GM will launch hands-off and eyes-off autopilot on Cadillac Escalade in 2028
General Motors announced that in 2028 they’ll launch an AI-based automated driving system. Which will allow drivers not to look at the road and not hold hands on the steering wheel. They’ll start with Cadillac Escalade, of course. Sounds ambitious, especially considering the company closed its robotaxi business Cruise a year ago.
The foundation will be Super Cruise. This is a hands-off driver assistance system that appeared in 2017. And the new eyes-off and hands-off version will use lidar, radar and cameras. CEO Mary Barra promised they’ll roll out the product faster than the previous one.
Interestingly, GM engaged engineers from the closed Cruise division that dealt with autonomous robotaxis. When the company shut down this commercial business in December 2024, it absorbed the subsidiary. And merged its technologies with own developments. In a year even brought several Cruise engineers back.
In the US only Mercedes offers such a commercial Level 3 system, and even then only on certain stretches in California and Nevada during slow traffic.
Sterling Anderson, GM’s executive vice president, explained the logic. Previously, high cost of sensors and computing required that autonomous cars work around the clock as taxis. But now the industry reduced equipment costs, and GM has capacity for mass production. Turns out, first they tried to make robotaxis, failed. And now technologies will be implemented in personal cars.
