General Motors will Begin Testing its Eyes-Off Driver Assistance Technology this Week

• 200 vehicles fitted with the new technology will start testing on highways in California and Michigan, with a test driver behind the wheel.

• This system will be an enhancement to the company’s current hands-free Super Cruise.

• The 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ will introduce this capability to the buying public.

Despite having one of the most competent hands-free driver assistance systems on the market, General Motors is working on a further improvement to Super Cruise.

Indeed, the American automaker is planning to launch a level-3, eyes-off version of this system in 2028.

In fact, testing on public highways will begin later this week, with a fleet of 200 vehicles set to roam California and Michigan highways, each with a test driver behind the wheel in case something goes wrong.

Data for this system’s knowledge bank had already been harvested over the last few weeks by vehicles driven by the company’s testers.

In addition, the eyes-off Super Cruise will rely on data gathered by the GM-backed Cruise robotaxi program which ran in San Fransisco between late 2021 and late 2024.

When it shut down the Cruise program, General Motors had said it intended to focus on semi-autonomous driving technologies for privately-owned vehicles instead.

Furthermore, the new system’s development is backed by experience from 800 million miles of hands-free driving performed by users of the current Super Cruise.

Like the current technology, the eyes-off Super Cruise will be limited to highways and numbered roads at first, but the automaker claims it will expand its capabilities to “driveway-to-driveway” trips later on.

This means that drivers should, at some point in the future, be able to punch an address in their car’s navigation system and relax while the vehicle drives them there all on its own.

The decision to launch this new technology in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ is reportedly meant to allow GM to monitor the system’s performance in customers’ hands before making it available to a wider variety of models.

Interestingly, the company says eyes-off Super Cruise will expand quickly to more affordable models, including electric and combustion-powered ones.

General Motors will be among the first to offer a level-3 semi-autonomous driver assistance system, but it won’t be alone, since Ford is also planning on an enhanced version of its competing Blue Cruise.

Source: Automotive News