OnStar

[Nagrom]

I saw that OnStar commercial on TV, the one where the woman is in a wreck, and it shows fire, police, ambulance getting dispatched.

Has anyone ever gotten a call from OnStar? It seems from the commercial they can tell whether an airbag was deployed, but I also wonder what other info they could give us...

[CKL958]

Pretty sure that this isn't in place, but... With all the electronics on new vehicles, I would imagine they could tell you almost anything you wanted to know. With advanced traction control systems, there are sensors to tell where the vehicle is headed, which are interpreted by the "brain" to apply brakes, stiffen suspension, etc. I would imagine that these same sensors would be able to tell you if the vehicle has rolled as well.

It's a matter of how much information is practical to provide. Remember that Onstar has to contact your dispatch to give them the info. At the same time "They're with you until Emergency Services arrive" according to the commercials.

I work with residential and commercial security systems. There are many different communication protocols we can use, but there is one in particular that we like as it can give labels as well due to sending in a different "code" for each zone. With this technology, the owner or police can be told that a motion detector in the dining room of a house has been tripped. I would imagine similar things could be done through onstar.

[PFD023]

I saw that OnStar commercial on TV, the one where the woman is in a wreck, and it shows fire, police, ambulance getting dispatched.

Has anyone ever gotten a call from OnStar? It seems from the commercial they can tell whether an airbag was deployed, but I also wonder what other info they could give us...

Had quite a few with OnStar. Their ability to provide locations is excellent. Right down to collectors or express for urban highways. They can also provide speed at impact type data if you ask for it as well. Usefull if you want to get an idea of how serious an impact you are dealing with. The phone system for OnStar though is crap if you are trying to speak with the actual driver.

[Bubba]

Had our first "OnStar" generated call for service yesterday. All dispatch could report was a vehicle rollover. The location given was 2km off the mark, the car was dead cold upon arrival as well, with no occupants to be found. We are quite rural here but still cant say I'd put a lot of faith in it. It is my understanding that cell service is required for the system to work. Great if your in range of a tower I suppose, but I'd be looking for a satellite option or something before I'd believe they got my back...

my.02 in the boonies

[Nagrom]

Had our first "OnStar" generated call for service yesterday. All dispatch could report was a vehicle rollover. The location given was 2km off the mark, the car was dead cold upon arrival as well, with no occupants to be found. We are quite rural here but still cant say I'd put a lot of faith in it. It is my understanding that cell service is required for the system to work. Great if your in range of a tower I suppose, but I'd be looking for a satellite option or something before I'd believe they got my back...

my.02 in the boonies

Interesting. This is what I would expect around my area too.

I did a little bit of research, and found that OnStar is 5 times as powerful as a cell phone. That probably helps to make the service more widely availible, but hills could still cause you to lose communications.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/onstar.htm

According to the source I found, OnStar works with GPS technology. Even though GPS is generally accurate, I believe it could be very poor sometimes.

Sometimes cell phone coverage seems to "jump". You will get it in a place one time, then not the next. This could be a cause of false, or cold calls for MVAs. These, as we know cause problems. A department a ways away had an MVA last night. IIRC it was a rollover with entrapment. The call was aborted after about 45 minutes; police, fire, nor ambulance could find the scene. That shows how important good info is... Is OnStar up to the task? Cellphones are a major pain in the rear too, but, I'm sure they've saved more than one person. One more tool in the toolbox can't hurt...

[PFD023]

Had our first "OnStar" generated call for service yesterday. All dispatch could report was a vehicle rollover. The location given was 2km off the mark, the car was dead cold upon arrival as well, with no occupants to be found. We are quite rural here but still cant say I'd put a lot of faith in it. It is my understanding that cell service is required for the system to work. Great if your in range of a tower I suppose, but I'd be looking for a satellite option or something before I'd believe they got my back...

my.02 in the boonies
Don't be so quick to point the finger at Onstar regarding the timing....I'd be questioning your dispatch to see where the problem was. Onstar passes on the type of incident/location/file # etc to the PSAP. Your dispatcher is going to work with Onstar to pinpoint the location. Onstar will verify location with the occupants as well....so if you think they are off the mark you could imagine if the occupants didn't have Onstar to guide them. We get calls every day with folks who don't have the faintest clue as to which rural road they are on....or major highway...ummmmmm QEW....no....the 403.....no the QEW....maybe it's the 427????....ask FitSsiks or Oldboot how many hours they've spent in their careers "hunting" for an mvc on a major highway based on the info called in by a motorist.
Onstar can pinpoint (within reason) their location for them...if they have it. 2km's off the mark? GPS will give a location which has to be matched to data from a mapping system. Maybe...just maybe the data from the mapping system is not as up to date as it could be?
2km's off isn't bad at all....folks who don't have a clue where they are at and call without the assistance of Onstar can be dozens of miles off....how about they don't even know which town they are in?...just ask Deevo.

