Although it may come as a surprise to most North Americans, GM’s heavily advertised OnStar service is only recently going global. Just this week GM confirmed its first subscriber in China with the sale of a new Cadillac Seville SLS.
GM made a formal announcement to celebrate its global expansion, and said, “We are so pleased to have Mr. Lu Jianping as our first subscriber in China, and we welcome him to the OnStar family,” said OnStar President Walt Dorfstatter. “After years of industry-leading innovation and phenomenal growth, we are proud to provide safety, security and peace of mind across the globe.”
For GM’s Chinese operations Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co Ltd is responsible for providing the subscriber-based service, which comes with one free year of service with each new OnStar equipped GM vehicle. For the Chinese market GM says the service is available nationwide and so far has been launched in Mandarin Chinese.
OnStar provides 14 services in China, including automatic crash response, emergency services, vehicle diagnostics, stolen vehicle location, remote door unlock, turn-by-turn navigation and hands free calling – among others.
12/24, 7:16 AM
posted by:
deneway
Surely selling a Cadi in China is more of an achievement?
12/24, 8:41 AM
posted by:
reedfast
“hello, this is ONstar”
“yeesh, i hav been crash”
“we’re sending emergency services right away, this should take about two hours.”
“!@#%”
12/24, 10:35 AM
posted by:
ICEMAN
yeesh, i hav been crashâ€
^^^^
launched in Mandarin Chinese, so nice try pal.
12/24, 12:12 PM
posted by:
Dingleberry Divas of Dallas
nÃn hÇŽo zhè shì OnStar. de zhè yÄ« qiè dÅu? què dìng nÇ zà i zhÇŽo táng cù zhÅ« ròu ne?
Hello this is OnStar. Is everything ok? Are you looking for sweet and sour pork today?
12/24, 1:49 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
So when this thing really catches on over there I wonder which they’ll end up with more of… OnStar customers or operators?
12/24, 4:53 PM
posted by:
A4
You mean it wasn’t in a Buick?
12/24, 5:49 PM
posted by:
GregMlr
I really hate how OnStar is standard and not optional. My boss locked her keys in her Tahoe the other day and it was running. She called OnStar to have them unlock it remotely only to discover they couldn’t do a thing because her OnStar hadn’t been “activated” yet. Shouldn’t this be done automatically upon purchasing the car new? What happens if you total your new GM while driving it home from the dealer?
12/26, 10:38 AM
posted by:
carstuff
Yes the buyer should automatically have called in and made up the password so they could have access later. Not sure why they did not. Part of the new buyer purchase. All you have to do is push the blue button and answer the questions.
12/26, 1:19 PM
posted by:
bradleygt
GregMir
Yes this should have been done by the salesperson at her dealership. It is part of our job to activate AND to sit with or at least start the ‘OnStar Welcome Call” with the customer before they leave the dealership. If we do not and our GM finds out, we get heat, and not in a warm fuzzy way if you know what I mean
Sounds like your boss had either a greenpea or a non-caring dude do her delivery. Sucks because one bad experience like that can lead many to a bad impression of what is really a great feature! Turn by Turn NNavigation rocks and nothing better then the security of auto crash response.
12/27, 12:43 PM
posted by:
DenverGuy217
“Hello, Mr Jianping? This is OnStar. We have just received a signal that you were involved in a crash with a rickshaw. Did you get a splinter that needs medical attention? No? Thank you for using OnStar. Have a nice day”