By Justin Hyde
Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
Copyright 2007 Detroit Free Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
WASHINGTON — General Motors Corp.'s OnStar unit will announce today a study with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find ways to use data from vehicle accidents to tell paramedics and doctors how badly passengers might be injured.
Funded by a $250,000 grant from the GM Foundation, the study will attempt to establish guidelines based on OnStar’s measurement of a crash’s severity and perhaps help first responders at accidents.
CDC officials said that data could save lives by pointing out people who are more seriously injured than they seem, a frequent problem in car crashes, and sending them to the nearest trauma-capable emergency room.
“In science there aren’t many 25% numbers,” said Dr. Rick Hunt, director of the division of injury response at the CDC. “But if you end up in the right place in the right amount of time, you have a decreased chance of dying by 25%.”
Readings like that will require the most advanced form of OnStar’s technology, which can alert advisers when a vehicle gets into any accident above a certain threshold, even one in which the air bags don’t fire. Those sensors measure the severity of the crash, where the vehicle was struck, if air bags deployed and whether the vehicle rolled over.
“What that gives you is 360 degrees of protection around a vehicle,” said Dan McGarry, engineering group manager for OnStar. Noting that previous systems wouldn’t alert in rear-end collisions, “with this system, if there’s a severe rear-end impact, you would trigger a call automatically.”
Of OnStar’s 4.5 million subscribers, about 1.5 million carry the electronics needed for advanced crash data, and OnStar officials said every new OnStar-equipped model will have the technology by 2009. To work, the system requires a subscription that starts at $16.95 per month.
GM’s telematics service already receives 1,100 alerts a month from air bags deploying in vehicles, and 700 calls a month from the advanced crash measurement systems. Hunt said the CDC is planning to complete the study by next year.
While OnStar executives said their subscriber numbers will rise as GM begins making the service standard on all vehicles by the 2008 model year, they did say they’ll lose some subscribers because 500,000 will be cut off due to a change in cellular telephone technology.
Federal regulators have allowed wireless phone companies to switch off their old analog networks this year. Older vehicles equipped with OnStar rely on analog to connect with the service. Bill Ball, OnStar’s vice president of public policy, said the unit is offering those customers a coupon for a free year of service if they buy a 2006 or newer OnStar-equipped vehicle.
Another 1 million owners of slightly newer vehicles who also have analog-based systems will be able to upgrade by adding a one-year subscription and paying $15 for the new equipment.
“We are going to continue with unabated growth,” Ball said. “OnStar going standard will overwhelm any losses.”