I always thought OnStar walked a fine line in their radio commercials when it comes to their first responder interaction.
On one hand their service provides motorists the opportunity of having an intermediary act on their behalf in an emergency.
An OnStar advisor, in an MVA for example, is automatically alerted as soon as air bags are deployed. Using GPS, the advisor is able to pinpoint the exact location of the accident and relay the information to a 911 dispatcher. This can save precious minutes in response time, especially when those involved in an accident do not know their exact location, or their injuries are so severe they cannot respond, do not have a cell phone or cannot call on a phone.
On the other hand, and this is where I object, their commercials make their advisors look like EMT’s, police experts and firefighters all rolled into one.
They appear to be the Knights in Shining Armor, while we appear to be the grunts that are doing their bidding. They save the day, by calling us and doling out pearls of wisdom to the panicked motorists while we are enroute. A recent commercial about a diabetic has the OnStar savior calling for an ambulance while telling the patient in waiting that his blood sugar level could be caused by stress. Compelling!
Hey OnStar, you do good work, but you’re telephone operators. Keep the first responder stuff up to us.
I agree that OnStar is less than public safety friendly. I have had the misfortune of attempting to locate an OnStar equipped vehicle that was being driven by a wanted felon / career criminal. My first attempt at speaking with them to request a location on the vehicle resulted in them telling me that I would need to obtain a search warrant to obtain the information I needed. Once I obtained the warrant and provided it to them, they explained that rather than a search warrant; they now needed a court order. I obtained a court order then was told that if I wanted the requested information, my department would have to agree to pay them an exorbitant fee, because they would have to assign personnel and equipment to this case. Huh? This did not make a bit of sense to me. Ultimately OnStar accept the court order, but did not provide any information. OnStar merely conveyed the vehicle in question was not producing a signal (for a month). OnStar is anything but law enforcement friendly. On the other hand, I have had nothing but good experiences with LoJack representatives. I know the two services are the equivalent of apples and oranges, but I believe that it is just as important to speak of good will and customer service as it is to post about OnStar’s poor customer service and unsatisfactory relationship with public safety.