OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown hits the brakes on jacked cars
By Darren Murph 
posted October 9th 2007 9:39AM
posted October 9th 2007 9:39AM
posted October 9th 2007 9:39AM
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should I point out that most every engine made in the last 15 years has a computer connected to it that can make it stop?
you can point that out, but this would make 2 computers that can kill you car.
It also connects your ECM to a cell phone. yikes!
This may sound a bit slow-witted, but if this system is oh-so-clever, why can't it prevent my car from being stolen in the first place? Or is this optimized for the not-so-clever driver who leaves the car unlocked with the key inserted and then needs this high tech gadgetery and the police force to have it returned?
ha, ha, awesome. Maybe it can be enabled as soon as you shut the car off.
Bigger concern is when my insurance company starts offering me "discounts" when I provide them access to my OnStar data. Or even bigger discounts if I allow OnStar to titrate my fuel supply if my average speed goes over the recommended limit for that stretch of road, weather conditions, time-of-day, etc.
I can easily see in the future, if systems like this are widespread, the tech being used against the car owners.
the police just make the call to on-star themselves. they say they need to stop that car, peoples lives are at risk. The government makes housecalls to innocent people quite a bit these days.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but if major telco's are allowing wiretapping and handing over records, if yahoo is handing over information freely to help china jail dissidents, in the OPEN, then why is thinking this kind of thing is a possibility some kind of crazy "i can hear government transmissions in my molar" shit?
Theres a difference between thinking the government makes hurricanes with magic satellites and spotting ways the government could infringe on your freedoms.
Duh, the satellites aren't magic! They have aliens inside running on treadmills to generate the power.
Wow you are people are really paranoid and technologically illiterate. Electronic control and remote control are the future, get used to it. Well technically, electronic control is the present, and remote control is the future. GM is not going to use this technology against you, and if they did, I think you'd notice if your car started stopping for no reason. Not every corporate body is out to get you. I work for a large off-highway vehicle company and believe it or not, we actually do design features to help the operator. If you're scared of all this advancement that, in the end, is designed and put in place to help the consumer, go move to Amish country.
"Not every corporate body is out to get you."
but you can bet multiple corporate bodies are at this moment co-operating with the government, the legality of which is shady.
I don't believe that apple is out to get me, they're just out to annoy me, i don't believe that google is out to get me, because they've shown resistance to co-operating with the government when it was reasonable that they resist. Its not like yahoo who doesn't care about anything but buisness. Want to do buisness in china? give the government info to jail chinese dissidents. I love this all this stuff is written off as consipiracy theorys, instead of, you know, current events verified by multiple media sources and um, heading to the courts in many cases.
I wouldn't mind having the system if I could trust that GM wouldn't roll over to the government just because "this is a national security emergency"
and by that I mean
"That guy illegally downloaded some Coldplay...
GET HIM!!!"
(he kinda deserves it for downloading Coldplay though...)
This is one of the greatest options to be installed on cars in a long time. Think about it. There are a lot of carjackings around here. There have been some where a small child or baby has been in the car and the mother was thrown out and the kid left in during a high speed chase. Also, think of all the innocent people that have been injured or killed as a result of a high speed chase. I have onstar and would never buy a car for my family that doesn't have it. I have used it when I locked my keys in the car and really saved me a huge headache and got me right back on the road. Also, it has a more powerful transmitter (5 watts?) than my handheld cell phone. Therefore I have been able to report accidents in areas where there was no cell service on my handheld. The onstar service has saved many lives and I'm all for it. I'm surprised by all the negative comments on a site that reports cutting edge technology. Sounds like a lot of you would rather be holed up in a cabin with Ted.
Thanks for bringing up the numerous benefits of OnStar. I've always thought of it as useful as well. Then again, I don't particularly think that living my life in a constant state of irrational paranoia and fear is a healthy way to live. But that's me.
What took so long for this??? How many countless lives could have been saved from idiots who lead cops on high speed freeway chases if this had been around? How many episodes of Cops would we would have been deprived of?
The ability for a cop to slow a car that is starting to speed away or a high speed persuit. Hmm. Yeah I'll go with you conspiracy guys and hope that this technology never becomes widespread to save lives.
I'm a fan of those extreme police ride shows anyway.
i don't think the tech is the issue, so much as making absolutely sure it cannot be abused, and if it is abused there are reprocussions all the way up the chain of command.
Its like the giant pain ray they're making now. I can totally see that used to break up peaceful demonstrations and the authorities falling back on "its non lethal, and hey, even non injuring tactics"
If the authorities use any type of tech like this inapporopriately, heads should roll.
To those of you who say you aren't worried about OnStar helping Big Brother come to life, just imagine the OnStar technology in your pacemaker. Would you accept that?
Would you really want the ability to remotely track you, listen in without you ever knowing, and turn off the device in all your devices? In your personal computer? In your MP3 player? In your life support system?
