The United States Of OnStar

GM's got one easy success story to gush about: OnStar. This video of the national map from their Detroit-based command center showing all 59,000+ interactions from just one day of service in lightning-fast-forward real-time reveals why.

Let's break out the user interactions:

Blue button presses: 55,416
Emergency button presses: 3,939
Airbags deployed: 28
AACN (Advanced Automotive Crash Notification): 62
Total interactions: 59,445

That's pretty amazing when you think about it. Over 60 people in crashes with 28 airbags being deployed, almost 4,000 emergency button presses and 55,416 people calling to find the nearest Starbucks.

What's more amazing is that so few automakers have an opportunity to interact with their buyers directly (usually only through a dealership middle man), and yet GM's managed to get 59,000 people each day to call them and they've all had a positive customer service interaction with the General.

Well, except for that one prank-caller. Some guy named Rick from Detroit who keeps calling to warn people about GM CEO Fritz Henderson being some kind of killer robot from the future or something? Who is that guy?

UPDATE: Onstar's asked if we'd be so kind as to include this at the bottom of the post because they're scared you'll think they're tracking you or some such silliness. Ha! Normally we'd tell a PR person to buzz off, but as we said, we'll give OnStar a bit of a pass because they're pretty sweet. Also they do know we know GM can't afford those black helicopters anymore, right?

OnStar does not continuously or routinely monitor or track the location or speed of your car. OnStar does not listen to or monitor conversations in your car without notice to you. OnStar will not use, share, or otherwise disclose your location or speed information except as expressly stated in OnStar's Privacy Policy.

[via OnStar Connections]

Send an email to Ray Wert, the author of this post, at ray@jalopnik.com.

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