I was asked by a client recently if this Onstar really works. The idea is that the sensors in the car send signals to the company who calls 911 in the area and relays the information.
I was wondering if anyone out there has responded to one of these automated calls and how it came in. Was the information accurate? Did it make a difference?
I was wondering if anyone out there has responded to one of these automated calls and how it came in. Was the information accurate? Did it make a difference?
Comments
Great idea for remote areas.
My mother wanted it...in her Ford.
More recently, I responded to a medical aid reported via cell-phone, where the caller didn't know her location. The GPS in the phone pinpointed her location within two house numbers. (The last landmark she remembered was over 1/2 mile behind her.)
It's all great technology when it works.
I haven't responded to any calls via OnStar, but I have the depressing feeling that this is going to lead to more calls, but not more patients, nor better information on patients.
I hope I'm wrong.
The location information is generally correct, but the OnStar Operators sometimes have a hard time pronouncing street names eg. MacLeod, or Shagannappi, so something accident that are in our jurisdiction are sent else where because of the mispronunciations. At my centre, we still need to verify the location that OnStar gave us with the occupants of the vehicle. Also, OnStar is not able to give of direction of travel, which can be important if the accident is on a major road way.
Generally when these calls come into my centre, we are speaking to someone in the deep deep south of USA - the person generally has a thick accent and the 9-1-1 Operator and person in the vehicle have a hard time understand them.
The audio connection between the occupant of the vehicle, OnStar Operator, and 9-1-1 Operator is very week. There is lots of interference, and static on the line, and information is lost or misinterpreted.
Most of the time when I get a OnStar call for an accident, the occupant of the vehicle has a cell phone and they are able to call 9-1-1 themselves but they 'just wanted to see if OnStar was going to work'. Also, while I have been interrogating the occupant of the vehicle through the connection with OnStar other civilians have called in the accident or stopped by the accident scene and asked if the occupant needed help.
Most of the time the accidents reported by OnStar are non-injury accidents or have minor injuries. I have yet to get an accident from OnStar where the occupants of the vehicle was unable to communication with the 9-1-1 operators.
When I bought my new vehicle, I declined OnStar. I have a cell phone, and I faith in the kindness of others.
Since then, it's gotten much much better. As I understand it, they now have a Canadian call center, which, forgive me, makes it much easier for the accents to be understood, and gives us a fighting chance of having someone who knows at least the city if not the general area. I am in the same center as LittleGirl and I try to persuade our ops to ask for and input the lat/long of the car every time, as our CAD system will accept this kind of location info. That helps a lot, especially when someone (at OnStar) who doesn't know the area is trying to interpret the car's location on their maps and gets a few miles off... which can end up meaning the difference between a freeway and a two-lane mountain road that parallels it (but can only be accessed 25 miles away at an interchange).
Jay911 didn't we try to figure out where the Canadian OnStar Centre was one tour??