Information Week has a story today that takes the reader inside of General Motor’s OnStar safety and navigation system. The system currently handles 70,000 daily calls and roughly 600,000 calls a month from the U.S. and Canada. The service is set to expand outside of North America with a projected doubling of daily calls within the next two years.
The market of “safety telematics” is discussed in depth here. GM has a sizable lead in the market, holding more than 400 OnStar patents and filing a new one every six days. The incorporation of sensors that automatically alert the OnStar service if there’s an accident is of particular note. If air-bag sensors deploy the service tries to contact the driver and will send emergency personnel if they don’t get a response.
This is an excellent feature that discusses the technologies behind the service, including Oracle DBs and BEA web services. It also includes a photo gallery.
