egmCarTech gets behind the scenes look at OnStar Command Center

For part of the duration of egmCarTech’s trip to the Detroit Auto Show, General Motors invited a member of our staff to take a group tour of OnStar’s Command Center and receive a sneak peak of their future prospects. Unfortunately your Editor-In-Chief was unable to attend this meeting so that he could continue to provide coverage of the Detroit Auto Show, so your Associate Editor was elected to attend.

Pictured below is the OnStar Command Center and at first glance it looks like something that came from NORAD. It features maps that monitor all of the activity that OnStar receives throughout the continental United States. Additionally, it has a DOPPLAR Radar feed that continuously updates to keep the staff in the know of major weather occurrences (such as the Blizzard of 2010).

Afterward, the group was provided lunch and given a chance to ask Nick Pudar, Vice President of OnStar Planning and Business Development some questions regarding OnStar while he also gave us a sneak preview of what OnStar is planning next.

Currently, OnStar’s ‘next-big-thing’ is the standalone rear-view mirror that can be added to virtually any car with a mirror that is supplied power, enabling its buyer to use OnStar’s services. Pudar stated that the next step they are taking to improve driver safety is further integrating the cellular phone with the onboard equipment by allowing drivers to use OnStar’s voice-recognition system to control a cellphone’s text messaging interface, completely hands-free. How soon that will be available is currently unknown because it is currently under development.

All Photos Copyright © 2011 Chris Chin – egmCarTech.

– By: Chris Chin