GM Lets Police Kill Engines of Stolen Cars
It's a bad day for fans of local California news: According to General Motors, the days of the high-speed auto chase may be numbered. Today, the manufacturer is showing of a new kill switch component of the OnStar service, which will be installed in 1.7 million 2009-model GM cars. The new function allows police to remotely kill the engine of a car involved in a high-speed chase, a feature GM hopes will reduce the estimated 400 deaths that occur annually due to dangerous police pursuits. According to GM, the driver of a suspected stolen car will first be notified by an OnStar technician that the vehicle is about to be turned off. When the switch is flipped, the brakes and power steering will continue to work.
This sounds great, but we see some potential problems. First, the system is only limited to vehicles whose owners pay the $16.95 per month to be an active OnStar subscriber. Secondly, the system is only limited to high-speed chases involving stolen cars. Police can only kill an engine by contacting OnStar, which in turn must contact the owner of the car for permission. So, it's no good if the suspect is running from the law inside of his own wheels.
That said, anything that can save even one life is OK in our book.
GM's new kill switch feature reminds us a lot of the bait cars Canadian police have been using for years to catch car thieves. A bait car is left parked on the street like any other car -- only a bait car is equipped with a hidden camera and a kill switch. Once stolen by an unwitting car jacker, the camera rolls and the police quietly pursue. After the camera has gathered enough evidence to convict the car thief in court, the cops remotely kill the engine and lock the bait car's doors, trapping the mouse in their mousetrap. The program has been so successful, the Canadian police's Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team has its own Web site where you can watch videos of sucker after meth-addicted sucker get nabbed.
From USA Today
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lee scott said 7:37PM on 10-09-2007
$16.95 per month! That's a little steep for the service. They need to do better than that.
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robbyrob said 9:22PM on 10-09-2007
lucky for OJ he lives in Miami!
http://www.spymac.com/details/2277945
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G.L. said 9:31PM on 10-09-2007
Well,That's good news for Cadillac Escalade owners,I guess.
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love nyc said 3:00AM on 10-10-2007
Sounds to much like Big Brother to me.....
so much technology - are we really such a lawless society that we need all this orwellian activity?
remember old sylvester stallone movie - he was a cop that was unfrozen in the future and the car he rode in issued him a demerit ticket every time he said a cuss word inside the car..................
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joesesto said 5:00AM on 10-10-2007
The $16.95 is the cost of basic service, which appears to include this function for '09 models. The full service is around $35/mo...the one you see advertised on TV...unlocking the door...find me the nearest florist, etc. This sounds like a simple add-on function designed to encourage retention after the first year. My guess is their renewal persistency is falling off. I discontinued mine after 1 year...my GPS and cell phone were just as good in CA. I might think differently if I lived in states with poor cell coverage.
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Bill said 6:52AM on 10-10-2007
O.J. was driving a Ford not a GM car.
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Sean said 7:35AM on 10-10-2007
They are also using this for high speed chases.... Funny part is, as the crook gets into the car, all they have to do is knock off the gps antenna, and there is nothing that can be done.
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denm said 7:18AM on 10-19-2007
the way these things start is always small, something for the good of the public, and then they add on to and expand the existing program/law, they already install EDR event data recorders in new cars to record your driving, now they want to be able to turn your car off at will, when these devices are installed it won't be as an OPTION it will be added into the new car cost wheather you want it or not.
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tracy said 2:08PM on 11-25-2007
i know this is not a place for this but i beg you to let me say this.there are two cars at my neighborhood seized from two thieves who stoled it and want to ship it but were caught . anyone who has lost his or her car to email me at tracybaby10@yahoo.com for confirmation and collection.please reply asap
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tracy said 2:24PM on 11-25-2007
i know this is not a place for this but i beg you to let me say this.there are two cars at my neighborhood seized from two thieves who stoled it and want to ship it but were caught . anyone who has lost his or her car to email me at tracybaby10@yahoo.com for confirmation and collection.please reply asap
Reply