General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday that the company remains on schedule to introduce "hands-free, eyes-off" driving technology by 2028.

General Motors announced last October that it plans to debut its next-generation driver assistance system first on the Cadillac Escalade IQ electric vehicle in 2028, before expanding it to other models.

Unlike the company's existing Super Cruise system, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel but still requires them to stay attentive, the new technology is designed to allow drivers to look away from the road under certain conditions.

Barra said in an interview on Monday that she had recently experienced the technology firsthand and was impressed by how much it had improved since her last test ride in March.

"The team is making significant progress toward our goal of achieving 'no eyes on the road, no hands on the wheel' around 2028," the CEO said. "We will be well positioned in the personal autonomous driving space."

She added: "When people want to drive, they can drive themselves; when they don't want to drive, as this technology continues to mature, they won't have to."

General Motors' push into personal autonomous driving comes after its decision in December 2024 to abandon the Cruise robotaxi business, into which it had poured more than $10 billion.

Rather than competing in the increasingly crowded driverless ride-hailing market, the automaker redirected its resources toward developing autonomous driving systems for consumers' own vehicles.

"We're not in the taxi business, and we're not in the bus business," Barra said. She acknowledged that exiting the robotaxi market was a difficult decision but defended the move, noting that General Motors retained most of the Cruise team and redirected them to work on personal autonomous driving technology.

"It was a tough decision, but I believe it was the right one," she said.

Barra also pushed back against the notion that the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles will ultimately reduce demand for private cars.

She recalled earlier predictions that ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft would cause a sharp decline in car sales, a forecast that never materialized because "people still value the convenience of having their car parked in their own driveway — going where they want, when they want."