cts | Volt a Day | OnStar Command Center October 07, 2010

(A continuation of the Detroit Trip.)

Nick Pudar, the director of OnStar, offered to take “anyone interested” down to see the Command Center. Who wouldn't want to see something called “the Command Center?” I few of the GM executives were bleary-eyed, since it was the end of a long day, but certainly all the California invitees were raring to go (since it was three hours earlier for them and they’d mostly been napping on an airplane for the day).

At the initial gathering Nick had hung behind the row of GM representatives and then admitted he was trying to hide a little, but since he’s over six feet tall that’s impossible. He’s an amateur magician, a good storyteller, and definitely an enthusiastic supporter of the Volt (at least the technology portion of the car).

Descending seventy-five floors into the common atrium/basement for the Renaissance Center we entered the base of one of the other towers and took the elevator up to the twelfth floor. Nick explained that this was a command center, not a call center. The operatives we would see here were in charge of watching over the entire system, not directly interacting with customers.

When I see big, huge computer screens my mind goes a little blank, so the reporting here is spotty. Sometimes I felt like we were really making Nick stay late at work, and other times he appeared so excited to be showing off the system to people that were really interested that it felt okay. I wavered.

As we walked to the center we passed a bunch of awards that OnStar had received, including some thanks for work during Katrina where OnStar’s network and response speed was better than anything else on the ground. There was a hallway where we walked past the nine generations of OnStar hardware and software deployment and Nick mentioned that the OnStar hardware has evolved at the speed of consumer electronics, unheard of for something in the automotive industry.

All of that electronics development is very purpose-specific. That means that there’s a lot of inventing. There are over eight hundred patents filed so far. In the observation lounge for the command center there was a wall of metal plaques, mounted on wood, hung on the wall, with the granted patent diagramed and abstracted. I enjoyed looking at a few of them (“Method for using location based information and a location-specific database to recommend locations of fueling stations”).

OnStar started off in 1995 and was a joint venture (GM, Hughes, EDS). You can learn all about it from Wikipedia. Surprisingly, there was little overlap from Wikipedia page and what were were learning. It is in all GM cars now. When one rolls off the line, it has the hardware installed. Although OnStar started off with an investment from GM (it is a wholly-owned subsidiary), it has since paid that investment back. It pays for all of the hardware installed in the cars, and it is profitable.

There is a fifty percent retention rate. That is, when someone buys a new GM car, they have a six month trial of OnStar included in the price of the car. Half of the time, when the trial ends, they sign up to continue the pay-by-the-month service. Twenty bucks a month gets you almost everything, another ten on top of that gets you directions and the concierge-like service. Nick said he was out with his wife and another couple and they pressed the blue button and just said, “Italian within fifteen minutes from here...” and they were sent to a nice restaurant.

There are three call centers, all right here in North America. There are three thousand operators. My favorite statistic: on 99.97% of red button (emergency) pushes, OnStar answered the call in less than a second. That’s so much better than 911.

There is a big map of United States with all of the counties outlined. There is a counter that resets at midnight and the map slowly fills with blue dots (blue button pushes), red dots (emergency button pushes), and flashing red diamonds (the car is in an accident and calls OnStar automatically). It was nearly midnight and it was amazing how densely colored the map was.

When there is a weather-related event (there was some flooding in Northern Michigan and Wisconsin when we were there) counties get a different shading and the top level of service is provided to those drivers regardless of what they have paid for. The command center has an overview that the call center operatives don’t get, so they manage what sort of information the operatives have on their screen when they get a call from a particular location or vehicle.

The cars are so much more sophisticated now than when OnStar first launched. The Volt, obviously, is just packed with technology. When the Volt phones home (automatically once a month), it will report the status of every individual battery cell. If one is overheating, or wandering away from the others in its charge cycle, OnStar will email the owner a report and a suggestion that the car be taken to a service center.

Nick said that a third of the country is driving on under-inflated tires. That’s a real cost in miles per gallon. The new cars know their tire pressure (on each tire), and report it. OnStar has found that when they alert the owner to the tire pressure issue it is resolved by the next time the car sends a report. That means even before the Volt hits the road, GM is working to have the GM fleet burn less fuel.

One of the few requirements of the CAB members is that we push the blue button once a week and talk with an OnStar representative. And any time we have an idea about the car, or notice something off, or have any sort of problem, we should push the blue button and talk to them right away.

Having seen the Command Center I will now picture Nick himself answering on one of the little headsets.

Tomorrow: the Assembly Plant