General Motors, Amazon Partner To Offer OnStar Guardian Skill For Alexa
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General Motors has partnered with Amazon to introduce a new OnStar Guardian skill for Alexa home devices.
The OnStar Guardian skill for Amazon Alexa allows users to reach an OnStar Emergency-Certified Advisor by saying, “Alexa, call for help.” The service works the same as pressing the SOS button in an OnStar-equipped General Motors vehicle and can be used during crisis situations, such as house fires, medical emergencies and break-ins.
Pam Fletcher, GM’s vice president for Global Innovation, says the OnStar Guardian skill for Alexa is just one way GM is working to grow OnStar’s business outside of GM vehicles. The company also extended the availability of the OnStar Guardian smartphone app to non-GM vehicle owns in the U.S. and Canada in June, which works in a similar way to the OnStar Guardian Alexa skill.
“Through our collaboration with Amazon, people can now have access to OnStar’s Emergency-Certified Advisors in a place where they spend so much of their time — their home,” Fletcher said. “This is another great example of how we’re expanding the safety and security of OnStar beyond the vehicle to help more people, which demonstrates GM’s commitment to its growth strategy and innovating its software-enabled services.”
GM says the OnStar Guardian skill for Amazon Alexa will initially be available to select OnStar members only. A wider rollout will commence in 2022 to include anyone in the United States with a compatible, in-home Alexa-enabled device, including an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show. The automaker will send an email to OnStar members with details on how to sign up for the OnStar Guardian skill in the near future.
To be clear, the OnStar Guardian skill will require an active OnStar subscription and will only be available to users in the United States. GM did not say if it has future plans to roll out the service in other markets where OnStar operates, such as the Middle East or Canada.
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Features like this are what they’re putting out to justify their fleet of OnStar advisors and their high subscription cost. Apps and screens have pretty much replaced the need to talk to somebody in a non-emergency situation, for example to unlock the doors or find a destination.
Soon A.I. apps will take over and remove drivers such as Sam from cars, then drive without humans and never need OnStar becsuse thry don’t drive like humans.
Meanwhile us folks with 2015 or older OnStar vehicles got an Email stating that in early 2022 we are going to have to install a module in the OBD II port and then pair it with a downloadable app on our smartphones. We appear to also be losing our TBT navigation and send to vehicle navigation capabilities. The buttons on the mirror will not longer function so there goes that too. Figures I got this right after renewing for another year.