In a major about-face, General Motors announced on Tuesday that OnStar is backpedaling on a controversial policy that outraged privacy advocates and a U.S. senator.

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So if they're in the middle of nowhere in an accident, how is anyone gonna know?? If the vehicle transmits a data connection, at least some piece of mind.

 

BUT if you didn't pay for the subscription they won't help you, but they want to be able to know where you were, how fast you were going, the ability to listen to private conversations w/o you knowing, etc...

I would think of it as being a liability to On-Star. If the car sends a signal to On-Star letting them know it was in an accident, and the car owner had not renewed the service, and the driver died as a result of no one responding to the accident, is On-Star liable for their death? On-Star "knew" that an accident happened but failed to notify any one because the bill wasn't paid.

i can see it now,

car crashes, airbags deploy, sends signal to On-Star call center.

On-Star operator - "This is Peggy with On-Star, our sensors indicated that your airbags deployed. Are you...... Our system indicates that you are not currently subscribed to On-Star, please wait while I transfer you to our billing department so you can activate your subscription.....[ insert elevator / on-hold music]"

driver - HELP!!!! i am bleeding and can't feel my legs..... hello! are you there! [speaking to him(her)self] where is my cell phone..... I can't find my cell phone!!!! HELP!!! PLEASE HELP!!!! [starts coughing up blood after a few minutes and begins to go into shock] HELP ME!!! [voice starts to fade, and breathing gets shallow]

On-Star operator - "Thank you for holding this is Jerome in billing how can I help you?"

driver - [in a almost inaudible low whisper] I NEED HELP!!!!

On-Star Operator - "Sir / Mam, before I can enable your On-Star protection that will allow us to contact the authorities on your behalf in the event of an emergency, I will just need to know what kind of credit card that you are going to use, the name as printed on the front of it, the 16 digit account number and expiration date........Hello? Hello?....." [thinks to himself] must have been a prank call..... and hangs up.....


and that is how it would work, and don't give me this BS that they would help, because if they helped 1 person that did not pay for the subscription then they would be setting a precedence and would prove that you didn't need to pay for the service to be able to use it, people would quit subscribing and they would make no money......