GM Scales Back EV Investment, Focuses on Super Cruise and Targets L3 Autonomy by 2028

During its Q1 2026 earnings call, General Motors disclosed a $1.1 billion charge related to scaling back its electric vehicle (EV) initiatives. Despite pressures on its EV business, GM highlighted its Super Cruise advanced driver-assistance system as a significant achievement. To date, GM vehicle owners have collectively driven over 1.6 billion kilometers using Super Cruise, with subscriptions up 70% year-over-year. This real-world driving data will support the launch of Level 3 "hands-off, eyes-off" autonomous driving capabilities on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028, a model that will also be equipped with lidar. GM CEO Mary Barra stated that the company is stress-testing the system in a digital environment, simulating the equivalent of approximately 100 years of human driving experience each day. She noted that nearly 90% of the code written by GM’s autonomous driving team is AI-generated and emphasized the company’s deep integration of AI across its entire business. GM plans to develop a personal vehicle autonomous driving system applicable to both internal combustion engine and electric vehicles, spanning multiple brands and price segments. In comparison, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) currently has 1.28 million active subscribers and has accumulated nearly 16.1 billion kilometers of driving data.