Full text here: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/89488-hyundai-blue-link-halves-the-cost-of-gms-onstar-telematicsHyundai Blue Link halves the cost of GM’s OnStar telematics
By Bill Howard on July 8, 2011 at 11:51 am
Hyundai is the world’s hottest automaker for style, fuel economy, and affordable technology. Its new Blue Link integrated cellular data-and-voice phone telematics system provides up to 32 services at a starting price roughly half of what it costs for OnStar, the offering from General Motors. The cheapest Blue Link service provides automatic crash notification and roadside service at $79 per year. A step-up version at $179 provides spoken text messages, location sharing, remote door unlock, and geo-fencing of teen drivers. A third package at $279 per year adds navigation lookup for those unwilling to do it themselves. Hyundai kicks off its Blue Link offerings shortly on the 2012 Hyundai Sonata, one of the 10 best selling cars in the US, and on a new sports coupe, the Hyundai Veloster.
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What’s most important is that Hyundai is driving down the cost of embedded telematics, at least for the entry level package: automatic collision notification, SOS calling, and roadside assistance calling. Hyundai previously pushed the cost of on-board navigation in some models to as little as $1,250, which is dirt cheap, unless, of course, you know what a Garman or TomTom costs. Blue Link will eventually be embedded in all Hyundais as of the 2013 model year. GM charges $199 a year for its basic plan, Safe & Sound, which is equivalent to Hyundai’s mid-level, $179, Assurance & Essentials, plan. GM’s Directions & Connections at $299 a year is the equivalent of the high-end Blue Link Assurance, Essentials & Guidance at $279. Both high-end packages let you press a button to reach a call center and ask to have directions sent to your car, without having to key the address into a navigation system.
Both Blue Link and OnStar are what’s now called cloud-based (when you see commercials with a mom saying, “To the cloud!” you know the term reached critical mass), meaning your requests are processed on a server outside the car. ExtremeTech took a test drive earlier this year with a Blue Link prototype running the high-end Assurance, Essentials & Guidance version and it showed great promise, but rough edges. A request while driving through Manhattan to find the nearest Marriott Hotel took almost 10 minutes of repeated attempts to get the remote call center’s interactive voice response (IVR) system to understand what a human would have parsed in seconds. (And this with Hyundai’s product technology guru, Michael Deitz, doing the talking.) But that was pre-production software; it shows both the promise and the frustration of talking to computers. To cut costs, GM’s OnStar starts with an IVR system and then cuts over to a live operator if IVR chokes. Over the years GM has also bumped up the quality of its OnStar operators. The high-end Blue Link also has Eco-Coach, which tracks your fuel economy and driving habits and tells you what you’re doing wrong. A similar service exists on non-Hyundais where it’s called being married.
The mid-level Blue Link package has the most promise. (The high-end package mostly means you pay ten bucks a month to have someone else program your navigation system.) Assurance & Essentials at $179 will read aloud text messages from your cellphone, a feature OnStar doesn’t have yet. (Ford Sync and BMW Assist do.) It also rats out your teen when he or she goes outside a specific boundary (geo-fence), exceeds a speed limit, or drives late at night (curfew alert). You set up and monitor your teen, or parking lot valet’s movements of your car, via the web. It shares a lot of features common with GM’s basic (Safe & Sound) service such as stolen vehicle slowdown and recovery and, from your smartphone, remote door unlock and remote start. Location sharing lets you tell friends or all of Facebook where you car is.
The only thing cheaper is Ford Sync, which comes free on most Fords and costs $395 on entry models. With Sync, the driver’s cellphone communicates with cloud-based services, so everything is free, even rudimentary navigation. Critics say there’s no guarantee your cellphone will survive a car crash; Ford says the vast majority do. And besides, with renewal rates of only 50% for some telematics services after the free trial period, those cars won’t call for help in an accident because the service is inactive.
![Image]()
Hyundai worked with ATX to develop Blue Link services. ATX has other customers such as Toyota and BMW though each automaker has dedicated call center operators trained for that brand only.
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Hyundai Blue Link halves the cost of GM’s OnStar telematics
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Full text here: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/89488-hyundai-blue-link-halves-the-cost-of-gms-onstar-telematicsHyundai Blue Link halves the cost of GM’s OnStar telematics
By Bill Howard on July 8, 2011 at 11:51 am
Hyundai is the world’s hottest automaker for style, fuel economy, and affordable technology. Its new Blue Link integrated cellular data-and-voice phone telematics system provides up to 32 services at a starting price roughly half of what it costs for OnStar, the offering from General Motors. The cheapest Blue Link service provides automatic crash notification and roadside service at $79 per year. A step-up version at $179 provides spoken text messages, location sharing, remote door unlock, and geo-fencing of teen drivers. A third package at $279 per year adds navigation lookup for those unwilling to do it themselves. Hyundai kicks off its Blue Link offerings shortly on the 2012 Hyundai Sonata, one of the 10 best selling cars in the US, and on a new sports coupe, the Hyundai Veloster.
![Image]()
What’s most important is that Hyundai is driving down the cost of embedded telematics, at least for the entry level package: automatic collision notification, SOS calling, and roadside assistance calling. Hyundai previously pushed the cost of on-board navigation in some models to as little as $1,250, which is dirt cheap, unless, of course, you know what a Garman or TomTom costs. Blue Link will eventually be embedded in all Hyundais as of the 2013 model year. GM charges $199 a year for its basic plan, Safe & Sound, which is equivalent to Hyundai’s mid-level, $179, Assurance & Essentials, plan. GM’s Directions & Connections at $299 a year is the equivalent of the high-end Blue Link Assurance, Essentials & Guidance at $279. Both high-end packages let you press a button to reach a call center and ask to have directions sent to your car, without having to key the address into a navigation system.
