GM unveils vision for future of transportation

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You hop into your vehicle, push a button, and it drives you to the office while you catch up on emails. After dropping you off, your car heads out to run some errands before picking you up in time for your kids’ activities.

That’s the vision for the future of transportation that GM CEO Mary Barra laid out during a media event in New York City on Wednesday.

“It’s more than just a vehicle. It makes your life easier, more streamlined, and more importantly, safer,” she said. “That’s what we’re working toward at General Motors.”

GM executives underscored this vision with numerous announcements, including plans to debut eyes-off driving starting in 2028, a new centralized computing platform, and the introduction of Google Gemini into vehicles beginning next year.

Wandering eye: GM plans to launch eyes-off driving tech on the Cadillac Escalade IQ, initially on highways. The system will signal to drivers that it’s active via turquoise lighting across the dashboard and exterior mirrors. This capability, according to GM, will enable drivers to “sit back, read, or catch up on messages while the vehicle handles the drive.”

GM’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), Super Cruise, which enables hands-free driving in certain situations, has been on the market since 2017 and is available on 23 models. GM says it has mapped 600,000 miles of hands-free roads in North America, and that Super Cruise users have logged over 700 million hands-free miles.

The automaker also is leveraging the expertise and tech stack from Cruise, the robotaxi subsidiary folded into GM. Cruise’s fleet drove 5 million fully driverless miles.

GM highlighted the redundancies that it’ll build into its next-gen ADAS, including cameras, radar, and lidar sensors. The system’s decision-making model is underpinned by real-world driving data and simulations.

“Through Cruise, we acquired best-in-class capabilities in simulation, perception, AI platforms, and behavior modeling,” Sterling Anderson, GM’s chief product officer, said. “We’re combining over a decade of deep expertise in both of these areas, in fleet-based autonomy and in large-scale driver assistance, to create the next generation of autonomous vehicles for personal ownership.”

Talk to me: “Good morning,” a voice said over the speaker. “I’ve queued up a movie for the kids and an audiobook for you.”

Dave Richardson, GM’s SVP of software and services engineering, used this interaction as an example of one way conversational AI can make life easier: by assisting during family road trips.

Execs cited a number of scenarios in which they see conversational AI helping drivers, from flagging maintenance issues to finding restaurants based on routes and preferences. Eventually, the automaker plans to release its own custom-built AI tool.

“Connected by OnStar, this AI will draw directly from your vehicle’s onboard intelligence to surface relevant, vehicle-specific information like upcoming maintenance needs or optimal route timing, with controls that let you decide what you share and how personalized you want the experience to be,” per a news release.

Compute: These capabilities will run on a new centralized computing platform and next-gen electrical architecture. GM said the platform will deliver up to 35 times more AI performance, 1,000 times more bandwidth, and 10 times as many software updates as its predecessor. The redesigned architecture is more streamlined and “consolidates dozens of electronic control units into a unified computing core that coordinates every subsystem in the vehicle in real time,” according to a release.

It’s slated to launch on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028, and eventually across GM’s lineup.

“As we create the car of the future, everything from AI to AV is possible through software,” Richardson said. “To unlock the promise of great software, we need a unified vehicle architecture, with the power to enable every experience in the vehicle, from propulsion to personalization.”