI of Wilmington?
Surf City is roughly 30 miles north of our Market Street showroom, about 40 to 45 minutes via US-17 through Scotts Hill and Hampstead, then NC-210 across the Surf City bridge onto Topsail Island.
Does the 2027 INFINITI QX60 have Google built in?
Yes. Google built in is standard on every 2027 QX60 grade, which puts Google Maps, Google Assistant and the Play Store on the 12.3-inch center display without tethering a phone. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard.
What kind of fuel economy does the 2027 QX60 get on a highway commute?
EPA estimates are up to 22 city and 28 highway with front-wheel drive, and 22 city and 27 highway with Intelligent AWD. EPA estimates are for comparison only and your mileage will vary.
Is the QX60 a good fit for a Hampstead to Wilmington daily commute?
It is a strong fit. The Hampstead commute is a repeated stop-and-go highway run, which is exactly the drive ProPILOT Assist was designed to take the fatigue out of. Pair it with the LUXE grade and you get the assist suite, heated seats and the 16-speaker Klipsch system as standard.
What Wilmington and Pender County Owners Say
Drive Your Own Commute in a 2027 INFINITI QX60
Take one north on US-17 and turn ProPILOT Assist on for the stretch you drive every day. That is the only test that answers this question. We are at 5730 Market Street, on the Wilmington end of the same road.
Hanna INFINITI of Wilmington | 5730 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28405 | (910) 338-2014
ProPILOT Assist and ProPILOT Assist 2.1 are driver assistance systems. They do not replace safe driving and cannot prevent all collisions. The driver remains responsible for the vehicle at all times. ProPILOT Assist 2.1 hands-off operation is limited to compatible mapped divided highways and requires the driver to keep their eyes on the road. EPA fuel economy estimates are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage will vary with driving conditions, driving habits and vehicle condition. Specifications are for the 2027 INFINITI QX60 and are current as of August 2026. See Hanna INFINITI of Wilmington for complete details.