Sterling Anderson has seen autonomous ambitions rise and fall before. The former head of Tesla’s Autopilot program, who later co-founded Aurora Innovation, now serves as General Motors’ chief product officer. Eighteen months after GM shuttered its Cruise robotaxi unit following years of heavy investment and regulatory setbacks, Anderson is steering the automaker toward a different path. One that starts with drivers in the seat and eyes on the road. Yet it may not end there.
GM killed Cruise in December 2024. The division had consumed more than $10 billion. A 2023 pedestrian incident in San Francisco accelerated its demise. The company pivoted hard toward Super Cruise, its hands-free driver assistance technology already in hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Anderson told Business Insider the two approaches ultimately collide. “Ultimately, the two converge,” he said. “Our operating region looks identical to the operating region of a robotaxi company. The question at that point becomes, ‘Why not offer them in a robotaxi-type application as well?’”
Short sentence. Long pause. The strategy feels pragmatic. GM is expanding Super Cruise incrementally. It began with highways. It will grow to cover more road types. By the time the mapped network matches what a dedicated fleet operator needs, the underlying capability could support unsupervised operation. Anderson’s team breaks the driving task into pieces. Highways first. Then arterials. Then cities. The operating domain expands until personal autonomy and robotaxi readiness overlap.
Super Cruise launched in 2017 as the first truly hands-free advanced driver assistance system. Drivers remove hands from the wheel and feet from the pedals on compatible roads while remaining attentive. GM’s official site reports customers have accumulated substantial hands-free miles. The company claimed one billion such miles by April 2026 across roughly 750,000 vehicles on 700,000 miles of North American roads, according to reporting in The Next Web. Data through late 2025 showed more than 700 million miles with no crashes attributed to the technology.
And the numbers keep growing. Twenty-three vehicle models from Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac now offer it. Owners report high satisfaction. Many find the feature relaxing. GM has mapped hundreds of thousands of miles of roads and updates the network yearly. The system relies on precise maps, cameras, radar and, for future versions, lidar.
Next step arrives in 2028. GM plans to roll out eyes-off highway driving, an upgrade that moves Super Cruise closer to Level 3 capability. The Cadillac Escalade IQ will debut the feature. Drivers can divert attention from the road under specific conditions yet must stay ready to intervene. The timeline aligns with moves by competitors such as Rivian’s deal with Uber. Execution here will test Anderson’s approach.
GM has quietly rebuilt parts of its autonomy team. It rehired about 100 former Cruise employees, including some in senior roles. Ronalee Mann, who worked at both Cruise and Tesla, now leads product operations reporting to Anderson. The company also brought in talent from Nvidia, Uber and Zoox. This reversal comes after painful layoffs. Yet it signals determination to accelerate without repeating past capital missteps.
Anderson joined GM in May 2025 with a substantial compensation package. He oversees all product development, from internal combustion and electric vehicles to software and autonomy. His MIT robotics background and experience launching Aurora’s driverless trucking service between Houston and Dallas give him credibility in Silicon Valley circles. “GM has long been defined by innovation at massive scale with products you can trust,” Anderson said on GM’s autonomy page. “Our work in autonomy builds on that legacy to deliver safe, intuitive, self-driving technology to millions around the world.”
But. The competitive picture has changed. Waymo now completes more than 500,000 paid rides weekly across multiple cities. Tesla operates limited robotaxi services in Texas with a camera-only system. Amazon’s Zoox runs dozens of vehicles in two markets. Hyundai-backed Motional relaunched with Uber. Rivian aims to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing by the early 2030s. Legacy automakers no longer hold the spotlight alone.
GM’s choice avoids the heavy capital costs of owning and operating a robotaxi fleet. Personal vehicles generate revenue through sales and software subscriptions. They also gather data at scale. One billion hands-free miles provide a dataset few outside Tesla and Waymo can rival. That data refines algorithms for the next leap. Eyes-off in 2028. Potentially unsupervised later. The same vehicles could then moonlight as robotaxis. Owners might opt in when the car sits idle. The economics shift from pure fleet ownership to shared utilization.
So the bet is clear. Develop consumer-facing autonomy first. Prove safety on highways where conditions are controlled. Expand the operational domain gradually. Accumulate real-world miles faster than a limited robotaxi fleet ever could. When regulatory and technical thresholds are met, the same hardware and software stack opens the door to ride-hailing without building a separate business from scratch.
Critics point to the slower pace. Tesla accumulated equivalent miles on its Full Self-Driving software far quicker through its massive customer fleet. GM’s mapped-road approach requires constant updates and precise geofencing. Yet Anderson argues the methodical expansion builds trust. Regulators remember Cruise’s troubles. A consumer product that millions use daily under supervision may ease the path to higher automation levels.
Recent coverage reinforces this pivot. Yahoo Finance noted GM has not left the robotaxi race entirely. Its personal autonomy focus positions the company to converge on that capability when conditions align. Automotive News reported GM ramping up testing with modified Escalade IQ vehicles to gather data for the 2028 eyes-off system. The combined Super Cruise and former Cruise technical teams now work under one roof. Annual spending has dropped by more than $1 billion following the restructuring.
GM’s own innovation page outlines the progression. From hands-free to eyes-off to full autonomy where no human oversight is needed. The company tests extensively. It emphasizes safety at every step. Anderson’s leadership brings a software-first mindset to a company long known for hardware scale. He speaks of abstracting software from hardware. Of accelerating innovation across the product portfolio.
Challenges remain. Regulatory approval for eyes-off operation will demand rigorous validation. Public trust, damaged by Cruise’s incident, needs rebuilding. Competition intensifies. Yet GM’s scale offers advantages. Millions of vehicles on the road. Dealer networks. Brand recognition. Software subscriptions could generate significant recurring revenue. Early signs suggest customers embrace Super Cruise where available, even on more affordable models like the Chevrolet Equinox EV.
The convergence Anderson describes may arrive sooner than skeptics expect. Or it may take longer. Highway dominance comes first. Urban complexity follows. By then the operating region could indeed mirror today’s robotaxi deployments. At that moment the question Anderson poses becomes relevant. Why not offer the same vehicles for paid rides when owners are not using them?
GM is no longer chasing robotaxis as a standalone business. It is embedding the technology in cars people buy. The data flows. The capability grows. The optionality stays alive. In an industry that has burned billions on premature autonomy bets, this measured approach stands out. Anderson and his team are not promising immediate disruption. They are building a foundation that might support it. One billion miles at a time.
WebProNews is an iEntry Publication