ea, courtesy of quickok8 at Yahoo Clubs. Signal is 5 times more pwerful than standard cellular. Look for the parargraph just over halfway down the post.
EYES ON THE ROAD, HANDS ON THE WHEEL: THE ONSTAR APPROACH TO IN-VEHICLE COMMUNICATION AND SAFETY
John F. Smith, Jr.
Chairman of the Board
General Motors Corporation
Convergence 2000 Conference
Detroit, Michigan
October 18, 2000
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Thanks, J. T. (Battenberg), for that kind introduction. . . .
[possible humorous ad lib . . .]
It's not every day that you get introduced by someone who used to lead one of your company's largest business units and now is your largest independent supplier. And our new relationship is just one indication of how rapidly this industry continues to change.
Actually, ten years ago, the business that later became Delphi was viewed by many people as a millstone around General Motors' neck. Today, under J.T and his team's leadership, Delphi has transformed itself into a global powerhouse of new technologies.
Electronics is at the core of almost all those technologies, and the theme of this year's Convergence conference, "Delivering Technology's Promise," could not be more timely.
The promise is being delivered, but it's being delivered in ways that very few people envisioned just five years ago. Telematics, which is very prominent at this year's Convergence exhibits, is just one example. I suspect that many people in this room who started out in the computer and telecommunications business never thought they'd be at an automotive conference. The fact that three of the five keynote speakers at this conference are from the software, computer, and telecommunications business says it all.
This morning, I want to focus on where General Motors is headed with the new telematics technologies and OnStar in particular - including the safety aspects of telematics.
Five years ago, the word telematics was unknown even to most engineers. The idea of a hands-free in-vehicle communication system was just a dream in the minds of a few engineers and planners at Hughes Electronics, EDS, and General Motors.
Thanks to that small group's vision and stamina, telematics moved quickly from theory to reality. In the fall of 1995, OnStar was created with a staff of fewer than 50 people. Within a year, that team launched the industry's first hands-free in-vehicle safety, security, and information system. Initially, it was offered on only three 1997 model year Cadillacs. Even the dealers were skeptical of the system's practicality and appeal.
Since then, however, the delivery of OnStar's promise has accelerated exponentially. We had around 20,000 subscribers just three years ago. That grew to more than 360,000 this fall. By the end of this year, we will have more than a million OnStar-equipped vehicles and 800,000 subscribers. The system will be factory-installed in 32 of our 54 US vehicle models - one out of every four cars and trucks we build in this country. It is also now available on Saab vehicles. And, by the end of the year 2003, we expect the OnStar subscriber base to grow to 4 million.
Gary Lapidus, the noted Goldman Sachs auto analyst, recently made the following observation: "OnStar is the foundation for an information, communications and entertainment pipeline to cars and trucks in the same way that cable and direct broadcast satellite are pipelines into the home." He went on to estimate OnStar's value to GM at $8 billion.
The rest of the industry has also taken note of OnStar's success and its potential. Thanks largely to OnStar's track record, every other OEM is now looking at how to deliver the promise of telematics. At General Motors, we're especially pleased that OnStar will provide the service for Lexus Link, which will be introduced with 2001 model Lexus LS 430 sedan. OnStar service will also be offered on the 2002 Acura RL.
Just a few weeks ago, a new study predicted that by the year 2005, the global market for telematics will grow to $8 billion, compared to $1 billion this year. That report was issued by Allied Business Intelligence and it went on to predict that: "2001 will be seen as the year that telematics takes off."
If anything, that prediction may prove conservative. Another study released just last week predicts that the number of subscribers to telematics services will grow from 820,000 today to 11 million in the year 2004.
There are dozens of similar forecasts. We don't yet know which telematics technologies and features will ultimately be the most effective and popular over the next five or ten years, but the revolution has clearly begun. As some of you have heard me say before, I believe the automobile itself is being transformed into an information platform as well as a transportation platform.
This transformation will bring with it many issues, and safety is one of the biggest. Today, the desire to communicate from the vehicle is so great that more and more drivers are using cellular phones each day. And, they are not always using them in a safe manner - I suspect that everyone in this room has had that eery feeling of impending disaster upon seeing the driver up ahead begin to dial a cell phone while driving.
Just consider the data:
Drivers in the United States now spend a total of 500 million hours a week in their vehicles;
The number of cell phones in the US has grown from 5 million in 1990 to more than 100 million today;
85 percent of all cell phone subscribers report that they use them while driving;
More than half of all cell phone air time is consumed in moving vehicles;
and, since 1995, legislators in 37 states have introduced more than a hundred bills aimed at cell phone usage in moving vehicles.
