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GM, OnStar announce ‘Push On’ sweepstakes

Filed under: Technology, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC

Starting today, General Motors is holding a car giveaway sweepstakes through its OnStar division. The contest will award 10 lucky OnStar users a brand new Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick or GMC of their choosing. To enter, contestants need only to push their vehicle’s OnStar button.

According to GM, it’s not necessary for the contestants to be OnStar subscribers to enter – all you need is an OnStar-equppied vehicle and you’re ready to go. The idea here is that non-subscribing customers enter the contest and realize the many benefits of having OnStar.

The winners of the contest will be allowed to pick any General Motors product as their prize – everything from the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 or Cadillac CTS-V to the Buick Regal or GMC Canyon. (Pick the CTS-V Sport Wagon. You’ll thank us later.) The only vehicle off limits is the illustrious Chevrolet Volt. GM’s contest is open for entries until May 31. Hit the jump for GM’s official press release.

[Source: General Motors]

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GM, OnStar announce ‘Push On’ sweepstakes originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OnStar offering Crisis Assist services to tsunami victims

Filed under: Etc., Technology, GM

OnStar customers who live in areas affected by the tsunami warnings are getting help from their cars. General Motors has announced that those who live in affected areas can push the OnStar button their vehicle and be connected with a Crisis Advisor, who will help them get through the situation as safely as possible.

The Crisis Advisors can contact emergency services; provide points of contact for assistance, including food, shelter and hotel accommodations; help subscribers without power to access the internet or charge phones so they can stay in contact and receive weather and incident updates.

According to GM, OnStar can also be used to funnel information from subscribers to federal emergency management agencies to get assistance to people in need. Feel free to scope the press release for all the details.

[Source: General Motors]

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OnStar offering Crisis Assist services to tsunami victims originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OnStar offering free services to Super Bowl attendees

Filed under: Technology, GM

OnStar

Thousands of football fans will soon converge on Arlington, Texas for Super Bowl XLV. Those visitors will fill area hotel rooms and jam eateries and pubs. That’s good news for local businesses, but thanks to impossible traffic it’s a bum deal for anyone who travels through town. And since the Super Bowl also brings massively increased security, many streets will be closed so police and private security details have fewer avenues to inspect. Thank goodness for GPS, right? Not so much.

Super Bowl organizers have asked that game attendees skip the GPS in favor of the directions printed on their parking passes. That’s an awfully analog process for our digital world, but owners of OnStar-equipped General Motors vehicles can still receive turn-by-turn directions. Subscribers will be have “special access” to routes and road closures relayed by specially trained OnStar advisers during the event. You won’t need to have the turn-by-turn subscription package to receive this service, either; GM is providing it free of charge just for the big game. Hit the jump to peruse the official OnStar press release.

[Source: OnStar]

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OnStar offering free services to Super Bowl attendees originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The future of GM’s OnStar could be “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”

At CES, OnStar introduced an aftermarket rearview mirror that could widen the company’s reach to 55 million cars, including Ford, Honda and Nissan models. Now that it’s made the move out of General Motors vehicles, we grabbed a moment with Greg Ross, OnStar’s vice president of business extensions, and Vijay Iyer, the firm’s director of corporate communications, at the Detroit Auto Show to see what other ideas are in play for the service.

“The brand is well known for safety and security, so we’re looking for other ways to apply that,” Ross said. Personal security and fall detection, such as a device for seniors, are possibilities being looked at. “It could be a safety button or similar device that knows if you’ve fallen down.”
OnStar already has a tie to personal safety: as part of a pilot program, it provides crash data to the CDC and the University of Michigan that they can match accident data with medical data. After a crash, “they get a body – they know what a person looks like but they don’t what happened. We add data from the accident so they can piece together the nature of the injuries, such as determining if there could be internal bleeding. It can also help us design safer vehicles, and one of the benefits is that it has given us higher priority access to 9-1-1 since the emergency personnel can be sure of what’s happened.”
On the subject of getting OnStar better and more aspirational brand awareness, Ross emphasized that OnStar is already one of the most important features for GM buyers. “We have six million customers in the U.S., Canada and China and 50 percent keep the system when the trial period ends. And OnStar wasn’t the feature dropped in the recession.”
Unlike Ford’s SYNC, even though OnStar has features like Facebook integration and Bluetooth based text-to-voice, it doesn’t have voice-activated control of its media features. When asked when that might come, Iyer would only say “The infotainment system will grow.” Ross said, “All manufacturers can catch up with raw features, they’ve become commodities. Trying to figure out the human interface in a manageable way is a big thing, versus rushing things out.”
Ross, however, feels that OnStar is fundamentally ahead of the competition because of its integration – the OnStar unit doesn’t rely on communicate through your mobile phone, it is a dedicated communication device with its own phone number. “Devices want to be smart, they want to communicate. But the ability to remotely interact with the car is only possible with embedded technology, and we have that.”

