July 22, 2009 by admin
A quick note to anyone considering stealing a GM vehicle equipped with OnStar: Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
OnStar is recognized as an industry leader in the area of stolen vehicle assistance services, thanks to offerings such as Stolen Vehicle Assistance with Microsoft Virtual Earth technology and industry-exclusive Stolen Vehicle Slowdown.
The company is now announcing the launch of yet another critical tool to help law enforcement quickly and safely recover our subscribers’ stolen vehicles.
It’s called Remote Ignition Block – and it does pretty much what the name suggests. As soon as law enforcement confirms a vehicle as stolen, an OnStar Advisor can send a signal to the vehicle to prevent it from restarting once the ignition is turned off. The process is completely transparent to the car thief – he’ll just continue along his route, thinking he’s made a clean getaway, but once he decides to stop and turn the vehicle off, it’s dead where it sits. OnStar then uses GPS technology notify officers of the vehicle’s exact location so they can respond to the scene with the secure knowledge that there’s no way the perpetrator can attempt to flee by initiating a high-speed chase, improving the safety of the responding officers, the perpetrator and innocent bystanders.
This technology is only being used in order to facilitate the safe recovery of stolen vehicles. Since OnStar originally started with the category of stolen vehicle assistance, a series of protocols has been created that dictate interaction with subscribers and law enforcement to make sure it’s done right. The privacy of subscribers is something OnStar takes very seriously, and the company makes a point to regularly consult them before bringing any new service to market to make sure it’s value added. In fact, 97% of OnStar subscribers surveyed said they would like Remote Ignition Block capability on their vehicles.
This service is currently available on more than 2 million select MY 2009 and 2010 GM vehicles, and since the technology first went live on July 17, there have already been 7 successful deployments. While this is great news, it’s certainly not the end of the story. OnStar is continually engaging in conversations with law enforcement and customers to figure out how to stay ahead of the game and reinforce the commitment to keeping everyone safer and more secure on the roads.
It’s a great day for OnStar…but not such a great day to be a car thief.
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