GM Begins Public Road Testing of Eyes-Off Autonomous Driving System Ahead of 2028 Escalade IQ Launch
General Motors has deployed more than 200 test vehicles on highways in California and Michigan to validate its next-generation Level 3 autonomous driving system, which will allow drivers to look away from the road entirely when it debuts in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ.
General Motors has begun supervised public road testing of its next-generation autonomous driving system on limited-access highways in California and Michigan, the company announced on March 23. The program marks GM’s most significant step toward delivering Level 3 driving capability to consumers since it shut down its Cruise robotaxi unit in December 2024 and pivoted toward building self-driving technology into personally owned vehicles.
The system under evaluation would allow drivers to take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel during highway driving, a category of automation known in the industry as Level 3 under the SAE International classification. GM plans to debut the capability in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ, the automaker’s largest electric SUV at more than 224 inches long, before expanding it to additional gas and electric models across its lineup.
A Fleet Built on Two Data Streams
GM’s testing fleet will grow to more than 200 manual and supervised development vehicles operating in live traffic environments, each staffed with a trained test driver who can take manual control at any time. The company said data-collection vehicles have already driven more than one million miles across 34 states in preparation for the supervised testing phase.
The program draws on two distinct pools of real-world driving data. Super Cruise, GM’s existing hands-free highway driving system, has accumulated more than 800 million customer-driven miles across 23 vehicle models. Cruise, despite its shutdown as a commercial robotaxi service, logged more than five million fully autonomous miles in complex urban environments without a human driver, providing GM with a foundation of edge-case scenarios and sensor data that few other automakers possess.
Sensor Fusion and a New Computing Platform
Unlike some competitors pursuing vision-only approaches, GM’s system integrates LiDAR, radar, and cameras directly into the vehicle’s body to build its perception layer. The automaker described the architecture as emphasizing redundancy, with multiple sensor modalities providing overlapping coverage of the driving environment.
The hardware runs on a new centralized computing platform that GM says delivers 35 times more AI performance and 1,000 times more bandwidth than its previous systems. The same platform will control infotainment, propulsion, and safety features, consolidating what had been separate electronic control units into a single integrated architecture. When the system is engaged, turquoise lights will illuminate both inside and outside the vehicle to signal autonomous operation to the driver and surrounding road users.
Highway First, Driveway-to-Driveway Later
GM has indicated that the initial consumer release will be limited to highway driving, with a longer-term goal of enabling driveway-to-driveway autonomous operation. The phased approach mirrors the strategy taken by Mercedes-Benz, which became the first automaker to deploy a certified Level 3 system in the United States with its DRIVE PILOT feature but restricted it to highway speeds below 40 miles per hour.
The competitive field for eyes-off driving has expanded rapidly. Ford announced in January 2026 that it would offer a similar system starting with a 30,000-dollar electric vehicle in 2028. Rivian, Tesla, Lucid, and Stellantis have also disclosed plans for eyes-off technology within the next few years. The convergence of timelines suggests that 2028 may become a watershed year for Level 3 driving in the consumer market.
From Cruise to Consumer
GM’s decision to redirect its autonomous driving investment from commercial robotaxis to personally owned vehicles followed the collapse of its Cruise unit, which suspended operations in late 2023 after one of its vehicles dragged a pedestrian in San Francisco. The company wrote off its Cruise investment and announced in October 2025 that it would instead pursue eyes-off driving as a feature integrated into production vehicles, starting with the Escalade IQ.
The pivot carries both technical advantages and commercial risk. GM retains the sensor data, software algorithms, and engineering talent developed during Cruise’s years of urban autonomous testing, assets that most personal-vehicle competitors lack. However, delivering a certified Level 3 system that functions reliably across the diverse conditions found on American highways presents engineering challenges distinct from those of a geofenced urban robotaxi service.
The public road testing now underway in California and Michigan will determine whether GM can convert that inherited expertise into a consumer product that meets the regulatory and safety thresholds required for eyes-off operation.