OnStar Becomes No. 1 in China

It took GM's in-vehicle communications provider only six months to become the number one such company on the Chinese market, reaching in the aforementioned timeframe a total of 29,000 subscribers. And that's only the beginning, the company promises.

“More than 29,000 users have subscribed to OnStar service in China since its launch in December 2009,” Chris Preuss, OnStar president said. “OnStar has surpassed all of its competitors and become the leading in-vehicle communication service provider in China, the world’s largest vehicle market. We expect OnStar to have nearly 200,000 users in China by the end of this year.”

In China, OnStar offers 14 services, including Automatic Crash Response, Emergency Services, Security Protection, Navigation System, Vehicle Diagnostics and Hands-Free Calling. OnStar announced during the “Mobility Internet - Connecting the Virtual Superhighway Forum” at Expo 2010 that it's currently working on what it hopes will become a virtual superhighway of connected cars.

Mobility Internet, the program set in place to reach that goal, intends to provide all the requirements to allow vehicles to collect, process and share data by connecting to one another.

“The Mobility Internet will fundamentally change the way people move in the cities of the future,” Kevin Wale, GM China president said at the forum. “By redefining the automobile DNA through connectivity technologies, it will help eliminate the growing problems of congestion, traffic accidents and finding parking."

"At the same time, it will enable autonomous driving so that drivers can fully enjoy the wireless social network as they travel."