Both Blue Link and OnStar are what’s now called cloud-based (when you see commercials with a mom saying, “To the cloud!” you know the term reached critical mass), meaning your requests are processed on a server outside the car. ExtremeTech took a test drive earlier this year with a Blue Link prototype running the high-end Assurance, Essentials & Guidance version and it showed great promise, but rough edges. A request while driving through Manhattan to find the nearest Marriott Hotel took almost 10 minutes of repeated attempts to get the remote call center’s interactive voice response (IVR) system to understand what a human would have parsed in seconds. (And this with Hyundai’s product technology guru, Michael Deitz, doing the talking.) But that was pre-production software; it shows both the promise and the frustration of talking to computers. To cut costs, GM’s OnStar starts with an IVR system and then cuts over to a live operator if IVR chokes. Over the years GM has also bumped up the quality of its OnStar operators. The high-end Blue Link also has Eco-Coach, which tracks your fuel economy and driving habits and tells you what you’re doing wrong. A similar service exists on non-Hyundais where it’s called being married.
The mid-level Blue Link package has the most promise. (The high-end package mostly means you pay ten bucks a month to have someone else program your navigation system.) Assurance & Essentials at $179 will read aloud text messages from your cellphone, a feature OnStar doesn’t have yet. (Ford Sync and BMW Assist do.) It also rats out your teen when he or she goes outside a specific boundary (geo-fence), exceeds a speed limit, or drives late at night (curfew alert). You set up and monitor your teen, or parking lot valet’s movements of your car, via the web. It shares a lot of features common with GM’s basic (Safe & Sound) service such as stolen vehicle slowdown and recovery and, from your smartphone, remote door unlock and remote start. Location sharing lets you tell friends or all of Facebook where you car is.
The only thing cheaper is Ford Sync, which comes free on most Fords and costs $395 on entry models. With Sync, the driver’s cellphone communicates with cloud-based services, so everything is free, even rudimentary navigation. Critics say there’s no guarantee your cellphone will survive a car crash; Ford says the vast majority do. And besides, with renewal rates of only 50% for some telematics services after the free trial period, those cars won’t call for help in an accident because the service is inactive.
![Image]()
Hyundai worked with ATX to develop Blue Link services. ATX has other customers such as Toyota and BMW though each automaker has dedicated call center operators trained for that brand only.
misleading. its really only 20 cheaper for comparable services. The question is how much experience do the call centers have?
Perhaps this will force GM's hand in lowering the costs of OnStar, which has always been a point of contention for customers who want to keep the service after the initial "free" period... But I seem to remember an article stating that the costs for OnStar will be coming down soon anyway... Anyone remember this article?
Quick thing that isn't mentioned or calculated. onstar is free for the first 6-12 months. even after that I have 4 cars with Onstar @ 13.50 per car for SAFE AND SOUND. Took me 10minutes on the horn with them to get that rate.
I hate the fact that so many informed "car guys" often try and act like Hyundai is innovative in anyway. They are copy cats with a skill for hiding payola.
I hate the fact that so many informed "car guys" often try and act like Hyundai is innovative in anyway. They are copy cats with a skill for hiding payola.
I dont think i have seen so much wrong information in one article before! onstar always uses live advisors! they also offer features that arent offered by hyundai in any package! Does Hyundai have a crisis center, do they have a built in phone system as an emergency back up to your cell phone, do they have a concierge service for hotel/dinner reservations stock quotes etc, remote vehicle diagnostics, monthly health check, dealer maintenance notification, the list just goes on and on!!!
:clap:A copy is never as good as the original. I've always loved OnStar, but during the gas crises in ATL a few years ago when most gas stations were out of gas or there were super long wait lines, OnStar located me, found a gas station near me with NO WAIT and downloaded directions on how to get there...I was on empty, BTW. Since then, nothing can touch my OnStar!!
Problem is it is all about perception. If articles like this keep being printed then the general public will believe them - exact same services for half the price.
Just like all the articles over the years said how great Toyota is.
Just like all the articles over the years said how great Toyota is.
The service is operated by ATX, and in addition to Hyundai, provides similar solutions for Toyota, Lexus, BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Maybach and Rolls-Royce.
Reports indicate that there are 7 different call center locations.
Reports indicate that there are 7 different call center locations.
On-star is perhaps the best thing Government Motors does. It has abilities other systems don't but it is like last decade's news. Government Motors really needs to add the capabilities of other companies and then they'll have a total package.
But it is so much easier trying to build a Cadillac Station Wagon.
But it is so much easier trying to build a Cadillac Station Wagon.
I'm not renewing my onstar this year. I didn't use it at all except to enter GM's "Press the blue button" sweepstakes...
You know I find that women are the ones that really like onstar and older folks. Of the people I know that speak of paying for it they are the only two but who I know is hardly a proper study so....
Often they feel secured by it in case of emergency and love the navigation options while driving.
Often they feel secured by it in case of emergency and love the navigation options while driving.
When people ask what i would love to have in my Chrysler products that other automakers offer... OnStar hands down.
I almost bought a Tahoe over the GC because of the OnStar option on the Chevy.
I almost bought a Tahoe over the GC because of the OnStar option on the Chevy.
I don't think that many people buy a car for the telematics system (some do). The price of the service only determines the "take rate" of the service. In other words, Hyundai is not really competing against OnStar - just offering a potentially profitable service for their customers.
I believe the point in which the writter was placing the emphasis of affordable tech is correct. The Veloster is uglier than a bulldogs a-hole but it's loaded w/ tech no other manufacturer can touch for the money.
Having said that, maybe safety isn't the best place to skimp on money?
Having said that, maybe safety isn't the best place to skimp on money?
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