GM to introduce eyes-off, hands-off driving system in 2028 (techcrunch.com)

GM announced at its GM Forward event that it will ship an eyes-off, hands-off driving system in 2028, starting with the Cadillac Escalade IQ. Built on its existing Super Cruise ADAS (launched 2017, now in 23 models and usable on about 600,000 mapped highway miles), the next-generation product adds lidar, radar and cameras for perception and is intended to operate on highways — including ones GM hasn’t pre-mapped. GM says the system will handle emergencies and sudden incidents, only requiring human takeover for scenarios like off-ramps, and will be rolled out faster than Super Cruise. Technically and strategically this matters: GM is folding Cruise’s tech stack into the program (AI models trained on roughly five million driverless miles plus a large simulation framework) and rehiring former Cruise engineers, leveraging scale to cut sensor/compute cost. The feature would qualify as SAE Level 3 automation — able to drive itself under certain conditions without continuous driver monitoring — putting GM ahead of most automakers if it reaches market as promised. It also contrasts with Mercedes’s limited, mapped Highway Drive Pilot and Tesla’s camera-only approach, highlighting different trade-offs in sensors, mapping, validation and regulatory paths toward broader autonomy.