By Stephen Harber, content strategist, GM Talent Marketing COPY: For John Kaychi, Senior Group Product Manager for Automated Driving at GM, the future of driving will be defined not only by technical progress, but by whether customers are ready to trust it. At GM, he leads the product team working on eyes-off driving and how customers experience it. GMâs next major step in automated driving is planned to launch in 2028 beginning with the Cadillac ESCALADE IQ. âYou can have the best technology in the world,â John says. âBut if customers donât trust it, it wonât stick.â That perspective has shaped Johnâs career across startups, robotaxi development and now GM, where the focus is on turning advances in automated driving into safe, scalable customer experiences. He sees the AV industry evolving in three waves: Ridesharing changed behaviors. Robotaxis paved the way for autonomy. Retail, he believes, is where the industry will be tested at scale and has the ability to deliver the biggest customer benefit. âThatâs the edge weâre standing at today,â John says. âThe technology is better understood. Hardware is approaching commoditization. The retail market is ready. True autonomy isnât here yet, but GM is uniquely positioned to lead this next chapter, bringing automated driving to customers at scale.â Transitioning from driverless demos to a mass-production retail product raises the bar: a controlled demonstration can show technical capability, while a customer product is designed to build confidence through consistent, validated performance over time. Caption: John Kaychi helps put the pieces together for GMâs next step in automated driving, with a focus on safety, scale, and customer trust. For John, two defining pillars anchor the work ahead: data and trust. To prepare for real-world driving across the unforgiving "long tail"âinclement weather shifts, sudden road changes, and complex human traffic behaviorâGMâs