This year alone, such bills have been introduced in 27 states. And, the National Highway Traffic Administration has held a public forum on the use of cell phones in vehicles.
The growing concern over the use of conventional hand-held cell phones in vehicles can be expected to extend to all areas of telematics as the technologies and applications continue to expand. And this has major implications for all telematics suppliers and OEMs. It means the time for the industry to be proactive in understanding the real causes and effects of driver distraction and in educating the public on safe and proper use of telematics technologies is now.
Our view at General Motors has long been that safety isn't just one thing, it's everything - everything in the vehicle itself, and everything related to how it is operated. And, we just won't offer anything in a vehicle that can't be used safely and simply: I'll have more to say about this shortly.
The key issue with cell phone handsets and computer screens is the need for the driver to move hands from the wheel and eyes from the road. Our goal is to reduce this need as much as possible through the use of voice interface technology.
That's the core of the OnStar philosophy: eyes on the road, hands on the wheel.
Let me give you the Cliff's Notes version of how OnStar really works.
Basically, the OnStar system combines the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network with wireless technology to link the driver and vehicle to the OnStar Center. There are currently two centers, in Michigan and North Carolina. Each is staffed by real human beings, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The Centers' advisors receive a minimum of four weeks of intense training on cellular technology, problem solving, and emergency services. They are there to offer immediate, real-time, personalized help to any query.
OnStar has been used to assist subscribers in everything from emergency services to tracking stolen vehicles; getting the doors opened when the keys are accidentally locked inside; finding the nearest ATM machine; guiding the driver to the local zoo or gasoline station; and arranging dinner reservations and theater ticket purchases. If an OnStar-equipped vehicle is in a crash that deploys an airbag, the car itself automatically "calls" the Center and an advisor immediately calls the vehicle to see what kind of assistance is needed.
The anecdotes we get from subscribers are amazing.
For example, just a few weeks ago, a new GMC Yukon was stolen from a dealership in Battle Creek. The owner immediately called OnStar. It turned out that the vehicle was moving, and the OnStar advisor kept police informed of every change in speed and position. Without a high-speed chase, the vehicle was stopped and its four thieves were arrested within 10 minutes of the initial call.
In another instance, a family was camping nearly three hours from the nearest hospital. Their eight-year-old daughter came down with a severe asthma attack during the middle of the night. Fortunately, they had driven to the campsite in a Yukon equipped with OnStar. The mother immediately called OnStar and the OnStar advisor personally directed them to the hospital, guiding them turn by turn.
And we get dozens of letters describing similar incidents every month.
The benefits of this kind of peace and mind and security are obvious, and they speak for themselves.
We are now moving these benefits a quantum leap forward with two unique new features. The first is OnStar Personal Calling, which allows the driver to place and receive calls while keeping hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The other is OnStar Virtual Advisor, which also allows the driver to keep hands on the wheel and eyes on the road while requesting and receiving personalized web-based information.
Both of these services are being rolled out in all 32 of the OnStar-equipped models this fall. They will be available for subscription and activation in the northeast region by the end of the year and across the entire country by the end of the first quarter of next year. Again, they are a quantum leap forward in in-vehicle communications. And, no other automaker offers anything to compare with them.
But pictures still speak louder than words. I'm going to show a brief video demonstration of OnStar Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor. Note that regardless of the task, the driver pushes just one button. From that point on, there is never any reason to remove his or her eyes from the road or hands from the wheel.
[roll 3-minute video demonstration
of Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor]
Let me emphasize again: the features you just saw are real and they are being rolled out this fall.
As you also saw, OnStar Personal Calling is a lot simpler and a lot more versatile than a keypad phone or a screen - not to mention a lot safer. The key difference, of course, is that our phone is embedded in the vehicle itself. No handset, only one button to push, and no screen to watch. Eyes on the road, hands on the wheel. A major step forward in intelligent vehicle safety systems.
Actually, OnStar makes the vehicle itself the telephone. The phone unit embedded with OnStar is five times more powerful than today's best hand-held cell phones. For the tekkies in the audience, our embedded unit will have three watts of power, compared to the six-tenths of a watt offered in the most powerful hand-held cell units. In addition, OnStar's 3-dbd antenna has more than eight times the gain of the typical hand-held phone's whip antenna when that hand-held phone is used inside a vehicle.
It all adds up to a stronger signal and better service - you can call places from your OnStar-equipped vehicle that you could never reach with a hand-held cell phone. And, by the way, Verizon Wireless, the country's largest wireless communications company, is providing OnStar's nationwide cellular network.
