Tuesday in my personal e-mail, I received an e-mail from OnStar celebrating 12 years of service.DETROIT, MI – GM’s OnStar today announced a significant milestone for in-vehicle safety and emergency medical response. Over the course of the past 12 years, its Automatic Crash Response (ACR) technology has aided subscribers and others on the nation’s roadways in more than 100,000 crash incidents
Ever been in the helpless situation where your car was stolen, leaving you without your vehicle and any trace of finding who had unrightfully stolen it? If you haven't consider yourself lucky, as yours truly has gone through the experience....
General Motors (GM) and OnStar have successfully demonstrated a prototype technology "Stolen Vehicle Slowdown" (Slow down the stolen vehicle), capable of intercepting, slow down and stop a fleeing car On Star General Motors (GM) and OnStar have successfully demonstrated a prototype technology "Stolen Vehicle Slowdown" (Slow down the stolen vehicle), which allows oper
Leftlanenews.com had the chance to interview Bob Lutz and included some Volt talk.
The GM vice-chairman confirmed that the prototype batteries have been tested both in extreme cold and extreme heat conditions, and aside from some solder failures on the prototypes he said that in terms of the lithium-ion chemistry, there has been an “eerie”, “almost [...]
nStar Opens ‘Crisis Assist’ Emergency Services to Those Affected by Edouard
OnStar Provides All Services to All Subscribers Affected, Regardless of Plan
DETROIT, Aug 05, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — OnStar reminds its subscribers
in Texas and Louisiana that a simple push of the OnStar button in GM vehicles
will put them in contact with specially-trained Crisis Advisors. OnStar&
OnStar Provides AMBER To SubscribersDetroit and Washington D.C. - Today OnStar announced that its partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) will be expanded to provide geographically targeted AMBER Alert messages to OnStar subscribers.Detroit and Washington D.C. - Today OnStar announced that its partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) will be expanded to provide geographically targeted AMBER Alert messages to OnStar subscribers. In addition to this technological advancement, OnStar will contribute $300,000 to NCMEC to support Team Adam, a dedicated group of retired law enforcement officials with expertise in missing children cases.Starting this month, OnStar will integrate AMBER Alert data into its call c
OnStar Phone - Forced Choice? Why GM is resisting the move to BluetoothIt seems General Motors is often intent on doing its own thing when nearly everybody else is doing otherwise. Such seems to be the case with its OnStar phone system.It seems General Motors is often intent on doing its own thing when nearly everybody else is doing otherwise. Such seems to be the case with its OnStar phone system.When the rest of the automotive industry is adopting Bluetooth technology for their cars which seamlessly integrates with any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, GM is stubbornly pushing its considerably more expensive OnStar phone system. For instance, 500 minutes is a whopping $174.99 using OnStar, and 1,000 minutes cost a staggering $299.99. The only other option offered is a link to your existing V
General Motors Maintains Your Car With Goodwrench, OnstarDETROIT – Is your oil ready to be changed? Do you know how much air pressure is in your tires? Even if you don’t know the answers to these important maintenance questions, chances are, your GM vehicle does. Most GM vehicles today are equipped with advanced technology that helps take the hassle out of vehicle maintenance.DETROIT – Is your oil ready to be changed? Do you know how much air pressure is in your tires? Even if you don’t know the answers to these important maintenance questions, chances are, your GM vehicle does. Most GM vehicles today are equipped with advanced technology that helps take the hassle out of vehicle maintenance.GM’s Oil-Life System determines when it’s time for oil changes and maintenanceGM’s pa
OnStar: Helpful Convenience or Big Brother Watching?If you own a late-model GM car or truck, you’ve no doubt seen it: the OnStar button either on the dashboard or rearview mirror. GM aggressively markets this feature as a safety and convenience feature. You’re locked out of your car, call OnStar. You want reservations to your favorite restaurant, call OnStar. You’re in an accident, and need to contact police or ambulance, OnStar will automatically trigger in the event of an airbag deployment, and check and see if everything’s OK. All noble and noteworthy safety and convenience features.However, a fellow automotive journalist friend of mine shared a different take on OnStar. He works for a magazine that routinely tests cars in high-performance settings such as autocross and road rac
The fourth and final installment of our OnStar Video Series is most certainly my favorite. It's called "OnStar Command Center" and takes a look at OnStar's main center of operation in Detroit, Michigan. Chet Huber, President of OnStar, walks us through the various aspects of the OnStar Command Center.
Staff at CorvetteBlog have gone to see the Command Center and let me be the first to tell you, this is exactly what it is like. Very impressive and "NASA-like." It really gave us a great appreciation for all that they are doing to monitor, assist and protect drivers. The 911 information in the video is incredibly interesting and unique.
Remember, all Corvette owners that have OnStar as an option have their first year of OnStar service paid for complimentary.
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The third installment of our CorvetteBlog OnStar Video Series features OnStar's "Turn by Turn Navigation". This service is great for any Corvette customer - with or without OnStar. Just tell the Advisor where you want to go and bingo, the directions are sent straight to the vehicle.
You receive both audio and visual prompts (through the speaker system and Driver Information Center, respectively). Remember, all Corvette owners that have OnStar as an option have their first year of OnStar service paid for complimentary. You do get one route free, so try it out and if you want to add it to your service, it's just a few bucks more a month as part of the Directions and Connections plan.
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Our second installment of our OnStar Video Series features the video "A Day in the Life." This video shows the main reporting screen for OnStar services on a typical day. It shows the entire US and where people are using OnStar, and for what purpose.
This video doesn't have sound, it's more of a watch the map fill up kind of piece, but still interesting to see the statistics behind OnStar and the actual areas of activity throughout the day.
Remember, the first year of service for Corvette customers equipped with OnStar is free!
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I've been thinking lately about how great OnStar is, and how so many recent Corvette owners have OnStar equipped vehicles. Not everyone realizes all the components of those three buttons on your rear view mirror. I'm not trying to sell you the service, just point out its high points that I believe Corvette owners would enjoy.
Over the next couple of days we'll be offering videos from OnStar about select parts of their service. While yes, it isn't COMPLETELY Corvette related, it's still a great service to consider if you're looking to buy, or if you've not thought about it before and have it in your Corvette now. Also, your first year of service is free!
The video series was produced in 2006, so it doesn't reference 2007 models, but 2007 Corvettes enjoy all of these same benefits.
[ OnStar ]
Although General Motors isn't saying how many subscribers they have, their OnStar system is currently logging some 1k car crashes a month. The system provides monitors with the vehicle’s exact post-accident location. It also logs the number of impacts, whether or not the vehicle rolled over, and which airbags (if any) deployed. Forbes reports that GM has teamed-up with the University of Michigan to see if OnStar can provide first responders with accident data that will improve their effectiveness. "When you show up at the scene, every minute counts,” Dr. Stuart Wang asserts. “If you can equip the responders, fire and EMS rescue folks with an idea of what to expect at the scene, you will help them.” The study will correlate some 200 crashes with medical records, with an eye towards creating a database of injuries common to a given type of accident.
