Posted on Tuesday 9 October 2007
GM has announced today that its OnStar system will be getting a new feature that will be able to remotely bring a car to a rolling stop in emergency situations. Just the thought of somebody controlling a button that could stop your car while out on the road is a little scary but when you factor in the amount of police chases or stolen cars it could reduce it’s not hard to envisage such a feature becoming standard on all cars in the not too distant future.
The new “safety” feature will be installed in 20 GM models by 2009 and works by eliminating the engine’s power. All ancillary features as well as the brakes and steering will continue to work should authorities press the kill-switch. Another possibility is a warning from the radio to alert the thieves they’re being monitored.
Customers will still be able to opt out of the service but GM’s research shows more than 95% of owners would appreciate the service. OnStar is already capable of using GPS technology to find stolen cars, detecting car crashes and opening locked doors.
GM Press Release
The process for Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is:* Once the vehicle has been reported stolen to law enforcement, the subscriber can call OnStar and request Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance. OnStar will confirm the subscriber has not opted out of the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service.
* OnStar will use real-time GPS technology to attempt to pinpoint the exact location of the stolen vehicle and provide this information to law enforcement to help them recover the vehicle.
* When law enforcement has established a clear line of sight of the stolen vehicle, law enforcement may request OnStar to slow it down remotely.
* Safeguards will be in place to ensure that the correct vehicle is slowed down.
* OnStar then sends a remote signal to the vehicle that interacts with the Powertrain system to reduce engine power which will slow the vehicle down gradually.
That is a good concept, in theory. But, how to be sure no one would hack into the system and shut the whole fleet down?
The ability for police to stop a fleeing vehicle is important, but perhaps a more localized solution is called for. Something based inside a police car, perhaps?
No system is absolutely safe to hacking, neither will be this one.
From I understand, the system doesn’t use the internet so should be no reason for a direct link to the internet. Thats takes care of small time hackers, all they really need is a secure password kind of thing on the transmitters or satellites sending the messages to the cars.