VW to Develop OnStar-like System with Toyota

Vast geographical distances are no match to the needs and requirements of either war or economical distress. Since war is no longer an issue, the economy is catalyst enough to make car manufacturers think up new ways to benefit from each other's technologies.

In this note, Lower Saxony prime minister Christian Wulff is holding talks with Toyota Motor president Katsuaki Watanabe to propose a technological tie-up between Germany based Volkswagen and the Japanese automaker, Handelsblatt news paper via just-auto.com reported.

The talks, which are taking place in Japan, are meant to find ways for the two companies to work together on the development of an emergency alert system to be installed on future vehicles.

The system, a bulked up GPS, will use global positioning satellites to contact emergency services in case of an accident. The system will become active when it detects airbag deployment and automatically alert an emergency center.

The technology will be similar to the OnStar system deployed on GM vehicles in the US. It communicates with a remote server in case of a collisions and transmits details via the integrated GPS unit. OnStar representatives receive the intel and relay it to the emergency teams.

The state official took the matter into his own hands thanks to the large stake Lower Saxony holds in the car manufacturer. Even more, it would not be the first time the two companies would work together. In the past, Volkswagen build Hilux light trucks for the Japanese manufacturer to sell in Europe as Volkswagen Taro.