OnStar is celebrating its 25th anniversary, looking back on a quarter century of added safety, security, and peace of mind.
General Motors first introduced OnStar in 1996, formed as a collaboration between General Motors Electronic Data Systems, and Hughes Electronics Corporation. OnStar was officially launched at the Chicago Auto Show. The first vehicles to offer OnStar services were the 1997 Cadillac DeVille, Cadillac Seville, and Cadillac Eldorado. However, between 2002 and 2006, the service was also available on various Volkswagen, Acura, Audi, Subaru, and Isuzu vehicles via a licensing agreement.
In 2006, a rule change from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) altered regulations and no longer required that U.S. cell phone systems operate in analog mode, thus prompting GM to update OnStar services for roughly 500,000 customers, some of whom received an equipment upgrade, while others were offered to purchase an adapter with a one-year subscription. Older models had their service cancelled outright.
In 2011, OnStar teamed with Verizon Wireless to offer customers a variety of streaming content and video chat services, while in 2014, LTE Wi-Fi service was made available on certain General Motors vehicles.
In June of 2021, General Motors made the OnStar Guardian app available to all drivers in the U.S. and Canada, providing a variety of functions and features, such as mobile crash response, roadside assistance, emergency services, and location status.
In addition to offering services in the U.S. and Canada, OnStar has also been offered in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and China.
Earlier this year, General Motors announced that it was partnering with cloud-based emergency response platform RapidDeploy to send real-time crash notifications to 911 call centers in California, enabling emergency call centers to access crash data, which can then be relayed to first responders. The data includes injury severity prediction, the location of the accident, and other vital details.
Back in July, General Motors announced OnStar Vehicle Insights, which can be installed on non-GM vehicles to provide fleet managers with a variety of metrics and data, including vehicle health (fuel efficiency, oil life, etc.), Driver Behavior, and Daily Trip Summaries.
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Comments
It started off so great, then slowly got worse and worse.
My last experiences with getting directions was so bad I gave up on it. The people at the other end of the line were at best semi-conversant in English and very slow. I had the same experience tring to book a hotel using OnStar. Then, they took the ability to store phone numbers out of OnStar starting with the 2018 model year.
Were I to buy a GM car today, I’d just tell the salesman to not even bother Pressing The Blue Button.
A cell phone can do many of the same things as OnStar!! It may not be linked to a California-based call center but the original GM On Star for Cadillac debuted pre Verision, Tmobile, ATT Cellular.
Onstar the original I spy on you in your vehicle brought to you courtesy of the “big guy”
Yup, I remember when Tony Soprano moved from the Suburban and got the Escalade he had the wires cut.
I find OnStar to be pointless now too. My subscription lapsed some years ago. I’ve suggested just an emergency service that calls out after an airbag deployment but gm refuses to offer that alone. It’s all or nothing and the other services are sub-par now making the whole package a poor value.
I kept OnStar and BMW Assist longer than most people due to an event that happened in my community that I’ve never forgotten. In the early 90’s, a guy in a Volvo wagon ran off of a curvy road, down an embankment, and hit a tree. He broke both legs in the crash but survived.
When he didn’t show up at home that night his family went looking for him. As there was no evidence of the crash they didn’t find him. A community-wide search ensued a few days later with a story in the newspaper but it seemed he’d simply vanished. No one knew what happened to him. It was just a mystery.
Some months later, a hiker found his car and a search of the area resulted in the discovery of his remains some distance away. The police reported that he’d crawled out of the car and evidence suggested he’d repeatedly tried valiantly to crawl up the hill to the road for help but never made it. I think his official cause of death was dehydration. I always thought OnStar could’ve saved his life. Today, obviously cellphones are more prevalent (I assume he didn’t have one in 1990) but sometimes crash victims survive yet lose consciousness and even with a phone can’t summon help. That’s why I’d gladly pay for an emergency service if gm offered it but last time I checked, it’s not an option.
They do have an emergency service package. “Safety and Security,” it’s auto crash response, manual SOS call, stolen vehicle disable and roadside assistance. The problem is it’s 2-3x what it should cost at $30/month.
I’ve had OnStar on 25 vehicles over the past 25 years and loved it. Bought a 2021 SGMC Sierra Denali in January and OnStar has been a Nightmare. I had to make 21 calls and invested 27 hours just trying to get the system to work, show diagnostics, show information without having to log out and log back in etc..l
I’ve been referred to “Level 3” service twice. GM can do better.
You mean in the smartphone app? Yeah, that’s been an epic failure since version 5 in March.
Funny how GM thinks they’ll be able to take on Silicon Valley when they can’t figure out how to get their app to log in right after 6 months, while trying to collect $40/month at the same time.
The only part that is useful to me is the remote start for when it gets bone numbing cold or blazing hot and at least that is free.
On Star is like many government services. It started out as a needed/wanted service but over the years has became a pointless waste of money. But because of “reasons”, probably back door money. The service will not be cut. On Star is way to expensive for the service it provides.
On Star would be far more valuable if it was satellite service like the name implies.