mobile-menu-icon
GM Authority

General Motors Files Trademark Application For ‘Protected Idle’

General Motors has filed a trademark application to register the term Protected Idle with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), GM Authority has discovered.

Filed on September 20th, 2017 and assigned serial number 87615711, the filing states that the standard character mark will be used to name “Software for motor vehicles which prevents the vehicle transmission from being engaged while idling”.

General Motors GM Protected Idle Trademark Application USPTO

The GM Authority Take

Looks like The General is looking to use the term “Protected Idle” for a technology that decouples the transmission from the engine when a vehicle is idling, something that we can see going in two different directions.

First, the technology could be a way to save fuel, which makes us wonder as to how such tech would differ from engine auto stop/start that is available currently across the automaker’s vehicle lineup. Second, Protected Idle could be a new way to prevent the transmission from being engaged (like putting it into a forward or reverse gear) if a vehicle’s key fob is not detected in the vehicle, but the vehicle is running.

Stay tuned to GM Authority as we follow this one, as well as all other General Motors news.

GM Authority Executive Editor with a passion for business strategy and fast cars.

Subscribe to GM Authority

For around-the-clock GM news coverage

We'll send you one email per day with the latest GM news. It's totally free.

Comments

  1. Maybe they are starting to finally listen to all the customer complaints on that start stop garbage. I see tons of complaints right here on a GMA thread from a year ago. Not to mention a few GM sales people I know that have a hard time selling vehicles with them.

    A lot of companies put stop start on their cars but at least they all offer a switch to shut it off if you don’t want it activated. Only a few Cadillacs have this switch while all Chevy’s and Buicks that have it force it on you without a on/off switch. People DO NOT want their car shutting off every time it comes to a stop. It kept me far away from buying the new Lacrosse as I refuse to buy a car that has this feature without a way to turn it off when not wanting it on.

    Reply
    1. It’s a good idea for fuel economy but if I’m shelling out tens of thousands of dollars let me turn it the **** off. I hope you’re right about this Dan!

      Reply
      1. I can’t stand the start stop on my 2016 CTS, I am able to shut it off however I wish it would be off when you first start the car to go somewhere ,so you could then choose to turn it on if you want that feature . Also It’s not good for the engine as you know the most wear on an engine is when you first start it up.

        Reply
        1. It’s cold start up that causes the wear and tear.

          Reply
    2. If a switch to turn off stop start is what keep people from purchasing their vehicle why not just install a switch instead of investing in new technology. Seems like a much cheaper solution to me. Perhaps this is a new fuel saving feature in addition to start stop. Who knows what GMis thinking sometimes.

      Reply
      1. you mean like a key!!!! haha jk, I know where you getting at. More than likily It would be a feature in the touchscreen settings somewhere. the reason is to force stop start without having the annoying stop start feel.

        Reply
  2. I’ve only driven a loaner for a day with start/stop feature. It was the new Malibu. It didn’t really bother me but I agree that it should have a on/off button or a feature setting to keep it off. It shouldn’t be forced on a driver to have it engaged all the time.
    If there is one good thing about start/stop on GM vehicles is that it’s probably the best on the market. I’ve heard how bad it is even on luxury cars like BMW.

    Reply
  3. I just hope the car manufacturers continue to improving the fuel economy of their vehicles so that the internal combustion engine continues to be the primary type of engine propelling cars and trucks for the future! Car companies have made huge improvements in fuel economy and hope they continue to make strides in fuel/emissions levels.

    Reply
  4. I agree with Greg that GM’s implementation of start-stop is a lot better than BMW and other competitors. The engineers are doing their best to improve emissions and fuel economy with as little cost to the customer as possible (i.e. these aren’t more costly “mild hybrid” cars).

    My assumption is that they don’t give customers the ability to permanently disable start-stop because doing so would negatively impact the advertised fuel economy. Just like “sport mode” is automatically disengaged after an ignition cycle, this is a default operating mode that helps them honestly meet their economy claims. Allowing drivers to permanently bypass the feature could potentially lead to a “scandal” similar to what we’ve seen with VW. GM advertises one thing, but builds in the ability for customers to manually bypass it and pollute more.

    Reply
  5. I don’t mind start/stop. My DD (’17 Cruze RS) has it. I like it better in my wife’s ’16 BMW though. You can turn it on/off if you wish. In the Cruze, sometimes when you just barely come to a stop at a red light and you have to start going again, the car will buck before fully restarting. That is kind of annoying and potentially dangerous, but overall, I don’t mind the function.

