General Motors hosted its tech-focused Onward event to showcase how the company will use artificial intelligence to cut vehicle development times in half. The company aims to reduce the development cycle to just 2 years by employing digital thread virtualization.
Engineers tested more than 300,000 virtual battery designs before settling on a lithium manganese rich (LMR) chemistry. The battery team moved from the initial concept to formal approval in one month.
LMR cells provide a 20 percent boost in efficiency per kilowatt-hour and offer 33 percent higher energy density than traditional lithium iron phosphate cells. Ultium Cells will produce these LMR cells at its factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee.
New drive units will feature 40 percent fewer internal parts than current hardware. A unified compute unit will deliver 40 times the computing power of current hardware while removing 30 percent of the physical wiring.
The upgraded compute platform is scheduled to make its production debut in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ. General Motors is launching a project dubbed PlantBrAIn to further streamline operations.
The company plans to roll out hands-free, eyes-off highway driving across its broader lineup. The automaker teased a futuristic vision for autonomous cabins called Concept Horizon.
OnStar is being rebranded as an active, AI-driven intelligence platform. An OnStar AI Assistant will debut on the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq through an over-the-air update.
Google’s Gemini-powered voice assistant has already been rolled out to 2022 and newer models.
