"We did make a decision late last year that we are now talking to other vehicle manufacturers about the potential of bringing OnStar services to their vehicles either in the United States and Canada — or as we start to look at other parts of the world, potentially collaborating in other parts of the world," Chet Huber told the aforementioned source.
OnStar's president did not mention the automakers interested to adopt GM's service, but the company previously worked with
Even though OnStar sales went pretty slow in 2008, the service is still profitable, Huber explained, pointing that 20 percent of people buying used GM cars are subscribing to OnStar.
"And that's without a whole lot of marketing. It's a new range of customers for us and a new opportunity for dealers to participate. Our profitability has been improving year-over-year for awhile," Huber commented on the evolution of the service in the US market.
OnStar currently has nearly 6 million subscribers, according to figures provided by Autonews.
OnStar is a very advanced system available on several GM models sold in the United States which communicates with a remote server and transfers information in case of collisions. The service collects details via the integrated GPS unit and contacts OnStar representatives who, in their turn, get in touch with emergency teams. OnStar also includes turn by turn navigation functions, inter-vehicles communications plus a couple of separate services available to driver and passengers.
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