This isn't a luddite thing. This is a "don't want technology that takes control out of MY hands" thing.
By all means, welcome OnStar into your car and rejoice at all the things they can do without you ever having the ability to stop them, short of hacking the system yourself. If you don't think a system which allows remote monitoring and tracking resembles the telescreens in Orwell's "1984" then you're just the kind of sheep that deserves to lose your freedoms. And on top of it, now they want to be able to cut power to your car!?!?
And you seriously LIKE this?
Bahh.
Eventually we're going to get to a point where every car is going to be required to have monitoring hardware like this. Eventually your car is going to be restricted from driving above the speed limit, eventually your car is going to be plugged into a highway network where you login to enter the road and your actions are "watched" by a nanny.
It's going to start with special lanes, (HOV, high speed etc). You won't have to use these lanes, but maybe you'll avoid traffic etc by doing so (think of SpeedPass for toll roads, you CAN by anonymous but you have to use the toll booth that you have to stop at instead of going thru at 50MPH).
The argument of personal rights and control of your car are going to get out voted by a system that can substantually reduce accidents (both for life protection, damage to personal property, and traffic flow), and reduce the need for speed traps (lower cost for police just sitting on the side of the road for no other reason then ticket revenue to pay for them being there).
That system doesn't exist yet, but it will, and somewhere down the road we'll be required to use something like this. It will likely start on the Interstate highways, and eventually every major road. It's coming, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. But everytime someone pulls a bonehead move and tries to kill my at 80 mph on I-95 I wish I could push a button and have them smacked in the head for being so selfish that they don't even consider the lives of everyone else on the road.
Unlikely. The amount of infrastructure change needed for a such a radical shift in the way we drive is staggering. Not to mention I don't think that anyone really thinks a system like that would work. All it takes is one guy in a 67 Mustang to throw a wrench into the "system." And even if this day does come, it almost certainly won't be in our lifetime.
Personally, I think that once they start going that "not user controlled" route, it would tend towards the other extreme. All self-controlled cars all going around 150-200 MPH because they can be safely controlled by an on-board computer at that speed. Dunno, though.
Dood, Ashton is so totally gonna PUNK someone with this!!!
(maybe he can punk Brandy!)
So basically if I were a particularly smart thief I would just figure out how to hack into the Onstar system or replicate the appropriate signal given to slow down the car(s) of my choice then reactivate them once I had acquired them---then clip a wire or two to inactive the Onstar. Way to make it easy for them. Think about garage door openers---they seemed secure until somebody comes up with a signaler that scans all of the frequencies until the door opens.
Yeah but not with a GSM radio directly connected.
I love how so many posters here are absolutely absorbed with these fringe topics and freedom at this nebulous conceptual level. How many of you have protested the open container laws, or littering of useless street signs, or the absurd regulations that require me to get the permission to cut down a tree in my own yard from the local arborist? How about the fact that it is damn near impossible to get good cheese in the United States because of draconian rules imposed by the FDA and USDA.
It is obsession with these fringe ideas which results in rules that allow me to burn a flag in my own yard, but not a pile of leaves. There are literally thousands of regulations that obstruct you every day and deprive you of freedom. The alphabet soup of regulations makes it hard as hell for people to start businesses without an MBA which in turn has suppressed the advancement of poorer people.
This is something that could actually help save lives, and it is an option to the consumer. Quit worrying about big brother and these fringe topics. The government has neither the time nor the money to spend watching you go to blockbuster to rent Conspiracy Theory. Perhaps, start by advocating the deregulation of our own lives and the reinstatement personal responsibility and property rights.
Rant Over =]
Wow, that was excellently put.
Yeah and the government has no time or interest to listen in on your phone conversation either.. Oh wait, nm.
There are no fucking privacy concerns. This is a great idea to stop deadly high speed chases and help catch criminals. Any idiot who worries that much about their "privacy" obviously has something illegal to hide.
@nikola re: "co-inside"
That's the most creative spelling of coincide I've ever seen!
Like Apple is bricking iPhones, GM is gonna be bricking cars? This world is definitely coming to an end. What's next? United Airlines bricking airliners?
Pleeaase.... this is so easy to disable.. All you have to do is disable the ugly OnStar antenna that sits on the roof of these GM Cars (screwdriver and wire cutters should do).... Of course.... when the governments start requiring OnStar antennas to be functional in order for cars to legally be on the road, then we'll have problems.
You people are way too paranoid. Personally it sounds like a good way to stop car thiefs rather than allowing them to ram a stolen car into some innocent victim when the police go after them.
I saw a story on the news about this. The cops can also ask OnStar to cut your engine. They're only supposed to do it during chases, but you never know.
I love my Cadillac STS, and OnStar is just awesome.
just to let you guys know you can hack the board inside the onstar and make it where you can turn it on and off via your laptop. i use this with commercial mapping software for navigation and then when i want a diagnostic i turn it back on and talk to onstar...its not hard and ensures your privacy. google onstar hacks