cadillac

General Motors will integrate AI into its cars, plus new hands-free assist

AI, cadillac, Cars, Gemini, General Motors / Tim Belzer / October 22, 2025

I asked Dave Richardson, GM’s SVP of software, how the company will avoid the enshittification of vehicles as it integrates more AI.

“There’s a lot of hype around AI right now,” he told me. “But there’s also practical use. I’ve been trying to focus the company on practical use cases. I think there’s a lot of pretty compelling things we can do to try to add real value.”

He gave some examples, such as a car knowing you have a meeting and setting the navigation appropriately or knowing that you’re going on a road trip, so it should queue up the appropriate media for your kids to stream in the back seat.

While the company is using Gemini at first, it eventually plans to have its own model on board. “With advanced processing in the car, we can handle interference on board so that it works in low-data-connection areas,” Richardson said.

Ultimately, GM will deploy its own LLM that knows about the car and is limited in overall parameters, Richardson told me. It won’t need to rely on the cloud to operate, increasing responsiveness in the car and keeping personal information with you, he said.

There are reasons to be skeptical, of course. One of my biggest concerns is how much driver data the car will collect. One reason GM doesn’t offer Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, the company has said, is that it wants to protect customer data. The owner must consent to any data sharing, GM said.

And although GM says it has made some internal changes to protect customer data, there have been some very public instances of the company selling data. “Data privacy and security is priority one for us,” Richardson told me about his work at GM. He said he has hired people specifically tasked with ensuring that customer data protection frameworks are in place.

“We have no interest in selling that data to third parties. When we think about data, whether it’s for Super Cruise or the AI, it’s really for us to develop the product and make it better. We don’t want to sell that data as the product itself,” he said.

I believe there’s space for a privacy-focused automaker, and while I’m not sure whether that will be GM, I hope that privacy and data protection are as important to the company in the future as it says it is today.

As for consumers wanting AI in their vehicles? GM thinks they do.

General Motors will integrate AI into its cars, plus new hands-free assist Read More »

After telling Cadillac to pound sand, F1 does 180, grants entry for 2026

The United States will have a second team competing in Formula 1 from 2026, when Cadillac Formula 1 will join the sport as its 11th team. The result is a complete 180 for the sport’s owner, which was highly resistant to the initial bid, first announced at the beginning of 2023.

“As the pinnacle of motorsports, F1 demands boundary-pushing innovation and excellence. It’s an honor for General Motors and Cadillac to join the world’s premier racing series, and we’re committed to competing with passion and integrity to elevate the sport for race fans around the world,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “This is a global stage for us to demonstrate GM’s engineering expertise and technology leadership at an entirely new level.”

Team first, engines later

We will have to wait until 2028 to see that full engineering potential on display. Even with the incoming changes to the technical regulations, it’s far more than the work of a minute to develop a new F1 hybrid powertrain, let alone a competitive package. Audi has been working on its F1 powertrain since at least 2023, as has Red Bull, which decided to make its internal combustion engine in-house, like Ferrari or Mercedes, with partner Ford providing the electrification.

GM’s decision to throw Cadillac’s hat into the ring came with the caveat that its powertrain wouldn’t be ready until 2028—two years after it actually wants to enter the sport. That means for 2026 and 2027, Cadillac F1 will use customer engines from another manufacturer, in this case Ferrari. From 2028, we can expect a GM-designed V6 hybrid under Cadillac F1’s engine covers.

As McLaren has demonstrated this year, customer powertrains are no impediment to success, and Alpine (née Renault) is going so far as to give up its own in-house powertrain program in favor of customer engines (and most likely, a for sale sign as the French automaker looks set to walk away from the sport once again).