Tag: GM

After almost 15 years of keeping OnStar exclusive to its own vehicles, GM is finally making the service available as an after-market add-on for other cars. The OnStar mirror should be compatible with most cars on the market when it comes out this spring for $299. On top of the retail price, you'll also have to cough up for an OnStar subscription ($18.95 per month or $199 for the year), and pay ...

Looking to compete with Ford's Sync's messaging technology, GM's OnStar may soon add text messaging and Facebook updates to its on-board communication system. According to The Detroit Free Press, a source claims that OnStar subscribers will be able to transmit text messages and Facebook updates via the on-board communications system by the end of the month. Before you safety advocates go berserk, ...

After failing in its first attempt to popularize two-wheeled transportation in large urban areas, Segway has partnered with General Motors (GM) to introduce a new concept car. According to Wired, the Electric Networked Vehicles, or EN-Vs, will be revealed to the public at the World Expo 2010 this May in Shanghai. The two-wheeled cars have a carbon-fiber shell and can run at about 25 mph, on a ...

Augmented reality has primarily been used to locate nearby restaurants, insert 3-D baddies into video games, and offer glorified advertisements. General Motors, however, is trying to put the technology to good use, and integrate it into the windshields of future automobiles. Under the generic title "enhanced vision system," the prototype uses sensors, GPS, and video cameras to overlay useful ...

With the advent of cheap cell phones, in-car valet systems like OnStar slowly started to fade away. OnStar is one of the few that has survived, thanks to its partnership with GM and the addition of features unreproducible by cell phones (e.g., remote unlocking and vehicle tracking). One of those features is an anti-theft system called Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. The system, which sends a signal to ...

Say what you will about General Motors (okay, so maybe you should say it under your breath), but there's no denying the brilliance of this idea. On the company's FastLane blog, one Gery Kissel explains that engineers and suits will be meeting up next week to discuss the standardization of common components that will hopefully be installed in forthcoming electric vehicles. Notably, the SAE J1772 ...

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/hardware/Engadget_s_wild_ride_in_the_P_U_M_A'; Against all odds, GM and Segway let us inside their precious P.U.M.A. prototype, and we went for a quick jaunt down 18th St. We couldn't drive it, unfortunately, but there was plenty of action to be had from the passenger side. Starting from a rest on four wheels -- the main powered wheels and the front two "safety" ...

GM and Segway's joint venture is probably best described as a rickshaw without all the charm. The self-balancing Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (P.U.M.A.) can reach top speeds of 35 MPH, has a lithium battery that lasts up to 35 miles with a single charge, and features vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication for potentially reducing the number of accidents. No word on when or ...

If General Motors has anything to say about it, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. will be the first early adopter markets for its plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt. The company is currently working with the local municipalities to flesh out the details. The goal is to make tax incentives for purchasing electric cars and build an infrastructure that'll support them. San Francisco is already part of the ...

If you've ever been in an accident you've probably wished that you had someone there to help you get everything figured out -- call the police, line up a tow truck, etc. That's exactly the sort of help that GM's OnStar service offers, all conveniently piped through a friendly blue button on the rear-view mirror. The service connects you directly to an operator. But, when one man called for help on ...

While gear-head environmentalists prepare to forego the internally combusted symphonies that get their hearts pumping for the sake of a greener and quieter planet of electric cars, some folks at GM are thinking up some... interesting ways to bring new, "highly technical" sounds back into the picture. The Volt, which is intended to run silently much of the time, will apparently be the recipient ...

The 2011 Chevy Volt has been officially unveiled this morning and we are pleased to note that the new pictures are much more flattering than the "glamour shots" released a week or so ago. The interior of the Volt features a driver-configurable LCD instrument display, 7-inch touch screen information display (for climate and "infotainment" control), Bluetooth, USB and optional GPS. Of course, what ...

It's official public debut may still only be coming next week, but it looks like GM has finally decided to give up on the carefully-chosen teaser shots and let the hotly-anticipated Volt out in the open for all the Internet to see. No doubt to the dismay of some, the would-be next Prius sure looks a good deal different than the far more angular prototype we've all come to know over the past ...

Apparently not everyone at General Motors is toiling away in an attempt to get the Volt ready for its 2010 debut, as another sector of the outfit's R&D division is busy creating a windshield that will, at its core, enable us to stop running stuff over. The futuristic glass would utilize lasers, sensors and cameras in order to help drivers see the road's edge better, recognize obstructions ...

In an effort to keep up with foreign car manufacturers, GM has announced that it hopes to begin production on a Saturn SUV hybrid that will be equipped with a plug-in feature and a Lithium ion battery. Working in tandem with the battery and plug-in technology, the Saturn Vue Green Line automobile will use "a modified version of GM's two-mode hybrid system" to double the fuel economy of any SUV ...