Eyes-Off Driving Level 3 Race Is On: GM Targets 2028 as Mercedes Pushes Drive Pilot to 95 km/h

The eyes-off race just got real

For a decade, eyes-off motoring has been the technology that was permanently five years away. Now it has a date. General Motors says it will debut eyes-off, hands-off Level 3 driving on the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ, evolving Super Cruise beyond the eyes-on Level 2 system it is today, according to Cars.com and Edmunds. This is no concept-slide promise — GM began Level 3 public-road test drives with the Escalade IQ in March 2026, per electrive.

Mercedes-Benz is not waiting to be caught. Its Drive Pilot system has received German approval for Level 3 automated driving at up to 95 km/h, S&P Global AutoTechInsight reports. Together, those moves turn eyes-off driving Level 3 from research project into a live competitive race.

The jump matters more than the jargon suggests. Every Level 2 system on sale today — Super Cruise as it stands, Tesla FSD, the rest of the hands-free highway driving crowd — still requires your eyes on the road at all times. Level 3 is the first rung where the car itself, legally and technically, takes over the watching.

What GM is promising for 2028

GM's plan, as reported, is evolution rather than reinvention. Super Cruise is already hands-free; the Level 3 version due on the 2028 Escalade IQ adds the eyes-off element, letting the driver disengage from monitoring in approved conditions.

The choice of launch vehicle is telling. The Escalade IQ is Cadillac's flagship electric SUV — the sort of car that can absorb the cost of the hardware Level 3 demands. The timeline also looks more credible than most autonomy promises: Level 3 public-road test drives began in March 2026, roughly two years before the expected debut. Still, 2028 is a target, not a shipped product, and this industry has a habit of sliding autonomy dates.

Mercedes holds the head start — for now

While GM tests, Mercedes sells. Drive Pilot is currently the only approved eyes-off, hands-off system available in the United States, per Cars.com, and its new German approval raises the ceiling to 95 km/h — motorway-congestion pace rather than open-road cruising.

That ceiling is the honest print on the brochure: Drive Pilot is a traffic-and-flowing-motorway tool, not a chauffeur. But the competitive significance is real — Mercedes is banking approvals and real-world miles while rivals are still validating. In a category where regulators move as slowly as the traffic, incumbency counts.

The ten-second rule and the hardware bill

Level 3 comes with a contract attached. You may look away — but when the car prompts you, you must retake control, typically within about ten seconds, or the vehicle initiates an emergency stop. That handover is the hardest engineering problem in the category: the system must know, well in advance, when it is about to run out of competence.

Meeting that bar takes serious kit. Eyes-off systems require lidar, overlapping sensor suites, redundant controls and far more powerful onboard computing than today's ADAS packages carry. None of that is cheap, which is why Level 3 is debuting on flagships like the Escalade IQ rather than family hatchbacks.

The honest assessment

The race is genuinely on, and buyers win when giants compete on capability rather than marketing. Mercedes has the approvals and the only eyes-off system you can actually use in the US today; GM has a bigger ambition on a longer fuse, with testing already public.

The caveats are equally real. A 95 km/h ceiling makes current Level 3 a congestion tool, not an autopilot. Approval is granted jurisdiction by jurisdiction, and the rules on what you may do behind the wheel vary sharply by country — this is not legal advice, so check local law before you look away. And GM's 2028 date remains a promise. Treat it as expected, not guaranteed.

The questions buyers actually ask

What does Level 3 let me do that Level 2 doesn't? Look away from the road. Level 2 systems such as today's Super Cruise are eyes-on; Level 3 permits genuine disengagement, provided you retake control when prompted — typically within about ten seconds.

Can I buy an eyes-off car today? In the United States, Drive Pilot is currently the only approved eyes-off, hands-off system on sale, and Mercedes has German approval at up to 95 km/h. Availability elsewhere depends on local regulators.

Will existing Super Cruise cars be upgraded to Level 3? Nothing suggests so. Eyes-off driving needs lidar, redundant controls and heavier computing than current cars carry, and GM has tied the debut to the 2028 Escalade IQ.

Key takeaways

• GM will debut eyes-off, hands-off Level 3 driving on the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ, evolving today's eyes-on Super Cruise.
• Public-road Level 3 testing of the Escalade IQ began in March 2026.
• Mercedes Drive Pilot has German approval for Level 3 at up to 95 km/h and is currently the only approved eyes-off system available in the US.
• Level 3 still demands you retake control when prompted — typically within about ten seconds, or the car performs an emergency stop.
• Lidar, redundant controls and heavyweight computing mean flagships get the tech first.