General Motors Celebrates 20 Years Of OnStar

Twenty years ago, General Motors launched the personal mobility service we’ve all come to appreciate, OnStar. Since its start it has accumulated over a billion customer interactions throughout 18 different countries, serving customers of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Opel and Vauxhall.

OnStar provides users with more than just directions and remote vehicle access. Along with those services, OnStar also provides 4G LTE wifi, E-commerce and personal concierge, vehicle health management, and ride and car-sharing services like the newly-launched Maven.

While the services can be appreciated, it’s the sheer growth of the service that is rather remarkable. Today there are nearly 3 million Wi-Fi enabled vehicles on the road, connected by OnStar 4G LTE, which launched just two years ago. This connectivity allows for remote vehicle access, which can be controlled via a smartphone app. In the first quarter of 2016 alone there were more than 50 million interactions.

The E-commerce and personal concierge OnStar AtYourService feature can easily be overlooked, but it has in fact opened more than 600,000 money-saving offers from participating partners, including Dunkin’ Donuts, Parkopedia, ExxonMobil, Groupon and more.

Maybe the whole mobile hotspot and promotional deals aren’t your thing. And that’s fine, because there are other practical services provided by OnStar. The first is vehicle health management. Every month, roughly 5 million customers receive a Vehicle Diagnostics Report providing them with a comprehensive evaluation of their vehicles’ key operating systems. Soon, customers will have access to Proactive Alerts, which will notify them of potential vehicle component issues before performance is impacted. The second service we find more value in is the Stolen Vehicle Assistance, because nothing feels better than having reassurance in your investment.

Happy 20 years, OnStar. And many more, as the telematics service continues to evolve and grow with the industry.