The future of GM’s OnStar could be “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2011: Blue Link is Hyundai’s answer to OnStar

Filed under: CES, Safety, Technology, Hyundai

Hyundai Blue Link

Hyundai Blue Link – Click above for image gallery

As part of its quest to match the rest of the industry point-for-point, Hyundai has just announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it’s entering the world of telematics with the introduction of Blue Link, its first foray into the safety and convenience sphere.

Similar to OnStar, Blue Link handles everything you’d expect, specifically directions with turn-by-turn navigation, point-of-interest searches, remote door-locking/unlocking, vehicle health reports, maintenance scheduling, crash notification, remote start and – according to Hyundai – 30 other features at launch. Included is a vehicle slowdown feature to aid police if the vehicle is stolen and a new “geofencing” system that sends a text message to the owner if the vehicle strays outside a prescribed area or route. Little Jimmy will not be pleased.

Hyundai is also touting a new voice-to-text feature that allows drivers to reply to a text message with custom commands rather than canned responses.

Blue Link is set to arrive this spring, initially on the Sonata sedan and a “youth-focused model” (*cough* Veloster *cough*) before the summer, with the system rolling out to every Hyundai by 2013. Hit the jump for the full details.

Gallery: Hyundai Blue Link

[Source: Hyundai]

Continue reading CES 2011: Blue Link is Hyundai’s answer to OnStar

CES 2011: Blue Link is Hyundai’s answer to OnStar originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2011: GM shows off OnStar equipped with 4G, Skype, video monitoring and more [w/video]

Filed under: CES, Technology, Buick, Cadillac, GM

OnStar with Verizon 4G LTE

Click above to view the video after the jump

Verizon just rolled out its 4G LTE wireless broadband network, and with General Motors using Big Red for its OnStar system for over 15 years, GM is asking itself: What can we do with all this bandwidth?

The answer is ‘plenty’… but nothing immediately.

Instead, GM and Verizon equipped a Buick LaCrosse with a 4G LTE modem and a host of cameras, sensors and controls and is trotting it out at CES to demonstrate how the broadband tech could be implemented.

Among the possible applications is a vehicle monitoring system that utilizes a handful of lipstick cameras to transmit video to the driver to see what’s going on both inside and outside the vehicle while they’re away. On the same front, the system can be paired with Verizon’s 4Home service, which connects with home security cameras, lights and thermostats and transmits information back to the driver.

Other features include voice search, a traffic view that streams live traffic-cam images, Skype with video chat and a impact detection system that would identify if your car was hit in a parking lot, and would then turn on all the exterior cameras and capture an image of the offending vehicle as it drove away.

Hit the jump for a video of the various systems in action along with the press blast, and look for our initial impressions from CES later this week.

Continue reading CES 2011: GM shows off OnStar equipped with 4G, Skype, video monitoring and more [w/video]

CES 2011: GM shows off OnStar equipped with 4G, Skype, video monitoring and more [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OnStar goes aftermarket, coming to Best Buy in spring

Filed under: Aftermarket, CES, Technology, GM

OnStar Mirror

General Motors’ OnStar division has been nothing short of a major success story over its 16 years of operation. But if there’s one major problem that has historically stood in the way of it becoming an automotive technology juggernaut, it’s that OnStar has always been limited to just GM vehicles. Until now.

Coming to a Best Buy near you in the spring of 2011 will be a complete standalone OnStar package housed in one aftermarket mirror. For $299 (plus an estimated $75-$100 for installation and a service plan starting at $18.95 a month or $199 a year), you’ll get the whole suite of features offered by OnStar, including:

Automatic Crash Response
Link to Emergency Services
Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance
Turn-by-Turn Navigation
Roadside Assistance
Hands-Free Calling

This standalone system includes everything needed to get your non-GM (or non-OnStar-equipped older GM) car or truck hooked up to the OnStar network. Installation involves removing the old rear-view mirror, installing the new one and running a power line – which supposedly takes less than an hour and will be handled by trained technicians from Best Buy, though other retail locations seem likely in the future. Full details can be found in the press release after the break.

[Source: OnStar]

Continue reading OnStar goes aftermarket, coming to Best Buy in spring

OnStar goes aftermarket, coming to Best Buy in spring originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chevy Volt owners get OnStar-powered website

Filed under: Hybrid, Sedan, Technology, Chevrolet, GM, Electric

MyVolt.com

Electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt (and we’ll let you decide which of those two categories General Motors’ green halo car fits into…) promise to save drivers money on fuel bills. But, just as operating expenses for traditional cars rises and falls with the price of gas, so too will battery-powered cars vary in their running costs as electric utility rates fluctuate.

GM has announced a new website for Chevrolet Volt owners called MyVolt.com that seeks to help consumers keep their electric charging rates in check. Statistics for battery usage and fuel economy will be transferred to the user’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, and utility companies are expected to use this data to help owners choose times to plug their cars into the grid. These utility companies can also make sure their power grids are up to the challenge of keeping EVs on the road.

