OnStar to automatically slow stolen vehicles

Will a new anti-theft tool from General Motors and OnStar be enough to make your car not worth the hassle of stealing?

The Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, a new feature added to OnStar, takes away the ability to use a car's gas pedal, while allowing braking and steering controls to work.

OnStar, which already communicates with a car's engine through software, will now use that platform to bypass a driver's foot on the gas pedal and automatically slow down a car by preventing any further acceleration.

OnStar said it will only enable the service if a situation meets a "required criteria," such as a police request while pursuing a stolen vehicle, or if a child has accidentally been kidnapped by a person stealing what they assumed was an empty idling car.

Protocol for activating the service will require a car owner to first report the vehicle stolen to the police, then call OnStar and request the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service be activated. OnStar will then use GPS-tracking to first locate the vehicle and give police a chance to get in its vicinity. Once police have reported the vehicle in sight and requested a slow-down, OnStar will activate a signal that causes a car's powertrain system to reduce engine power and ignore acceleration from the gas pedal.

"Safeguards will be in place to ensure that the correct vehicle in slowed down," OnStar said in a statement.

The new feature, which will be implemented in about 1.7 million of GM's 2009 model year vehicles, is an extension of OnStar's pre-existing Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance feature that first came out in 1996.

OnStar is also giving owners the choice to opt out of the service if they don't want it on their car.

OnStar currently receives about 700 requests to activate the Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance feature each month and has used it on over 28,000 cars since 1996, according to a company statement.

[Joe Real]

Thieves can fight back.

If they found out that they are into one of these equipped cars, they would simply steer it towards destruction, and then jump safely off before the vehicle gets destroyed. The ability to let them steer the vehicle, would allow them to get back by let us say, steering the slow vehicle towards a busy intersection, middle of hi-speed freeway traffic, unto a river or off a cliff. Bad idea to give the carnappers some control.

Another comment is the price. I've read from MSNBC that the service has a monthly fee of about $17 and upwards. That is way too steep for so little benefits if your car is not that pricey. If the service fee can be largely deductible from your insurance or your cellular phone service, then that would be a good service deal.

[rhett121]

1984

Seems to set a spooky precedent but... hey, you idiots can make
your own path. I'd never buy a car with OnSpy, I mean Star.

[Joe Real]

That's just part of it.

There are many options, and the security option is $17 a month alone.

So I guess, we all just have to buy a super guzzler super safe bullet proof bomb proof amphibious humvee because it is safe for the family, right? We won't care about the world, just for our safety.

[brosenau63]

The On-Star system is or has become an over-priced door un-locking system. Over the 4th of July weekend, my 2007 Suburban was stolen. The On-star people tried to convice me that the vehicle was right in front of me...in the parking lot...but it wasn't. The thieves entered this locked and alarmed vehicle, disabled the On-star system and drove away. It was really that simple. I lost the vehcile and everything in it.

I called On-star and pleaded with them to leave the On-star system active so the police could use a GSM method of tracking the vehcile lcoation rather since the GPS portion of the system was dissabled. Essentially, On-star could STILL "talk" to the system using the Verizon cell phone number attached to the vehicle. With that in mind, the local police could use the GSM (local cell phone network) to locate the vehcile using triangulation from the cell phone towers. But On-star INSISTED that the On-star service would be turned off after 48 hours of it being stolen. This is just plain wrong!

So, I asked them...what product "safe & sound" was I paying for over the last year??? Silence...then a click! On-star - YOU SUCK! I'm out a $45,000.00 vehcile and you can't back up your claims!

Just for the purpose of saying so, I researched your web site to find out just exactly what you DO cover in the case of a stolen vehcile. Here's what it had to say:

18. WHAT IF YOUR CAR IS STOLEN? If your Car is stolen, we can try to locate it. Before we try to locate it, you'll need to provide satisfactory identification, and the police must be treating the Car as stolen. Generally, we will only provide location information about stolen Cars to the police; however, in cases of crises or emergencies, we may, in our own judgment, provide you with information about the general area of your Car without police involvement. We don't have to continue to try to locate your Car after 48 hours from the time you first report it stolen, and we can't guarantee that we'll find it. We also aren't required to try to find your Car for the purpose of locating someone.

Basically, there's no garantee, implied or otherwise. I susggest your change your advertising strategy - as it implies my vehicle WILL be found if it is stolen. Not the case here...

Readers, be ware. This is a good case to justify a VERY NOISY and LOUD alarm system with one of those BIG BARS that lock your steering wheel. Best of luck...or buy a hoopty instead. Have a nice day!