GM Goes Back to Future with New Round of Driverless Vehicle Testing

by Michael Strong

Published: March 24th, 2026

gm goes back to future with new round of driverless vehicle testing

General Motors plans to begin testing 200 AI-based autonomous versions of its Super Cruise semi-autonomous technology. Using Cadillac Escalade IQs with supervising human drivers, the testing will start in Michigan and California.

If this sounds familiar, it is because the company’s already engaged in years of this type of testing through its now-defunct Cruise subsidiary, culminating in a fleet of Chevy Bolt EVs forming a robotaxi service in San Fracisco. The results were encouraging until a Cruise vehicle hit a pedestrian in October 2023. After months of investigations, pledges of change, GM decided self-driving vehicles were an investment it couldn’t afford to make at that moment.

However, that hasn’t stopped a plethora of other companies, such as Waymo, Tesla, Nuro, Aurora Innovation, Motional, and most recently Zoox, from moving ahead. And while GM officials never said the company would step aside and allow some other group to develop the technology as Ford did, the move to begin a new version of testing may come as a slight surprise, but it shouldn’t.

GM announced plans to introduce “eyes-off driving” in 2028 with the Cadillac Escalade IQ. So if that’s going to happen, so is some testing. However, GM’s doing the testing a little differently this time.

“Leveraging extensive data from manually driven vehicles running routes across select states and learnings from simulation and closed course testing, GM is now advancing its automated technology into the next phase: supervised testing operations on public roads,” the company said.

“This real-world testing generates valuable data that informs our ongoing simulation and closed-course testing, while building confidence in the signals from these important validation tools.”

The company plans to use data — more than one million miles of travel — already collected in real-world situations, plus the 800 million miles driven by Super Cruise-equipped vehicles. Plus the whole effort will use GM’s new centralized computing architecture to consolidate new data collected during the testing process.

Additionally, GM plans to create a “new safety report” during the testing to explain “how our Supervised Testing Operation Safety Case supports the safe operation of our supervised test fleet on public roads.” In essence, those who are interested can see what GM is using to develop the system.

[Images: General Motors]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.

#GM #GeneralMotors #CadillacEscaladeiq #Cadillac #GMeyeoffdriving #GMautonomousvehicles #selfdrivingcars #GMsCruise #gmsupercruise

Michael Strong

Michael Strong has spent more than 25 years writing about the automotive industry. A Detroit-area native, he’s written about everything from local car shows to product reviews to financial news. Currently he writes and edits for a variety of national and local publications. He’s also a longtime member of the Automotive Press Association and the International Motor Press Association, and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Hail Southern! Despite a love for ’70s land yachts and BMWs from the late ’80s and early ’90s, his personal vehicle is neither of those.

More by Michael Strong

Comments

Join the conversation

3 of 13 comments

Cor138612958 on Mar 27, 2026

If you don't want to drive a car, then take the bus.

1 Reply
- Jrhmobile on Apr 03, 2026
  
  There are plenty of times where I don't want to drive the car when I'm in the car.
  
  Stop and go traffic. Endless highway miles in the plains states. Equally endless two-lane farm-to-market roads in Texas. If I could pass those duties onto the car, and still have the ability to control the car when I want to drive it, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
  I like driving and I hate drudgery. I'm OK with the concept that my car can competently offer solutions to both those things.
  
  Like
Tom170698702 on Mar 27, 2026

I will never understand how anyone could think that self driving cars are a good idea.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Amwhalbi My 1972 Mercury Capri was my first stick shift car. God, I miss that thing. It was a blast to drive.
Vid169489471 The technology exists today to produce a variable color temperature (kelvin) LED lamp. It can vary from 2700k that soft orange look to 6500k the bright daylight with the bluish tint.Since everything in a late model car is computer controlled, it would be an easy task to write a few lines of code that enables your vehicle to not only dim down from hi to low beam but to shift color temp down to the 2700k range for oncoming traffic, then back up to 5000k once oncoming traffic has passed. For the operator it would be automatic and seamless. For older cars they could be retrofitted with LEDs that are 2700k on low beam and 5000k on hi beam. As far as standards, there could be a lumens max, and a minimum. Several States already have minimum lumen standards going back to the old incandescent bulbs. Why not update these to national standards.
Jam169859557 More regulation is needed for ALL vehicle lighting systems. [list=1][*]The lighting that is most blinding are the rapidly flashing red, blue and amber lights on emergency vehicles. The lights themselves are blinding, flashing so rapidly that it's impossible for even the sharpest eyes to adjust. What's worse, is the nature of the emergency requires a careful view of the area surrounding the emergency vehicle. There is something going on that needs to be seen. More flashing lights is not the solution.[/*][*]Brighter headlights need to be regulated. The tall riding vehicles do not need headlights positioned so high that they blind drivers in lower riding vehicles. And those heasdlights need to be aimed properly. When I first started driving my 2020 Subaru Outback, many drivers would flash their lights, hoping I would dim my lights. This stopped after I performed am easy adjustment that tilted the beam lower. Late model Subaru headlamps are designed with a sharp cutoff that project less glare above the hood line. When the headlights are properly aimed, other drivers are not blinded by the beam.[/*][*]Customized light assemblies make it more difficult to see the marker lights (tail lamps, turn signals and side marker lamps) that have been tinted. There are many municiple codes that prohibit this tinting, but these laws are seldom enforced.[/*][/list=1]Solutions: Tight controls on emergency vehicle lighting. In trying to make these vehicles more visible, a dangerous side effect is reducing the ability of drivers to see the surrounding perils.Headlight design regulations that reduce the height of the headlight assemblies. Just because a pickup truck has a hood that sits 4 feet abouve the pavement, it does not mean the headlights need to be so high. Owneres should maintain proper adjustments to their vehicle headlights.Establish and enforce regulation requiring a illumination standard be followed.
Stl170698708 as someone who hates big government, and their interference;but you can add me to the list of people that are blinded by the lights.unfortunately "the poop is out of the horse and no way is it going back in"They have had 5 years to make lights bigger, badder and brighter because in the vehicle work it is go big or go home!Trucks are the worst because so many people use them to express their dominance and that is big, big, big $$ both at the Original Purchase and in the Aftermarket world.If, we are so lucky to get some good government regulation on this it will also take some very good Court enforcement to get the aftermarket people with fines and lawsuits.Much like the EPA did with the Diesel Tuner Industry that felt emission regulations didn't apply to them.This is from someone that owns said pickup truck with the same bright headlights,but i only use the truck when I have too and always turn off the Fog lights when driving in traffic.
Art65765977 I saw a porsche 911 with the most amazing headlights from behind approaching the Sunshine skyway in Florida. The pattern was 108 degrees across sweeping the road like a broom. My brother and I were amazed. I don't know what it looked like from the front but i am sure it was better than American cars