GM’s new product chief Sterling Anderson envisions a tech renaissance for the automaker

DETROIT — General engines The new head of product and technology said he views the Detroit automaker as a canvas. One that can be kept, retouched or even torn.

After about six months as executive vice president and chief product officer, Sterling Anderson appears to be putting all three ideas to work as he oversees the company’s vast product portfolio, from the vehicles themselves to the software that powers them.

Anderson, who left the self-driving car company Aurore Innovation which he co-founded to join GM in June, has quickly become the most influential product executive in more than 15 years, outside of GM Chairman Mark Reuss.

He consolidated his authority to oversee the “end-to-end product life cycle” of GM vehicles, including manufacturing engineering, battery product management, software and services and engineering teams, according to GM.

“My priority is to accelerate the pace of innovation. One way to do that is to separate or abstract software from hardware,” he told CNBC at an Oct. 22 technology event in New York. “That’s the beauty of this role, I think, is that it brings all of these elements together into a unified approach to how we produce our products in the future.”

Since then, the company’s famous software and artificial intelligence heads have unexpectedly left the company after relatively short tenures. Their primary vehicle responsibilities now fall to Anderson.

GM attributed the abrupt departures of Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, and Barak Turovsky, head of AI, to restructuring efforts.

“We are strategically integrating AI capabilities directly into our business and product organizations, enabling faster innovation and more targeted solutions,” a GM spokeswoman said of Turovsky’s departure in an emailed statement last week.

This is another indication of Anderson’s strategy. He previously told CNBC that for GM to succeed, software and products must be viewed as one and the same rather than separate units, as they have been in recent years.

Anderson said he spent the first months of his tenure as chief executive “in listening mode,” immersing himself in the automaker’s operations.

“What these five months of listening allowed me to do is really refine and focus how we’re going to, not just what we’re going to innovate on, but how we’re going to do it,” he said in the October interview.

A third executive will also be leaving soon, as Baris Cetinok, senior vice president of software and services product management, will leave the company effective Dec. 12, as first reported by CNBC.

Unlike Richardson and Turovsky, the company did not attribute his departure to restructuring. Three sources familiar with the matter, who spoke anonymously because the discussion was private, told CNBC that Cetinok left to pursue another opportunity.

Cetinok, Richardson and Turovsky declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment on their departures. Cetinok and Richardson joined GM in 2023, while Turovsky was hired in March.

Anderson, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who became Tesla executive, said before joining GM, he viewed the automaker more as a comic caricature rather than a canvas that he would help transform into a modern masterpiece.

Anderson said CEO Mary Barra and Reuss, whom he reports to, helped him break down that caricature of “old world automobiles” and concerns that the automaker’s employees weren’t supportive of his efforts.

“I was really worried, wasn’t I? I’m the ‘Silicon Valley cowboy’ coming to Detroit and, you know, ‘on a bench’ working my way through an innovation story with a team that I feared wouldn’t receive so well. I found it quite different than I expected,” Anderson said.

His appointment represents a refocus for the automaker on software-defined vehicles and autonomy. He said GM’s goal is to build an autonomous vehicle, which comes a year after the company dissolved its majority-owned Cruise AV business after years of development and billions of dollars in capital.

“Let me be clear, we are developing a standalone product,” he told CNBC. “It’s a standalone product that can be safe without any setbacks to humans in safety-critical situations.”

Barra on Wednesday cited Anderson and the automaker’s past efforts in autonomous vehicles as reasons why GM is “well-positioned” to achieve autonomous highway driving in its vehicles starting in 2028.

“As we talk about artificial intelligence, autonomous driving is one of the ultimate applications that I still strongly believe in,” Barra said at the New York Times DealBook Summit, again confirming the automaker’s plans for a “personal autonomous vehicle” rather than cruising robotaxis.

Anderson is considered a leading expert on vehicle autonomy. Before co-founding the autonomous driving company Aurora, he led Tesla’s Model X program and the team that delivered its advanced driver assistance system “Autopilot.” He also developed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s “Intelligent Co-Pilot,” a safety system for semi-autonomous vehicles.

Anderson, who holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in robotics from MIT, said it took him several conversations to leave Aurora, which he thought he would “die with.”

He is not alone in his change of heart; however, few lasted long with the automaker. Several other current and former Silicon Valley executives have expressed similar optimism about GM and its longtime CEO and chairman — both of whom have spent their entire careers at the automaker as a “GM lifer.”

Richardson had previously hailed the work for Barra, to whom he reported before Anderson, as “an opportunity of a lifetime.” Cetinok previously described his position as “a product specialist’s dream” in an interview with CNBC.

Jens Peter “JP” Clausen, who led Tesla’s manufacturing expansion and worked at Lego and Google, partly attributed “the opportunity to work for a leader like” Barra as a reason to join GM as head of manufacturing before an unexpected departure after just a year.

The accolades went both ways. When Anderson’s appointment at GM was announced in May, Barra and Reuss praised Anderson as being equipped to “evolve” and “reinvent” the automaker’s operations.

In addition to Anderson’s new product unit, Reuss continues to oversee the automaker’s manufacturing, design, marketing and sales, among other operations.

The global auto industry has been fighting for years to better integrate technology into vehicles – from their production to consumer-facing software and remote or “over-the-air” updates, as Tesla pioneered.

GM has taken an aggressive approach to technology, hiring executives from Tesla and companies such as Apple And Google. However, these executives have often had short tenures at the company, as in the three most recent departures.

“[Traditional U.S. automakers] “We’ve had a lot of trouble understanding the technology of software and electronics, which has led to them getting a parade of experts who say ‘come to help,'” said Peter Abowd, an engineer turned automotive and technology consultant.

Abowd, managing director of engineering excellence at consulting firm Envorso, attributed executive turnover to “misuse of skills and talent” as well as unrealistic expectations and overwhelming responsibilities in a company as large as GM and an industry as complex as the auto world.

“It just sets the person up for a little failure,” Abowd said. “In a few years, you can’t culturally evolve an organization… so the best thing to do is to part ways.”

That kind of turnover has led automakers like GM to steadily move in different directions, including in-vehicle technologies, electric vehicle batteries and other areas that aren’t traditionally “core” to the auto industry.

Barra, who is GM’s longest-serving CEO since the company’s founder, has become known for hiring executives at opportune times based on the company’s top priorities, which now appear to fall largely under Anderson’s leadership.

GM “is really good at a lot of things” that aren’t necessarily obvious to people outside the company, according to Anderson. He said he believes combining his experience with fast-moving companies such as Tesla and Aurora and GM’s “massive machine” and resources will better position the automaker for the future.

“I think of it as a canvas,” Anderson said. “This is an extraordinary opportunity for innovation, and I would be remiss if I didn’t see what I can do about it.”