General Motors to introduce advanced self-driving “eyes-off” driving in 2028, “first in the Escalade IQ”

Cadillac Escalade IQ

Turquoise lights in the door mirrors light up

In 2028, GM will introduce “Eyes-Off Driving” to the Escalade IQ, a fully electric model of its flagship SUV, the Cadillac Escalade, which will enable safe driving on highways without the driver having to take their eyes off the vehicle.

The system provides a visual cue that it is active through turquoise lights on the dashboard and door mirrors, allowing the driver to sit back, read or catch up on messages while the vehicle drives itself.

Unlike conventional systems that rely solely on vision to check their surroundings, GM has built a system based on redundancy using lidar, radar, and cameras integrated into the vehicle. At the core of this is “sensor fusion.” Sensor fusion uses lidar, radar, and cameras to recognize the surroundings and trains decision-making models based on driving data collected in the real world. Furthermore, high-precision simulations validate performance even in rare or dangerous situations, providing an eyes-off autonomous driving system that combines safety, reliability, and high performance.

GM has already proven that advanced driver assistance technologies can be safely scaled with its Super Cruise driver assistance feature. Since its introduction in 2017, Super Cruise has been deployed in 23 vehicles, logging more than 700 million miles of hands-free driving with zero system-attributed crashes.

GM is also combining its self-driving technology with that of Cruise, which joined the GM umbrella earlier this year. Cruise’s multi-modal perception system, AI models trained through 5 million miles of unmanned driving, and simulation frameworks for virtual testing will be directly integrated into GM’s next-generation driver assistance and autonomous driving programs.

Conversational AI equipped with generative AI “Gemini”

Starting in 2026, GM vehicles will be equipped with conversational AI powered by Google’s generative AI, Gemini. Drivers will be able to compose and send messages by voice, plan contextual routes such as searching for “routes with charging points near your favorite cafes,” and even prepare for meetings while on the go.

In the future, GM will also introduce its own custom AI. This AI will work with GM’s connected service, OnStar, to use vehicle intelligence to incorporate data tailored to the driver’s preferences and provide relevant vehicle-specific information in real time, such as the next maintenance date or the best route. Users can choose what content to share and how personalized it is.

With the user’s permission, the AI ​​can also provide on-the-spot support, such as explaining the one-pedal driving function, early detection of maintenance needs, pre-tuning the vehicle before the morning commute, and suggesting dinner spots based on past preferences and travel routes.

Eyes-off driving and conversational AI will run on GM’s next-generation centralized computing platform, scheduled for release in 2028. This new architecture will connect drivetrain, steering, braking, infotainment and safety via high-speed Ethernet, delivering 35x the AI ​​performance and 1,000x the bandwidth of previous models.

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