Latest OnStar focuses on infotainment, adds audio Facebook integration, voice texting

Steven J. Ewing — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:01:00 EST

After 15 years of offering comprehensive safety coverage to General Motors vehicle owners, OnStar will be getting a well-deserved boost in functionality to better take on Ford's Sync and other upstart systems.

New infotainment systems are one of the hottest trends in the automotive marketplace, and GM certainly can't afford to be behind the curve. Because of this, OnStar will be relaunching its brand image, citing the phrase "responsible connectivity" as the motto for everything moving forward. This means that OnStar won't just be about safety anymore, though its core values will continue to be improved.

Two of the main infotainment technologies being tested right now are audio Facebook integration and voice text messaging. OnStar recently released a brief bit of information about these two functions, but we were able to attend a presentation to see these new social functions firsthand.

OnStar's Facebook integration will allow subscribers to post audio status updates directly from the car. These messages will appear as audio updates on the Facebook news feed, and drivers will also have the ability to have their personal news feed read back to them. Even though this technology is still undergoing beta testing, the whole process works relatively seamlessly, though the read-back audio could still benefit from some smoothing-out.

Voice text messaging piggybacks on this same audio technology. Using a Bluetooth-paired phone, drivers can have text messages read to them via the car's audio system. From there, the driver can press a button on the steering wheel to verbally select one of OnStar's four pre-set replies - things like, "I received your text message, but am currently driving," or, "Please call me."

All of this being tested in correlation with OnStar's ninth-generation hardware, which improves voice recognition, adds a Bluetooth phonebook, help 'wizard,' improved navigation and uses advanced notification services for traffic and weather alerts. This is just the start to what OnStar is working on, though. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into the future technologies OnStar is working to bring to GM vehicles. In the meantime, hit the jump for the official press release.

[Source: OnStar]

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Latest OnStar focuses on infotainment, adds audio Facebook integration, voice texting originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GM testing OnStar Facebook and texting functionality

Damon Lavrinc — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST

Filed under: Technology, Cadillac, GM

General Motors is ready to bring the fight to Ford's Sync system with a reworked version of OnStar, but the salient details won't be revealed for another seven days. However, we've gotten word from the General that it's testing two new features: Audio Facebook updates and voice texting.

On the Facebook front, GM is the experimental phase of integrating OnStar with the 800-pound social media gorilla, allowing users to verbally update their Facebook status via audio recordings, with the possibility of utilizing the OnStar Virtual Advisor feature to read off Facebook status updates and news feeds.

Voice texting works in a similar manner, pairing the driver's Bluetooth mobile phone to OnStar and allowing the system to read received SMS messages and reply using a voice command to select four pre-set messages. That's not true voice-to-text functionality, but it's similar to what's being offered by other automakers.

GM testing OnStar Facebook and texting functionality originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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