GM’s OnStar & why I drive a Honda…

We’ve all heard the OnStar commercials about how wonderful OnStar is. It will unlock your car for you if you leave the keys in while the engine is running, it will call 911 for you in case of an emergency, it will be sooooo wonderful. Right. A few years ago, there was an article in MotorTrend where the driver was testing the performance of the car and OnStar called him in the middle of the test to ask if he was OK. Well, he was but he was running through some test that made the system think he was getting in a crash.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041108/FREE/411080714&SearchID=73296043318645
What made me worry about this system was that it would monitor the car’s performance an “phone home” about it. Well, if the car would notify OnStar for unusual behavior, would it notify the police too if you start speeding? Would it notify your insurance agent if you were swerving before your accident? How long does it sotre the performance metrics?

Well, what I’ve suspected for a long time is finally coming out…

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gn55yegRAw_W9RfFKNKkCFTECxHQD8S5H7N80

http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000313.html

Well, now we can see that the police can shutdown a stolen car. Great. No more dangerous high speed pursuits. Ok. Sounds wonderful.

Now what happens when some hacker builds a kit that shuts down your car when you drive by? Nice. Now some jerk can do things to your just by stopping next to you.