[Bubba]

Yup... I hear ya's
We were kinda stoked to have a call like on the TV commercial, thats all. Had hoped the technology would be better than what we are used to as well. Have had some big goose chases here too. I wont even consider a cell phone here... watching people turning in circles or driving up hills trying to get some reception. Funny thing is we do have a sat phone on one of our rescues and have yet to see it work on a run... and of course it works fine at the communications service depot.
Oh well, business as usual... Later.

[volfirechic]

Not too long ago, we actually responded to a structure fire that had been reported through OnStar. The lady who spotted the fire had no signal on her cell phone in that particular area, so she used her OnStar. Address was pinpointed perfectly!

[iguazu]

I find it surprising that you ended up 2 klicks from the signal. Very surprising since the location is transmitted/received via Global Positioning Satellites Which are typically accurate to within 2 metres. So as PFD023 suggested, perhaps upon further investigation of these occurrences where crews end up outside of immediate area/ eyesight, you'll find a comm error between your psap/onstar operator/dispatcher or out of date systems.

Your automatic crash sensors (front and side) Send information to your sensor diagnostic module (SDM) and an accelerometer is where your 'crash severity' is measured. I could be wrong but I do not think many GM vehicles have a gyro sensor, infact if I had to bet only the Vette would at this point... so I have no idea, Bubba, how dispatch would know or confirm it is a "roll over". Unless they spoke with the occupants? But you said they were gone? So I am at a loss there haha. Perhaps the yaw sensor was able to send enough info to the SDM to determine this.

The only roll system I am aware/ current on is Fords RSC which is a good proactive and re-active system that will sense a roll and adjust to avoid it. A few imports likely have it too.

Anyway as mentioned earlier the OnStar MODULE is run on a cellular network but its strength is considerably more than a conventional cell phone. I have been in many areas where XM will cut out and I've called to test OnStar or to find directions, I trust it when I am out in the middle of nowhere and the crack berry drains in 10 minutes overworking itself to find a signal.

I think it is a great system more so for rural areas than metro areas, for the simple fact you have more chances of less witnesses rural areas. Now someone who has driven off the road in a snowstorm and is incompacitated has a chance at survival. If an OnStar operator receives crash info and no response it is an automatic dispatch. Another pretty amazing thing is an automatic dispatch for severe crashes registered, even if someone is saying they are okay...who are possibly, or at least after a crash like that are assumed to be in shock and incapable of knowing what is going on.

PFD023 , you seem to know a bit about this too are you an Operator? Technician? Correct me where I am wrong, I haven't done a GM program in some time. I am sure I muffed it up somewhere.

___

But I find it really hard to believe the GPS was off 2 klicks and you knew it was a rollover from the system...Im going to ask around.

[dentedhead]

I find it surprising that you ended up 2 klicks from the signal. Very surprising since the location is transmitted/received via Global Positioning Satellites Which are typically accurate to within 2 metres. So as PFD023 suggested, perhaps upon further investigation of these occurrences where crews end up outside of immediate area/ eyesight, you'll find a comm error between your psap/onstar operator/dispatcher or out of date systems.

Your automatic crash sensors (front and side) Send information to your sensor diagnostic module (SDM) and an accelerometer is where your 'crash severity' is measured. I could be wrong but I do not think many GM vehicles have a gyro sensor, infact if I had to bet only the Vette would at this point... so I have no idea, Bubba, how dispatch would know or confirm it is a "roll over". Unless they spoke with the occupants? But you said they were gone? So I am at a loss there haha. Perhaps the yaw sensor was able to send enough info to the SDM to determine this.

The only roll system I am aware/ current on is Fords RSC which is a good proactive and re-active system that will sense a roll and adjust to avoid it. A few imports likely have it too.

Anyway as mentioned earlier the OnStar MODULE is run on a cellular network but its strength is considerably more than a conventional cell phone. I have been in many areas where XM will cut out and I've called to test OnStar or to find directions, I trust it when I am out in the middle of nowhere and the crack berry drains in 10 minutes overworking itself to find a signal.

