GM Bets Big on Eyes-Off Autonomy: 2028 Escalade IQ First, Then Your Truck Runs Errands Alone

General Motors used its GM Forward event in Manhattan on October 21 to lay out its boldest autonomy roadmap yet: an “eyes-off, hands-off” highway driving system debuting on the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ EV, then expanding to its highest-selling, most profitable vehicles — full-size SUVs and light-duty pickup trucks, Reuters and The Drive reported. Unlike Super Cruise, which requires eyes on the road, the new system takes over active driving responsibility so occupants can check messages or read on approved highways.

The philosophical twist: GM insists this is not Level 3. Chief product officer Sterling Anderson, a former autonomous-truck executive at Aurora, told The Drive “we are not developing L3 autonomy” — because Level 3 requires a driver to retake control on demand, and that handoff from an inattentive human back to instant control is what GM considers an undesirable, risky transition. “I get annoyed every time I hear someone say L3,” Anderson said at the event. The plan, in his words: jump straight past the valley of handover liability to a system that operates without constant supervision, with a future “Mission Mode” extending to off-highway errand runs — a truck fetching groceries with nobody inside.

The foundation is real: Super Cruise has logged over 1.2 billion hands-free miles across nearly 750,000 vehicles. But the caveats are too. GM won’t let you sleep behind the wheel — a driver must be present and prepared to take over, with the vehicle alerting when it expects intervention. Availability will vary by market based on safety validation and local regulations, and no timetable exists for the true driverless-errand vision. Still, putting autonomy on the Silverado and Sierra roadmap — not just a luxury EV — is the clearest signal yet that GM sees self-driving as a mass-market revenue stream, not a tech demo.