Posted on 10/09/2007 8:08:42 PM PDT by Eyes Unclouded
DETROIT (AP) — Say some clown steals your car from the parking deck at work. If it's equipped with General Motors' OnStar service, he could be in for a big surprise and you could get a little revenge — and even see your car again.
Starting with about 20 models for 2009, the service will be able to slowly halt a car that is reported stolen, and the radio may even speak up and tell the thief to pull over because police are watching.
OnStar already finds 700 to 800 cars per month using the global positioning system. With the new technology, which OnStar President Chet Huber said GM will apply to the rest of its lineup in future years, OnStar would call police and tell them a stolen car's whereabouts.
Then, if officers see the car in motion and judge it can be stopped safely, they can tell OnStar operators, who will send the car a signal via cell phone to slow it to a halt.
"This technology will basically remove the control of the horsepower from the thief," Huber said. "Everything else in the vehicle works. The steering works. The brakes work."
GM is still exploring the possibility of having the car give a recorded verbal warning before it stops moving. A voice would tell the driver through the radio speakers that police will stop the car, Huber said, and the car's emergency flashers would go on.
"If the thief does nothing else it will coast to a stop. But they can drive off to the side of the road," Huber said.
With the current version of OnStar, drivers can call operators for emergency help, and OnStar operators will contact a car if its sensors detect a crash. The service has about 5 million subscribers.
Those who want OnStar but don't like police having the ability to slow down their car can opt out of the service, Huber said. But he said their research shows that 95 percent of subscribers would like that feature.
OnStar, including the first year's subscription fee, is standard on most of GM's 2008 vehicles. After the first year, the subscription price is $16.95 a month or $199 annually for basic service, which is to include the stolen-vehicle slowdown feature when it's available.
GM would be willing to sell the technology to other automakers in an effort to cut police chases, Huber said.
The new technology likely gives OnStar and GM a leg-up on competitors that market vehicle tracking devices aimed at retrieving stolen vehicles, said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, Calif. He predicted being able to stop a stolen car would appeal to consumers.
"Once they hear it can be done, I think it will get considerable play," he said.
LoJack Corp., of Westwood, Mass., produces vehicle tracking devices that help authorities locate stolen vehicles but not communicate with them. And SPAL USA in Ankeny, Iowa, sells an anti-car-jacking system with a personal identification transmitter that prevents thieves from using the vehicle.
If it spreads, the technology could make dangerous police chases a thing of the past. Last year, 404 people were killed nationwide in crashes involving police pursuits, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In California, for example, there were 7,633 police pursuits in 2006, leading to 27 deaths and 771 injuries, according to data from the California Highway Patrol. Those figures represented a decline from 2005, when California authorities were involved in 7,950 pursuits, which were linked to 32 deaths and 1,201 injuries.
Joe Farrow, deputy commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, said about 15 percent of the pursuits are at speeds of 90 miles per hour and greater. The OnStar system could help chases end safely, he said.
Farrow said his agency has sought public-private partnerships that could improve technologies used in police pursuits. The OnStar system was intriguing, he said.
"There are some high-speed chases that we have out here that we'd like to bring to a halt," he said.
Farrow said CHP officers are trained on pursuits every three months and the agency has worked to improve its chase policies.
OnStar's technology could evolve and perhaps make a stolen car impossible to start, Huber said.
"This isn't the last announcement you'll hear from us in this category," he said.
Except for when Big Brother doesn’t want you driving somewhere.
An incentive to kill the driver. I feel safer already.
Didn’t they have this for sometime?
Next we will see interactive speed signs.If you’re speeding ,the sign will transmit a disable signal to your car.A cop will be along to write you a ticket and re-activate your car so that you can continue on your way.
Instead of waiting for you to pull over they’ll just press the button and hold you there until they are ready to let you go. After all there is no “right” to use the roadways.
Onstar is a good system. It may be big brother watching, but if it is your own big brother..okay.
I suggested this to our own company for rental equipment with electronic controls. At the end of the rental period it gives you a signal to pay next month or I will stop.
One competitor that we had refused to deliver the software to a bankrupt customer..so his unit wouldn’t run. No pay..no play.
Unless they want to search your car and take body fluid samples, in which case your departure could be delayed.
Remeber when credit corporations were installing kill devices on vehicles and would activate it when you missed a payment? GMAC and OnStar hhhhmmmmmmmm.
Like no one saw this coming.......
Wait until you’re late on your property tax bill for your new SUV...and Da Man shuts it off until you pay up sucka!!!!!
Holy wrong number, Batman, I dialed 555-1213 but that car isn't slowing. (Meanwhile on the cross town expressway in a vehicle with the tag 555-1214, Joe Schmo was heard to say "what the heck is going on with my car!")
Great Britain Satellites on speeders (Motorcycles' engine to be cut off via satellite - cars next)
That’s all it’s going to lead to.
When insurance companies pay for these features, then I’ll know that they make economic sense.
i’ll believe it when i see it.
where i live cars are stolen routinely.
my pickup about seven weeks ago was stolen on a friday night.
i got it back on sunday afternoon, undamaged, fortunately.
an illegal called me to tell me where it was located; the police couldn’t find it because it was behind an apartment building.
the police said local teens often need to use a pickup to move something, and abandon it when they’re thru.
Why do you need a cop, general motors will gladly write you a ticket for a 10% cut, just like the camera goons, they'll just put a slot or key pad on your dash, when the proper amount of credits are received you can start speeding again.
EXACTly
OnStar is the reason I won’t even consider GM vehicles anymore. Too bad, because of all American car makers I used to like GM the best. Others had bad luck, for example, with the Chevy Citation, but mine worked just fine the whole time I had it.
There are too many encroachments on privacy as it is.
I don’t need another.
