New OnStar capability: Remote Engine Block
 

I think this question has been asked in this forum, and until now, OnStar did not have this capability.

http://www.freep.com/article/2009072...022/1002/rss02

A car thief on Monday morning in West Bloomfield was one of the first to discover OnStar’s newest trick: Remote Ignition Block. The capability, which was announced today, went into effect late Friday and allows a General Motors’ OnStar adviser to prevent a subscriber’s stolen vehicle from restarting once the ignition is turned off.

“This capability will not only help authorities recover stolen vehicles, but can also prevent dangerous high speed pursuits from starting,” GM said in a statement.

Chet Huber, OnStar president, told the Free Press this morning that the company has already used the service seven times since late Friday.

“We can reach – from the wireless connection we have with the car — into it and disable the ignition system,” he said. “So far, we’re seven for seven.”

The first time was for a vehicle in New Jersey. One of those seven times included a vehicle stolen in West Bloomfield, he said.

The West Bloomfield call came around 8:45 a.m. Monday.

“They did recover the car,” Huber said. “It was a 2009 Buick Enclave.”

The capability comes as an evolution of services previously offered by OnStar. The subscriber service already allows for pinpointing stolen vehicles’ locations and remotely slowing a stolen vehicle to idle speed.

OnStar receives about 600 requests a month for help with stolen vehicles from subscribers and has helped in more than 28,000 requests over the past decade, the company said.

The new Remote Ignition Block is available on more than 2 million select 2009 and 2010 model year GM vehicles in the United States and Canada, the company said.

“This is the next logical step,” Huber said.

The process for using the remote block includes subscribers reporting the vehicle stolen to law enforcement officials and requesting assistance from OnStar. The police provide confirmation to OnStar that the vehicle is stolen. The block can be reversed once it is confirmed the vehicle has been recovered.

“What we’ve found is that nothing gets better with time in these stolen vehicle situations. The sooner you can intervene … the more likely you are going to be to recover the vehicle,” Huber said.

This is a brilliant selling point for GM vehicles.

Yeah it is! I would love to watch a thief bragging to his friends about stealing a car, only to not be able to start it. LOL!

as hes trying to figure out why it wont start....the boys in blue arrive to hand him a well deserved boot-massage.

I will be keeping Onstar. BTW, has a 2010 Camaro been stolen yet?

Is this feature available with the new 2010 camaro?

that is pretty cool.

This is all great stuff, but I wonder; what would happen if the thief removes the shark antenna or simply covers it with aluminum foil in an attempt to keep OnStar from communicating with the car?

It is standard equipment on the new Camaro

Agreed. This will work for a while until theives catch on and come up with a way to disable OnStar's control of the car.

This is the power down to idle not a full kill right? I think the media just sounds like there facts are a little crossed.

The power down keeps power steering and brakes powered up but no acceleration. Correct me if wrong pls.

I am currious, can OnStar slow the car down remotely? I don't think they should be able to complete stop a car if it is moving at 70 mph it could be dangerous to other people on the road, but at least make it slow to a crawl of like, 10 mph......

OR, sense when the car has come to a complete stop (say at a stop sign), and THEN kill the engine?

The "connection" to the car is through the CDMA cellphone network, not the GPS signal. Even removing the antenna may not block OnStar's ability to send low-data-rate control signals to the car.

The article says it prevents the ignition from working again after it is shut off. It does not kill a running engine. Once the perp stops for a milkshake, though, he's toast.

Rob