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OnStar probed over wrong location in South Bay ravine crash
After a 28-year-old Campbell woman crashed her Chevrolet Cruze about 500 feet down a mountain this week, she was in bad shape. But the car sprung into action.
Its on-board computer, General Motors’ OnStar system, sent detailed information to a company specialist: The sedan had not only wrecked, but had rolled over. The specialist called police in Campbell, letting them know they had an emergency on their hands.
But there was a problem: The location of the crash, where the woman had been ejected and lay face-down in a ravine, was off by a good 15 miles.
General Motors officials said they were looking into what happened with the GPS-based system, but declined to be interviewed about the situation, which illustrated the power of location-based technologies and how interwoven they have become in people’s lives. The California Highway Patrol is also investigating the crash.
The woman in the Chevrolet, Melissa Vasquez — who crashed just after 2 p.m. Monday and was finally found at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday on Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, thanks to yet another location-based technology linked to her iPhone — was recovering Wednesday at a hospital. She is expected to survive.
“We are saddened by this incident involving one of our subscribers,” General Motors said in a statement. “Our subscribers’ safety and security is OnStar’s utmost concern. We are currently conducting a complete investigation, including information we have received from our call centers, our cellular network provider, our engineering team and the local authorities to better understand what occurred.”
More at Link
After a 28-year-old Campbell woman crashed her Chevrolet Cruze about 500 feet down a mountain this week, she was in bad shape. But the car sprung into action.
Its on-board computer, General Motors’ OnStar system, sent detailed information to a company specialist: The sedan had not only wrecked, but had rolled over. The specialist called police in Campbell, letting them know they had an emergency on their hands.
But there was a problem: The location of the crash, where the woman had been ejected and lay face-down in a ravine, was off by a good 15 miles.
General Motors officials said they were looking into what happened with the GPS-based system, but declined to be interviewed about the situation, which illustrated the power of location-based technologies and how interwoven they have become in people’s lives. The California Highway Patrol is also investigating the crash.
The woman in the Chevrolet, Melissa Vasquez — who crashed just after 2 p.m. Monday and was finally found at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday on Mount Hamilton east of San Jose, thanks to yet another location-based technology linked to her iPhone — was recovering Wednesday at a hospital. She is expected to survive.
“We are saddened by this incident involving one of our subscribers,” General Motors said in a statement. “Our subscribers’ safety and security is OnStar’s utmost concern. We are currently conducting a complete investigation, including information we have received from our call centers, our cellular network provider, our engineering team and the local authorities to better understand what occurred.”
More at Link