I think it is a great system more so for rural areas than metro areas, for the simple fact you have more chances of less witnesses rural areas. Now someone who has driven off the road in a snowstorm and is incompacitated has a chance at survival. If an OnStar operator receives crash info and no response it is an automatic dispatch. Another pretty amazing thing is an automatic dispatch for severe crashes registered, even if someone is saying they are okay...who are possibly, or at least after a crash like that are assumed to be in shock and incapable of knowing what is going on.

PFD023 , you seem to know a bit about this too are you an Operator? Technician? Correct me where I am wrong, I haven't done a GM program in some time. I am sure I muffed it up somewhere.

___

But I find it really hard to believe the GPS was off 2 klicks and you knew it was a rollover from the system...Im going to ask around.

Some ofthe rules here include NOT asking PFD questions its a matter of national safety or sumpin.And dont look him in the eyes if you meet him hes like the Wiz.

Id look over my shoulder now man your in it too deep.

Dentedhead

[iguazu]

HAHA poor guy.... He is standing RIGHT there, he can hear you!

[PFD023]

iguazu your technical level is more than mine. Mine is just hands on working with some of Ontario's finest.....helping those who can't often help themselves...or are just too inebriated to do so :>

[PFD023]

Had our first "OnStar" generated call for service yesterday. All dispatch could report was a vehicle rollover. The location given was 2km off the mark, the car was dead cold upon arrival as well, with no occupants to be found. We are quite rural here but still cant say I'd put a lot of faith in it. It is my understanding that cell service is required for the system to work. Great if your in range of a tower I suppose, but I'd be looking for a satellite option or something before I'd believe they got my back...

my.02 in the boonies

Bubba....about the 2km's off the mark. Possible explanation goes like this...OnStar calls with a rural location of an emerg....they have lat/long points but no exact "911 address" of the location of the vehicle....I'm guessing that your dispatcher (for whatever reason) didn't use the coordinates when they plotted the location....maybe they just chose the nearest intersection and manually plotted the incident there. I'm guessing that somehow the GPS coordinates didn't get entered into the ICAD system....and that someone just said...."since we don't have a 911 address, I think it's right around......HERE" ..OR....although it can be done with a few more steps....the GPS coords are entered but when they do they don't give you an actual street address unless you dig a little deeper. ...so the dispatcher has the actual point of the incident on the ICAD map but when they dispatched it they used the nearest intersection as a reference to the guys on the road since actual coordinates are going to be useless to the gur/girl driving the truck unless they have a GPS in the vehicle. I'd be curious to know if that was the case.....any chance you could ask whomever does your comms how they enter OnStar info?


Either way OnStar wasn't going to be getting anything else other than coordinates from what your posting says...sounds like they never spoke to the driver/occupants....was the vehicle stolen?...or maybe the driver wanted to vacate the scene cause the smell of alcohol on his buddy's breath might be confused with the smell of alcohol on his breath. Maybe the driver was one of the "friends" of TFS's facebook site that FitSsiks posted?

[iguazu]

Good point with just dispatching to nearest intersection.


I can attest they can find you wherever you are to within 2 metres. It is how we found our Z06...or what was left of it in a Montreal chop shop and what was not freighted out. haha.


I know Ford is working on a crash response system that works through their Sirius partnership and your cell phone via bluetooth and Sirius Satellite and GPS capabilities. If you have the new navi system that data is transmitted. But as you know even a cell phone can be traced to within feet of where it is transmitting signals from - that isnt just Bourne Identity haha.

And I can attest that they too can narrow it down to your near or immediate location. :) They however cannot control whether or not it is a former East St. Louis gang banger that is sent to aide you in popping the door and shutting off your truck haha. Not sure if that is available in Canada yet

But like in any situation, my trust is in the Professionals from fire to breaking into my truck. No judgement. He was pro.

[PFD023]

All your OnStar questions answered here....http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/services/video.jsp

[Nagrom]

Cool link. Thanks.

[Hacienda216]

Had an OnStar generated "missing person" last week. Seems a little old lady waited in the car while her husband ventured out into the deep dark woods to pick berries. After he didn't return for a considerable time, she hit the OnStar button to report that her husband was missing and she didn't know where she was, only that she was somewhere in the 7500 acres of provincial park. No automatic crash response, but I had been wondering about the frequency of these types of calls after this incident.

[PFD023]

Personally I haven't seen many calls similar to what you are describing Hacienda216. We do get the occasional OnStar call where the caller has connected to Onstar...given a minimal amount of info as to something they witnessed on the highway then disconnected from OnStar...they in turn are obligated to call us...and unfortunately for them, and us, there is usually very little info...no call back number (because they haven't subscribed to the phone service)...so we are left just scratching our heads trying to make something out of it. Still have to treat it like every other 911 call.