New OnStar Technology Prevents High-Speed Chases

DETROIT - OnStar is expanding its Stolen Vehicle Assistance services with a new technology that will help law enforcement safely and quickly recover subscribers' stolen vehicles.

The new "Remote Ignition Block" will allow an OnStar Advisor to send a remote signal to a subscriber's stolen vehicle to prevent the vehicle from restarting once the ignition is turned off - not only helping authorities recover stolen vehicles, but also preventing dangerous high-speed pursuits from starting, according to Onstar.

Remote Ignition Block builds on OnStar's growing suite of Stolen Vehicle Assistance services, which includes GPS technology that pinpoints a stolen vehicle's exact location, and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, which can remotely slow a stolen vehicle to idle speed.

OnStar will make Remote Ignition Block available on select over 2 million GM 2009 and 2010 model-year vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

The process for deployment:

• An OnStar subscriber reports their vehicle stolen to authorities and requests stolen vehicle assistance from OnStar.
• Law enforcement provides confirmation to the OnStar Advisor that the vehicle is in fact stolen.
• The OnStar Advisor pinpoints the vehicle's exact GPS location and sends a remote signal to prevent stolen vehicle from starting the next time someone attempts to start it.
• On select models, authorities can also request Stolen Vehicle Slowdown if they have a clear line of sight of the stolen vehicle and confirm that conditions are safe to slow down the vehicle.

"Technology like Stolen Vehicle Slowdown and now Remote Ignition Block will improve the chances of apprehending suspected car thieves and are great assets to the law enforcement community," said Michigan's Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. "Removing an instrument of harm from the hands of criminals improves the safety of our officers, our highways, and our citizens," said Bouchard.

For more than 13 years, OnStar has helped authorities in locating tens of thousands of stolen vehicles in order to assist with their safe and quick recovery, according to the company. OnStar receives approximately 600 Stolen Vehicle Assistance requests from subscribers each month and has helped in over 28,000 requests over the past decade.