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.
Candace Lombardi is a staff writer at CNET News.com
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.
I'm no car thief, but two things:
a) My first instinct if I was stealing a car that had OnStar would probably not be to destroy it. If I was concerned about them finding me or finding the car and using it as evidence, I don't think causing a huge accident in an intersection or sending it into a river will probably stop them from doing so. And while some thieves might not care about others at all, I'm sure a lot of them arn't doing what they do intending to injure people for no reason.
b) Removing steering and braking from a moving vehicle is a recipe for disaster. Since OnStar might know where the car is and that it's running, they don't know who or what is by the vehicle, in front of or behind it. It could be in a really bad place to stop at the time, and at least with steering, a potentially bad situation might be avoided. I could see people getting run over, or the car running into buildings or other vehicles..
All the other features are just a bonus.
But maybe you don't think your family is worth it.
The only real issue that I have is someone hacking into Onstar and messing with people.
1. The acceleration is stopped and the vehicle is forced to slow down. Yes you can steer and brake, but a police officer has to ask OnStar to initiate it; unless the PO is an idiot and decides to do it in the middle of a high-speed chase on a freeway, there is very little chance for "steering towards" destruction.
2. Let's say the vehicle is actually in a position to do some damage by going fast or towards a cliff. Unless the thief is suicidal, they stand seriously injuring themselves. Have you ever seen a motorcycle accident where the rider was thrown off? Fast speed and asphalt rarely mix as well as they do in the movies. If you're going towards a cliff, I doubt the terrain would be any better. Not enough speed to do that damage to a body? Then probably not enough speed to destruction.
3. As someone else pointed out, destroying the vehicle like the special effects wizard for bad action film would actually call attention to the thief. Vengeance for security device or arrest and 3-5 years in prison? Hmmm...
Bad idea to give carnappers control: true.
Too bad this is about OnStar taking away control.
your own path. I'd never buy a car with OnSpy, I mean Star.
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.
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!
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by houseladyms
November 28, 2008 7:21 AM PST
- My experiences with Onstar has been awesome. My Avalanch doors malfunctioned and automatically locked when I stepped out to get my 2 year old child out of his carseat. I threw the keys in the diaper bag in the back seat, stepped out and shut the driver door, went to open the back door, everything locked up. My child, keys and cell phone were in the back seat. Onstar was called by someone else parked next to me that had Onstar. After a few security measures, my truck was unlocked! Most moms know that it takes 2 hands to remove a little one from a car seat. It was always easy to get my child, then the diaper bag with everything in it.
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(13 Comments)I again purchased a Caddalic SRX. Someone ran a stop sign and our headlights clipped. My car hit an embankment and flipped 3 times. Onstar called the ambulance and police and stayed on the phone with me until help arrived. My cell was nowhere to be found! I will never own a car w/o Onstar!!!