is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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General Motors may be shrinking its electric vehicle production, but the automaker wants investors to know its still committed to future technologies like automated driving, software-defined vehicles, and AI voice assistants. Today, GM CEO Mary Barra announced a string of new features coming to the company’s brands, like Cadillac and Chevy, that she said will help “define the next chapter” of America’s biggest automaker.
The news comes after GM said it would take a $1.6 billion loss related to its planned rollout of EVs. The automaker attributed the loss to the expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, which was eliminated as part of President Donald Trump’s budget bill. Experts predict EV sales to plunge in the aftermath of the credit’s loss, potentially imperiling America’s position as an automotive leader in the world.
But GM is trying to shift the focus to autonomous driving, AI, and advanced software as some of the potential ways the US can maintain its edge in the global race, especially as it continues to compete with rapid advances from China.
Automated driving, software-defined vehicles, and AI voice assistants
To start out, GM says it will debut a Level 3 hands-free, eyes-off highway driving feature in the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. The company was a pioneer in hands-free driving with the release of its Level 2 Super Cruise in 2017. And now GM is ready to take things to the next level.
GM says the new Level 3 system will work across all highways in the US — similar to the 750,000 miles covered by Super Cruise — and backed by advanced perception and decision-making technology.
As defined by the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE), Level 3 describes highly automated driving, where the driver still needs to be able to take over control of the vehicle upon request but can also take their eyes off the road in certain situations. It’s not a fully autonomous system, like Waymo, and often only works at reduced speeds on mapped roads. Some experts have argued that L3 systems can be dangerous given the need for drivers to stay attentive despite the vehicle performing most of the driving tasks.
In an interview on The Verge’s Decoder podcast, GM’s new chief product officer, Sterling Anderson, said the rollout of Level 3 driving would be defined by safety, as evidenced by the company’s track record with Super Cruise. Anderson, who previously worked at Tesla, where he led both the Model X program and the team that delivered Autopilot, said that GM’s hands-free system was an industry leader when it comes to safety.
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