GM Is Getting Back Into Self-Driving Cars With 2028 Cadillac SUV

General Motors Co. is back in the autonomous vehicle game less than a year after shutting down its robotaxi unit, targeting a 2028 launch of a car that can operate without driver engagement. 

GM plans to release a Cadillac Escalade IQ electric SUV that, when on the highway, allows drivers to go hands- and eyes-free, the company announced on Wednesday. The feature will disengage on local roads, though GM wants to offer it for city driving eventually. GM plans to release the technology with more models, too, the Detroit automaker said. 

Late last year, GM backed away from its autonomous driving ambitions after an incident involving one of its Cruise robotaxis. In May, it signaled it had plans to reengage when it hired Sterling Anderson as its head of product development away from autonomous trucking startup Aurora Innovation Inc. 

During one of his first internal meetings at GM, Anderson pledged to make self-driving technology a top priority. He has since hired some Cruise workers back and brought in fresh autonomous vehicle talent, he said in an interview on Wednesday. He believes GM has a future — just not running a robotaxi service, but selling autonomous cars for personal use. 

“I would have been a strange choice for chief product officer if the company wasn’t committed to autonomy, right?” Anderson said. “I think there’s some signal in that. I wouldn’t be here if we weren’t doing AV, because obviously I believe in it.”

GM already offers a hands-free driving feature called Super Cruise that allows driver to go hands free but can only take their eyes off the road for a limited time.  

With Cruise, the company had been trying to compete with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo. Those ambitions were derailed when one of its cars struck and dragged a pedestrian in 2023.

Anderson has spent much of his career in assisted and autonomous driving. The former Aurora chief product officer wrote his Ph.D. paper at Massachusetts Institute of Technology around a decade ago about semi-autonomous driving. He also worked at Tesla Inc. on its AutoPilot system.