GM CEO says eyes-off, hands-off driving technology is on track for 2028

Mary Barra, GM's chief executive, said Monday that the company is still on track for a 2028 debut of eyes-off, hands-off driving technology, holding to a timeline it announced last year.

Speaking with CNBC's Jim Cramer on "Mad Money," Barra said she had recently tested the technology and found it had improved since a prior ride in March. "They're making so much progress on our goal to have eyes off, hands off in the '28 time frame," she said. "We're going to be well positioned from a personal autonomy perspective."

The automaker said last October that the electric Cadillac Escalade IQ would be the first vehicle to receive the new driver-assistance system in 2028, with a broader rollout to additional models to follow. GM's current Super Cruise system lets drivers go hands-free but keeps them on visual duty, watching the road at all times. The forthcoming system goes further, permitting drivers to look away from the road entirely when conditions allow.

Barra framed the technology as a feature for vehicle owners rather than a step toward reducing the need to own a car. "When people want to drive, they can. When they don't, they won't need to as that grows," she said. She also pushed back against the idea that autonomous vehicles could reduce personal car ownership, drawing a parallel to earlier predictions that ride-hailing services such as Uber $UBER and Lyft $LYFT would cut into vehicle sales — predictions that never came true because, she said, "people still value that it's in my driveway. I can go wherever I want, whenever I want."

The push into personal autonomous driving follows GM's decision to shut down its Cruise robotaxi business in December 2024 after spending more than $10 billion on it. Instead of continuing to chase a spot in the driverless ride-hailing space, GM shifted its focus to building autonomous technology into the cars its customers already buy. "We're not in the taxi business. We're not in the bus business," Barra said.

She acknowledged the exit from robotaxi operations was difficult but said GM retained much of the Cruise team to work on the personal autonomy effort. "It was a tough decision, but I think it was the right decision," she said, according to CNBC.