By Catherine Sbeglia
General Motors (GM) announced plans to make 5G available in most Chevrolet and Buick vehicles beginning 2022. However, the launch, at least for right now, is limited to the Chinese market, most likely the result of unexpected sales success in the country over the past few years.
In fact, according to president of GM China, Julian Blissett the automaker has more than 5.5 million connected vehicles in China, compared to the 16 million in the US.
GM’s current connected vehicles utilize 4G LTE technology, but with the upgrade to 5G, the automaker can provide faster connectivity for remote, or over-the-air, updates as well as faster and improved communications with other connected vehicles and infrastructure.
GM is also actively developing a next-generation driver-assist system Super Cruise, said Blissett. Super Cruise is a Level 2 driver-assistance system, meaning it assists with things like adaptive cruise control, lane-centering and a hands-free camera monitoring. It is expected by offered on the whole Cadillac line-up in China soon, and in the US will be seen on the new 20021 Escalade, as well as the Cadillac CT4 and CT5.
Blissett reportedly told CNBC that Super Cruise is GM’s next step in creating “door-to-door intelligent driving technology.”
GM first began testing self-driving cars in China in 2016, where it first demonstrated its V2X connected vehicle technology, including intersection collision alert and emergency brake alert.
Now, GM has scheduled its first global launch of its latest “vehicle-to-everything (V2X) program for this year on the Buick GL8 MPV minivan for China.
