General Motors’ OnStar division is not new to the anti-theft business, but they recently introduced their Stolen Vehicle Slowdown program as a further assist in recovering stolen vehicles and minimizing incidents that may occur during high-speed chases with police officials. Leftlane experienced the capability of the updated OnStar first-hand during a simulated police chase at a the GM Collection media event held last month at Texas Motor Speedway.
For demonstration purposes, GM equipped two Chevrolet Impala sedans (probably not the first GM product we’d steal, but we digress…) with the OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown function.
It’s a way to catch a criminal in the act of boosting your hooptie from the parking lot of the local shopping mall. Once you call 9-1-1 to alert the police of your stolen vehicle, they contact OnStar for satellite coordinates of the vehicle’s location (unless it’s already in a container destined for adventure in a foreign land). Once visual confirmation has been made, the OnStar advisor will cause the car to flash its hazard lights outside without causing the lights to blink on the dashboard to alert the thief as they would if you pushed the triangle shaped button inside the car.
Finally, the officer would confirm that the car was not in a position to put others at risk, and the OnStar operator, using digital cellular technology, would cause the engine to slow down to a low speed so that police could move in for an apprehension.
Although not mentioned by the OnStar officials on hand at TMS, it’s also an effective way of getting an over-eager/under-aged driver out of the driver’s seat without causing major damage to lives and property. We were impressed by the system, which slows down the car but allows the alleged thief to still control the car so as to minimize any potential hazard to other motorists. The idea is that thieves will realize the game is up and pull over before any (additional) damage is done to the vehicle. Unless, that is, the suspect attempts to flee the vehicle. GM has no control over that scenario that could also damage the vehicle.
GM has just introduced the system, which will be available in a variety of 2009 model vehicles. GM says it expects availablity to spread across the range for 2010 and beyond.
Words and photos by Mark Elias.