You will never regret getting a car with fins.
It will not stop the thieves from trying .
All of the new GM vehicles have built in anti-theft systems already , so the thieves cannot start the vehicle unless they have the proper transponder keys .
If thieves are driving the vehicle , chances are that the owner left the keys in the ignition or stole them from the owner .
They usually give discounts for anti-theft features .
I know it would need work. At least it’s a car that you can actually work on!
Mrs Bear and I have managed on one car. If I assume First Sergeant duty (which is a possiblity) we will have to have two. It would strictly be for local runs.
For those who still bother to steal GM vehicles, this will be a signal to avoid them, except as chop-shop bait. When the entire vehicle quickly disappears into the parts bins, kind of difficult to track it down with GPS or this latest whiz-bang.
But, why bother to steal a GM car when you can grab a Honda, BMW, or Toyota? Inefficient use of time.
Great idea! Since everything on a modern car is programmed through the computer, it shouldn’t be too hard to tell the computer to speed-limt the vehicle to 15 MPH. I like the McGruff-like voice telling the thief to pull over too.
We have Onstar in our Saturn Ion, and have never used it, but we do like the security of knowing it’s there as we travel quite a bit in the car.
Can OnStar not be disabled?
mark for later
My understanding is that you can choose not to pay for it and no longer “have” the service; but if GM or whomever is influencing GM wants to turn it back on without telling you they can. You’d have to physically remove it from the vehicle to prevent this from happening, or at least sever the wires connecting the antenna to the on-board computer.
GM taking a page from Bill Gates: who needs to sell the computers, just sell the OS for all of them.
That is the way to riches and away from the UAW!
(Oh sorry. All of the computers except for the 4 or 5% running an Apple OS. Let's just hope GM doesn't “brick” their cars if owners decide to change their oil at a jiffy lube.)
No silly, no cop would need to come along. GM could just send a screen shot of your speedometer and picture of your face (cmos chip behind the speedometer, and you would get the summons in the mail.
Guilty as charged, the judge would say.
Oh, and if an officer wants they can (and have done) read the CCM in the car for your speed, steering, and braking if you are in an accident.
Again, guilty as charged.
Big brother is not coming, he is with you every time you turn on your car
Worse, if you have a security system in your house and are late with your real estate tax.... well you need to pay to get in.
From what I know and the article says user features can be turned off. However, the computer module in your car that OnStar is integrated with never goes off.
So actually, no.
We’re talking about criminals, moron - what if they just leave it in the middle of the highway and run off? Is GM going to pay the bills of the first poor schlub to ram into one?
Onstar can be disabled very quickly ,, this catches the stupid thiefs only.
That might be the reason they turn the car’s flashers on. OnStar tells the LEO, “Do you see the subject car’s flashers activated?” That tends to confirm if they have the correct vehicle.
Great publicity for GM and the On Star product, but most chop shops have the cars stripped within a couple of hours, well before the owner knows it’s stolen.
I just figured that since most cops belong to a union that they would demand to write the tickets.Besides,it’s a wonderful opportunity to violate your forth amendment rights.
Before long Onstar could go interact with GPS info,then the last location of the stolen car would be logged in their main computer.It would be great info for divorce lawyers too.
He called On Star and they said they had the vehicle located and it was parked about 20 miles from his place.
On Star would NOT tell him where the truck was located. He had to notify the police and they were instructed to call On Star to get the location information. There are more than a few good reasons why OnStar wants law enforcement involved to retrieve the car.
He got it back.
sw
Not that I think they'd actually be interested in anything going on in my car, but I don't think it's healthy to let them get into the habit of doing their jobs without crossing every t and dotting every i. Every little bit of empowerment the government gets in domestic law enforcement is a little less power in our hands. That can't be a good thing.
And then to add insult to injury, I think some of these LoJack type services will not tell the subscriber where the transmitter is but will only tell law enforcement. If I wanted to know at all times where my vehicle was, I think I'd get one of the cell phones whose location you can see on the internet and leave it in the car. Then I am in control of the information and can use it or release it as I see fit.
‘And then to add insult to injury, I think some of these LoJack type services will not tell the subscriber where the transmitter is but will only tell law enforcement. ‘
If they did tell its customers where the stolen vehicle could be found, within the first 30 days you’d have a vigilante justice situation, and a mega millions lawsuit against the provider of the lo jack system and the info used by the ‘vigilante’.
They’d be out of their minds to give the location to a customer.
...for the insurance companies. I've know insurance companies to do perfectly rational things that I wouldn't want them doing to me.
Exactly. Which is why we need to handle the situation without resorting to third parties who might be put in such a quandary. That was what I was saying. I trust that if the most prudent course was calling the cops, that’s what I would do, but after paying for a service it should be my call, not theirs. That was why I was thinking of alternative methods of accomplishing the same thing that empower me rather than the opposite.
There are GPS trackers available for you to purchase that will give you the option. Private Investigators use them all the time for domestic investigations.
I realize I probably sound paranoid, but I haven't gone out and bought anything to track my car. It's just that it seems like our privacy and our personal control over our lives is being relentlessly chipped away, and I feel like we should be alert to stop as many of those encroachments as we can in advance, and look for ways to keep as much control as we can to ourselves, as a principle, and defy and foil those who would do the chipping.
I know what you mean, its one of the many reasons we moved out of the city and into the rural area we live in today.
Out here in the Appalachian Zone, if you don’t shoot the intruder/car thief, they think your stupid....(chuckle)
Then what would become of all the TV station helicopter pilots in California. They would be out of a job. ;~))
It seems to be entirely voluntary. The purchaser would have to weigh these issues against the real possibility of significant insurance savings. Also the safety benefits of having and not having the system would have to be compared.
But again...its entirely voluntary.
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