The feedback from current OnStar customers as well as opinion research shows that this is the kind of system people want in their vehicles. In fact, we expect subscriptions to OnStar's Personal Calling to make us the country's largest reseller of cellular phone time. And next year, OnStar will also begin rolling out the industry's first XM satellite radio service. And, as you heard on Monday, OnStar and Sun Microsystems will be working together to bring more new personalized services to OnStar subscribers by using Java technology.
To further enhance OnStar's unique advantages in getting help during emergencies, we have also joined a coalition called ComCARE, made up of law enforcement associations, trauma nurses' and doctors' associations, and even DOT and NHTSA in addition to GM. The group's aim is to improve the response time to emergency situations. To do that, we need a more comprehensive national data base. ComCARE is now completing a six-month nationwide study of emergency response effectiveness, and the results will be released here in Detroit next week. GM and OnStar are contributing funds as well as personnel to this and other ComCARE projects.
Finally, OnStar has joined forces with more than 5,500 Public Safety departments across the country to ensure that 9-1-1 phone dispatchers are familiar with OnStar's features and capability. The goal here is to reduce emergency response time even further.
Yet even OnStar requires an informed and educated, safety-conscious driver if the system is to be one hundred percent effective.
Current NHTSA data show that driver distraction is involved in 25 percent of the more-than-6 million vehicle crashes reported in this country each year. In many cases, the distraction is not a cell phone but such driver behaviors as eating a burger, putting on makeup, trying to read a map, or trying to pick something up from the floor while driving.
With OnStar, we have eliminated the most obvious dangers of manual and visual distraction by allowing the driver to keep eyes on the road and hands on the wheel when the system is in use. However, there is still the issue of cognitive distraction - the mental distraction of listening or talking even if eyes are on the road and hands are on the wheel.
Actually, cognitive distraction is not a new issue for the auto industry. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, some people advocated a ban on a new invention called the car radio. Their concern soon faded, but I have to admit -- when I'm driving a Corvette convertible and a car full of teenagers pulls up alongside with the bass on full blast, I can understand where those people were coming from.
The point is: there is no way to eliminate all forms and causes of cognitive distraction. Not unless we eliminate passengers or somehow prevent the driver from listening or talking to them - especially if they happen to be quarreling children. And not unless we somehow make it impossible for the driver to gaze aside to read a billboard; admire that passing Corvette; or even day-dream about home or vacation while driving.
That makes driver behavior the paramount issue. We, the industry, have an obligation to offer systems and features that create minimal distraction. We also need to help educate drivers themselves about the importance of minimizing their own distraction while they are driving. Technology alone, no matter how advanced, can never replace the driver's own judgment.
This is our approach at General Motors. When it comes to telematics or any other new technology or feature, we will respond to consumer demand, but we will do so in a way that will enhance safety and security rather than detract from them.
This past spring, we became the first OEM to develop and publish a set of common sense safety-driven principles to guide the research and development of all information delivery systems in our vehicles. All of our systems will be designed to do four things:
One, keep the driver's eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.
Two, minimize the number of steps required for the driver to perform any task.
Three, create a common interface in how drivers interact with the system.
And, four, utilize a lock-out protocol to prohibit especially demanding tasks while driving - for example, such tasks as programming or reading a navigation screen or any type of computer screen should be performed only when the vehicle is in Park.
Now, I am pleased to announce that we are taking these principles one step further with a nationwide research and education program that we call "SenseAble Driving." The program's goal is nothing less than to reach all of the 185 million drivers in America.
Initially, it will include three elements:
First, a nationwide research program aimed at understanding and quantifying common perceptions and misperceptions about driver
distraction;
Second, development of an interactive computer demonstration to bring that message home graphically to adolescent drivers;
Third, cooperation with state driver's licensing agencies across the country in spreading the message that the only safe way to drive is with eyes on the road, hands on the wheel, and mind on the tasks of driving, with a pilot program to begin here in Michigan.
We're very pleased that following my remarks this morning, Michigan's Secretary of State, Candice Miller, will join Mark Hogan, President of e-GM, and Chet Huber, President of OnStar, to brief the news media on the details of "SenseAble Driving." Bob Lange, our Engineering Director for Automotive Safety, who is one of several GM executives presenting papers at this week's conference, will also be on hand at this briefing.
The bottom line, again, is that vehicle safety isn't just one thing: it's everything. And that includes everything connected with the promising new technologies of telematics. Safety is a major part of the promise of technology, and safety should be the priority in delivering the promise.
With that, I'll be glad to take any questions. Thank you. |