Other techy benefits offered to Volt owners include a display to show whether the car is plugged in (and whether it’s charging at 120 or 240 volts), the creation of a charging schedule to make use of the best rates and the ability to monitor current battery state of charge and predicted range. One intriguing feature will allow OnStar to create its own charging schedule where the program will choose the lowest rates possible in order to achieve a full charge by a set time.

There will also be a provision to remotely start the Volt to get the interior up to a set temperature, and future updates will allow further customization of the car, such as setting radio presets. Want to know more? Check out the official press release after the break.

Gallery: 2011 Chevrolet Volt

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading Chevy Volt owners get OnStar-powered website

Chevy Volt owners get OnStar-powered website originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latest OnStar focuses on infotainment, adds audio Facebook integration, voice texting

Filed under: Safety, Technology, GM

After 15 years of offering comprehensive safety coverage to General Motors vehicle owners, OnStar will be getting a well-deserved boost in functionality to better take on Ford’s Sync and other upstart systems.

New infotainment systems are one of the hottest trends in the automotive marketplace, and GM certainly can’t afford to be behind the curve. Because of this, OnStar will be relaunching its brand image, citing the phrase “responsible connectivity” as the motto for everything moving forward. This means that OnStar won’t just be about safety anymore, though its core values will continue to be improved.

Two of the main infotainment technologies being tested right now are audio Facebook integration and voice text messaging. OnStar recently released a brief bit of information about these two functions, but we were able to attend a presentation to see these new social functions firsthand.

OnStar’s Facebook integration will allow subscribers to post audio status updates directly from the car. These messages will appear as audio updates on the Facebook news feed, and drivers will also have the ability to have their personal news feed read back to them. Even though this technology is still undergoing beta testing, the whole process works relatively seamlessly, though the read-back audio could still benefit from some smoothing-out.

Voice text messaging piggybacks on this same audio technology. Using a Bluetooth-paired phone, drivers can have text messages read to them via the car’s audio system. From there, the driver can press a button on the steering wheel to verbally select one of OnStar’s four pre-set replies – things like, “I received your text message, but am currently driving,” or, “Please call me.”

All of this being tested in correlation with OnStar’s ninth-generation hardware, which improves voice recognition, adds a Bluetooth phonebook, help ‘wizard,’ improved navigation and uses advanced notification services for traffic and weather alerts. This is just the start to what OnStar is working on, though. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into the future technologies OnStar is working to bring to GM vehicles. In the meantime, hit the jump for the official press release.

[Source: OnStar]

Continue reading Latest OnStar focuses on infotainment, adds audio Facebook integration, voice texting

Latest OnStar focuses on infotainment, adds audio Facebook integration, voice texting originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OnStar turns 15, has unlocked 4.7 million doors

Filed under: Etc., Technology, GM

Founded in 1995 and officially launched at that year’s Chicago Auto Show, OnStar has just hit its 15th birthday. After unlocking 4.7 million doors and providing over 59 million turn-by-turn routes, the tech centerpiece found in General Motors’ vehicles is not ready to sit back and revel in the past. Ford is constantly improving its Sync system and The General is looking to move OnStar into the same league. The major details of it plans are not yet available but we recently learned that OnStar is testing two interesting new features; voice texting and the ability to update your Facebook status simply by speaking.

As OnStar moves into the future, let’s take a look at what it has accomplished over the last 15 years.

More than one million responses to Emergency Service alerts, assisting drivers, first responders and local police departments in many life-threatening situations.
More than 146,000 responses to Automatic Crash Notifications where OnStar sent emergency personnel to a vehicle whose driver was unresponsive after an airbag deployment.
198 different coastal communities helped with hurricane preparedness through OnStar’s Crisis Assist.
More than 59 million Turn-by-Turn routes delivered. What was seen as a preliminary step against distracted driving, Turn-by-Turn Navigation allows an advisor to send directions directly to a subscriber’s Driver Information Center or radio.
More than 4.7 million doors have been unlocked by OnStar’s Remote Door Unlock service. OnStar unlocks 1,833 doors every day, a huge convenience for people who accidently lock their keys in the car. (It happens.)
More than 147 million monthly e-mails have been sent to subscribers since launch, giving them real-time diagnostic reports of their vehicles.

Besides just helping those in need, OnStar can also “help” those with greed – the type of greed that would lead them to steal a car. If a thief manages to swipe a vehicle equipped with GM’s big blue button, it can be slowed down remotely or, in other cases, OnStar can remotely block the ignition.

OnStar is a service that makes the lives of millions of customers a little easier, and we at Autoblog would like to wish it a happy birthday… as long as GM promises not to throw it a MTV-style Sweet Sixteen next year. Follow the jump to read more about OnStar in its official birthday press release.

[Source: OnStar]

Continue reading OnStar turns 15, has unlocked 4.7 million doors

OnStar turns 15, has unlocked 4.7 million doors originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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