    Reply
  6. My point is it’s not good for the engine , that’s when an engine creates the most wear as the oil starts to drain down to the oil pan it may not be much but a little is too much . Also the starter motor will have to be replaced sooner down the road.

    Reply
  7. I was going to guess ‘protected idle’ related to GM’s stock price range, but that would be cynical, so I won’t go there.

    I don’t mind stop/start, but sometimes it throbs fwd in a drive through or at lights.

    Reply
  8. I feel like it’s another name for start stop. But I could really careless just because I have the start stop technology on mine and it doesn’t really bother me at all since it doesn’t really shut off on cold winter nor hot summer. If you’re tired of it just put it in manual mode. But if you’re just a lazy f**k, then we’ll just take a walk

    Reply
  9. You guys are full of It! There is nothing wrong stop/start mode on the GM cars. I have drive well over 100k miles on GM cars that have it. All of the claims are to try in justify not having It!

    Why can’t you people understand this, these types of new technology are required in order to meet cafe standards. So GM can keep 600 plus to cars around.

    Having the ability to turn defeats the purpose of saving gas and getting better MPG! I don’t know why this is so hard for you guys to figure out!

    If GM uses a transmission based system to save extra fuel I am sure people will complain about this also.

    Lag while taking off? Nope wrong! You take your foot of the brake and by the time you hit the gas it’s ready to go.

    It’s annoying when it goes off and on? Again nope! It’s seemless! 99.9% of the time I never even notice It!

    One day you will stop complaining about this technology when we do not have a V8 option on cars and trucks anymore! And it will be because of people like you guys who wine and complain about a company trying to save fuel on the low end horse power wise so GM can max out on the high end horsepower wise!

    You only look at what is happening today, things that are right in front of your face! You don’t have the intelligence to look 1 year or 2 years or 5 years or ten years down the road!

    So stop complaining about this technology and start embracing it because if we don’t our beloved V8 engines are going to go away soon then we all thought!

    I for one don’t mind driving a car with this technology knowing that it allows hi horsepower options to be available.

    Stop being closed minded and open your eyes!

    Reply
    1. You must work for GM lol. First off many of these complaints come from people that bought these cars with it. OPEN YOUR EYES! If wr are spending thousands of dollars on a new car, ill be damned if I will be forced with this garbage. Why can other car companies offer it and still offer a on off switch?

      Not GM. And I guarantee its going to start hurting sales. On people that see what it is from the start and don’t buy the vehicle or ones that bought it and state its going to be thier last car with it. Just check out the GMA post on it. Tons of people that say they are sorry they bought or leased the vehicle with it.

      Plus your delusional in thinking this is making that much of a impact on fuel savings or that somehow we are going to get such increased HP from it.

      Reply
      1. Nope not a GM employee but nice try! Open my eyes? Did you not Read? I’ve driven over 100k miles in these types of cars because I own one!

        I can tell you first hand that they are no big deal to drive, no big deal to live with on a daily basis, and are seemless and work great.

        But a person like yourself won’t acknowledge a person with real world driving and not a rental for a day or a test drive!

        I have opened my eyes by driving a car with this technology, how many miles have you driven one?

        You talk about how bad the technology is but have you owned one? If not then how can you comment on It? Unless you just enjoy complaining! This seems to me that this just might be the case!

        Reply
        1. Brian, I do not care is you drove your car 1 million miles with. If your happy and have no issues then fine. The point I am trying to make is that there are tons of people that do not want this technology nor will buy a car with it. The other point that you seem to keep missing here is that their are many many complaints of people that are sorry that they bought a car with this and and soon as they can will trade thier car in on something that dose not have start/stop.

          I myself will never buy a car with this useless crap unless thier is a way to turn off. Thankfully there are still some normal automakers that will give the people that have forked over thousands of dollars to have a choice to turn it off. You want or need to put this useless crap on the engine fine, just give me the option to turn it off if I am driving through a bad neighborhood or if for whatever reason I feel uncomfortable having it whether be do to traffic or something else.

          Reply
          1. Or just take a walk?

            Reply
  10. I am no engineer but I have heard that you burn more fuel on start up and startup is the hardest on engine wear. I understand that idling for long periods of time consume extra fuel but just idling at a stop light or stop sign I wouldn’t think make that much of a difference in fuel consumption. Not to mention the wear on the engine , starter components and battery.

    Reply

Leave a comment

Cancel