OnStar wants to connect users to the "cloud" for a variety of onboard services.
It’s already the biggest onboard telematics service in the U.S., but OnStar has far grander aspirations, with a variety of new concepts being unveiled at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.
The General Motors subsidiary will be showing off a prototype Chevrolet Volt that can draw a variety of broadband services down from the “cloud,” while it is also revealing the first of what could be a long list of smartphone app-like services that it promises will offer some useful services to OnStar subscribers.
“We’ll be using CES to show where the brand is and where it will be going forward,” says spokesman Vijay Iyer, part of the OnStar team in Sin City this week.
The pioneering telematics company also is preparing to expand its reach, hoping to target potential customers around the world – as well as motorists who don’t own a General Motors vehicle.
A new app will make it easy for RelayRides customers to access a GM vehicle equipped with OnStar.
Traditionally a forum for the likes of TV and cellphone makers, the annual CES gathering has turned into a major gathering for the auto industry, as well. That’s no surprise considering the rapid growth of onboard technologies, ranging from active safety systems like Lane Departure Warning to in-car infotainment systems.
An early leader, OnStar is seeing its position challenged by makers such as Ford, with its Sync technology, and Toyota’s enTune, so the GM division is stepping up its game. And unlike the past, it is looking to lift a page from Apple’s playbook by encourage outside developers to lend it a hand.
Instead of us developing all the new services,” explains Iyer, “we want to go out to the market like Apple does and get developers to come back to us” with creative new ideas.
That means opening up its cloud-based API platform to permit new partners to develop apps and services that can run through OnStar. An early example was the smartphone app that allows a Chevrolet Volt owner to check up on the vehicle’s battery level and even schedule when to begin charging.
New at CES, OnStar will demonstrate an app developed by the RelayRides car-sharing service. RelayRides doesn’t own its own fleet of cars but turns to vehicle owners who might want to rent out their vehicles during weekdays, for example, and share the profits. A customer would be able to access a special app to locate an available car then use the app to open it up and drive away, much like an OnStar customer now can remotely unlock their vehicle should they inadvertently lock the keys inside.
Today’s car is a showcase of digital technology and the 4G LTE car OnStar is showing at CES – developed in partnership with Verizon – is meant to demonstrate the range of broadband services it can deliver from its cloud-based servers. These include streaming movies or games to monitors all over a vehicle, even giving passengers access to Skype video conferencing.
More practical features would include the ability to remotely diagnose a vehicle when, say, its Check Engine warning light were to come on. It would also be possible to download a digital fix.
It’s the second year in a row that OnStar has had a major announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show. In January 2011 it announced plans to market a replacement rearview mirror that non-GM vehicle owners could have easily installed in order to get the OnStar service. The company has rapidly expanded the number of vehicles that can use the mirror and Iyer claims it could now be installed in as many as 100 million U.S. vehicles.
“We have to learn a whole new way of thinking,” he says, as OnStar looks for other business opportunities.
It is not only looking at new products and services but also at ways to expand its geographic reach. China is now OnStar’s second-biggest market, with over 400,000 customers. They appear to be even more involved with OnStar than American subscribers, who dial into the service, on average, 4 million times a month. In China, that’s already up to 1 million calls a month.
Look for the GM subsidiary to announce additional markets it plans to enter “later this year,” according to Iyer.