Topic: Auto Tech: OnStar RemoteLink in the Chevrolet Volt

[Autos_Editor]

Mark Stevenson explores RemoteLink ' a mobile app that connects to GM cars through OnStar ' and its great features when teamed with the Chevrolet Volt.

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[ChaosphereIX]

great little app, but to be brutually honest not many of my customers use it. A couple do, and they love its functionality, but the rest couldnt be bothered.

[Fobroader]

My buddy has it for his new Tahoe.....what a great thing to have. Surprised to hear not everyone is using it.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

[redman]

great little app, but to be brutually honest not many of my customers use it. A couple do, and they love its functionality, but the rest couldnt be bothered.

I could easily agree with you customer observations, had the same problem when the idrive system first came out in the Bimmers.
Older customers especially 7 series owners looked at me like I had two heads upon explaining the system.

[Ex-airbalancer]

The problem is you need on star, and on star is to expensive to keep
$200 a year , not good value

[Northernridge]

interesting review and technology...curious to see how this kind of tech evolves and impacts auto culture in the future...especially millennials as you say. I wonder if one day car nerds will obsess over electronics the way today's nerds obsess over engines.

As for me, other than a gee whiz curiosity, I'm not sure how much I would use or value such a feature.

BTW I perceive OnStar to be best of breed...GM has certainly got this one right.

[Fobroader]

interesting review and technology...curious to see how this kind of tech evolves and impacts auto culture in the future...especially millennials as you say. I wonder if one day car nerds will obsess over electronics the way today's nerds obsess over engines.

As for me, other than a gee whiz curiosity, I'm not sure how much I would use or value such a feature.

BTW I perceive OnStar to be best of breed...GM has certainly got this one right.

The best part of it is the remote starter, remote unlocking and all the different things like trouble code/oil time/new recall info it give to you. Id definetly have it if I bought a new GM truck.

[mixmanmash]

Some of the features are being mimicked by aftermarket remote starters.  For example, my wife's car is equipped with Viper SmartStart.  From the phone, I can remotely lock, unlock, start, stop, etc.  Higher packages include a GPS module so you can track your car.

However, some of the diagnostic features that GM has implemented are certainly very cool.  What GM should do is offer a lower yearly subscription price if you use this feature as it should free up their operators.

[Fobroader]

Some of the features are being mimicked by aftermarket remote starters.  For example, my wife's car is equipped with Viper SmartStart.  From the phone, I can remotely lock, unlock, start, stop, etc.  Higher packages include a GPS module so you can track your car.

However, some of the diagnostic features that GM has implemented are certainly very cool.  What GM should do is offer a lower yearly subscription price if you use this feature as it should free up their operators.

Thats the thing, a low cost feature that minimizes onstar usage so all you have is the phone capability. Most people I know have never dialed the onstar people. A guy showed me the onstar features at the dealer and the guy we got on the other end spoke horrible english, like we did not understand a word of it.....would be great in an emergency 

[Ex-airbalancer]

The problem is you need on star, and on star is to expensive to keep
$200 a year , not good value

I screwed up, the $200 price is US, in Canada it is $289
If you want to add in Nav it is $440

[Northernridge]

The problem is you need on star, and on star is to expensive to keep
$200 a year , not good value

I screwed up, the $200 price is US, in Canada it is $289
If you want to add in Nav it is $440

Plus you have to buy cellular minutes to talk on the phone.

[me_2]

The Volt MY2011 (USA thing only) was supplied with a 5 years Onstar coverage included.

Then, the MY2012 became also available in Canada. To reduce the Volt base price, Onstar has been reduced to a 3 years complimentary coverage, navigation was optional, etc. Is 3 years enough to become addicted? Don't know yet. I did not take XM over its trial period.

I use on a daily basis the Onstar app on my iphone: get SMS when fully charge, use the apps to send my destination to the Volt (even without NAV option), remote start, door lock, check HV battery % charge level, etc. Quite useful but I would be happy to have some more data/stats available.

Pure speculation: I do not know if behind the curtain they are hard at work to prepare 4G LTE http://media.gm.com/content/media/us/en/onstar/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2013/Feb/0225_4g-lte.html or whatever it is but I experimented (sporadically) quite a few "please try later", login failure or no SMS at all those last months, unless the problem is somewhere else ...

[Neromanceres]

Also to add RemoteLink is available on BlackBerry OS 7 and 7.1

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/105385/

It's not on BlackBerry 10 yet but GM was showing it off at CES on the PlayBook so it's hopefully coming soon.  All the features are also available over the OnStar and MyVolt websites which I can access and use on my Z10.

I don't use it too much with my Volt but it's nice to have.  I do like how I get e-mails every month that tell my my tire pressures.  A nice feature on my wife's Sonic as well as the Sonic's TPMS doesn't have a pressure read out in the car.  But I can see the pressure through Onstar.