OnStar Remote Ignition Block

[MaxLoverAz]

July 29th, 2009


By Cathy McCormick
OnStar Service Line Manager, Emergency and Security

It’s been just over a week since we “flipped the switch” and turned on our newest service – Remote Ignition Block. This service is available on select 2009 and newer GM vehicles. This industry-first service allows an OnStar Advisor to send a remote signal to a subscriber’s stolen vehicle to prevent it from restarting once turned off. This technology will not only help authorities recover stolen vehicles, but can also prevent dangerous high speed pursuits from starting.

I’ve been pleased to see the amount of discussion Ignition Block has generated on Twitter and in the blogosphere. While reading through the conversations, I noticed that some of you are concerned that this technology could be used in situations beyond stolen vehicle recovery and that it could be used without the subscriber’s consent.
To quickly clear up any misperceptions, OnStar’s focus is and always has been on helping to keep drivers safe and secure on the roads. It’s for that reason that stolen vehicle recovery has been such a priority for us and we’ve developed the industry’s most expansive suite of stolen vehicle assistance services, including Stolen Vehicle Slowdown and GPS location leveraging Microsoft Virtual Earth technology. We have a set process for the activation of Ignition Block, which is completely subscriber-driven. Here’s how it works:

• An OnStar subscriber reports their vehicle stolen to authorities and requests stolen vehicle assistance from OnStar.
• Law enforcement provides confirmation to the OnStar Advisor that the vehicle is in fact stolen.
• The OnStar Advisor pinpoints the vehicle’s exact GPS location and sends a remote signal to prevent stolen vehicle from starting the next time someone attempts to start it.

As of this morning, we’re 17 for 17 – 17 successful Ignition Block activations, and 17 successful vehicle recoveries. Every deployment has a unique story … the brand new 2010 Camaro SS in Wayne, PA, the 2009 Tahoe in Waipahu, HI, but the end result was always the same — the safe and fast recovery of the stolen vehicle to the subscriber. In most cases, the vehicles were recovered within an hour of the advisor activating the service. I’m extremely encouraged that this technology is being adopted so rapidly, and look forward to sharing even more success stories in the weeks and months ahead.