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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Alexa St. John and Mike Householder

From ‘hands-free’ to ‘eyes-off’: how General Motors is simulating its way to autonomous driving

Autos Driver Assist Systems - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

At the General Motors Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, in suburban Detroit, hundreds of volunteer, real-world drivers have hopped inside a Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicle or other popular GM models and experienced all sorts of things while in the car: regular roadway driving, driving up and down hills, construction, rain, nearby traffic and other scenarios.

But while the vehicle is real, the world that the drivers are experiencing is not. Instead, they're inside a simulator; a 360-degree, immersive environment where their every eye movement, heart stress, sweating and other reactions are measured against countless driving tests. Here, GM is testing a human driver's response in vehicles just as much as it’s testing the vehicle tech itself.

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