Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
What's the latest in autonomous vehicle technology? At General Motors, the path to personal vehicle autonomy will take incremental steps, including letting humans take their eyes off the road. Since December, when GM folded its Cruise robotaxi business, it has redoubled its efforts on advanced driver-assist technology. GM is targeting subscription and revenue growth this year for Super Cruise while expanding the hands-free system's capabilities.
So what's next? The logical next step for GM's autonomous ambitions is not to have a self-driving car in consumers' driveways, said Adam Rodriguez, the automaker's executive director of ADAS product management. Instead, GM plans to build on previous expansions of Super Cruise that, over time, added more roads and features — such as hands-free trailering.
"There's a very clear incremental road map toward getting to that holy grail of the personal autonomous vehicle," he said, "and it's very influenced by our successes with Super Cruise."
Today, GM calls Super Cruise a "hands-off, eyes-on" system. Rodriguez said GM is focused on expanding the technology safely and responsibly so that it can provide value to customers through convenience — including allowing users to spend time on activities other than driving.
In other GM news, Cadillac is taking another run at Japanese sales with its Lyriq EV. In fact, Cadillac's Japan plan is part of a wider international push over the last 18 months to go "truly global" thanks to the flexibility of General Motors' electric vehicle platform, executives say.
Introducing a right-hand-drive Lyriq all-electric crossover to Japan symbolizes the new worldview, Cadillac Global Vice President John Roth said March 7 at the EV's kickoff there. For years, Cadillac sales have been hobbled in Japan and kindred markets where people drive on the "other side" of the road, for lack of models with the steering wheel on the right side. But GM's Ultium battery-electric platform was engineered from the start with international expansion in mind, Roth said. Its battery setup — along with everything from the digital cockpit display to climate control and its electrical system — was devised to easily accommodate both left- and right-hand models, he said.
The goal: Cast a wider net for Cadillac customers. It will be fascinating to see if selling American cars in Japan works this time.
Three other stories you'll want to check out:
In the whipsaw that is tariff news, find out why Rivian, Tesla and Lucid aren't as immune as you might think.
Also, be sure to catch our video breaking down the real-time impact of those U.S. auto tariffs.
And once again, check out our constantly updated tariff live blog.
That's it for today. Have a great rest of your day and a great weekend.
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— Wes Raynal, assistant web editor
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