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OnStar Goes in Pursuit of Bad Guys

New service disables stolen cars

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 9, 2007

The technology will allow OnStar employees to send a signal to a subscriber’s stolen vehicle to reduce engine power and gradually slow the vehicle.

GM will make the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown available on nearly 1.7 million 2009 model year vehicles. OnStar already finds 700 to 800 missing cars per month using the global positioning system.

OnStar employees can use GPS technology to try to find the vehicle and provide its location to law enforcement. Police officers will then ask OnStar to slow the vehicles remotely. OnStar promises safeguards will be in place to ensure that the correct vehicle is slowed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) praised the new technology and suggested it may help reduce the number of high speed police chases.

About 30,000 police chases occur yearly and there are about 300 deaths as a result of those chases, according to NHTSA.

“Technology should not just entertain us or make us more comfortable; it should make us safer,” Nicole Nason, administrator of NHTSA, said in a statement. “We applaud innovations such as the kind GM is embracing that will make our roads better, our passengers more protected and our drivers safer.”

The OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is a GM feature in the United States and Canada and will be included in the one-year OnStar subscription that customers receive when buying an eligible 2009-model OnStar-equipped vehicle.

"From its inception, the motivation behind OnStar has been the safety and security of our subscribers and others on the road," said Chet Huber, OnStar president. "Every service we add builds on this original promise. The Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service will allow our subscribers added peace of mind by possibly preventing their vehicle from being used as an instrument of harm if it happens to be stolen."

"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 and the car's emergency flashers would go on.

GM abandoned almost 500,000 of its 4 million OnStar subscribers when the nation's cell phone systems stopped offering analog service.

The owners of GM products that carry analog technology to power their OnStar systems were "outdated," GM said, and the world's largest automaker dropped them from its safety and communications system.

In 2008 newer digital systems will be the only way OnStar can communicate since the country's cell phone carriers, which carry OnStar's signals on their towers, will complete the changeover to digital service.

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.

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.

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