The in-car navigation space is getting a lot more crowded: Enter the upcoming voice-only OnStar navigation system, shown to the media on a live Webcast January 6, and to be formally announced by GM and Onstar on January 8 at the Chicago Auto Show.
The salient appeal of OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation is user interaction that's as simple as pressing a button and telling the operator where you want to go. When it is rolled out, Turn-By-Turn will add around $10 a month to the cost of basic OnStar service. Two Cadillacs and a Buick will include it this spring, followed by nearly 1 million GM vehicles in the 2007 model year that will offer the new nav system as an option to subscribers.
Turn-by-Turn should provide a boost to OnStar; its current navigation system -- Directions & Connections, which costs $399 a year -- is costly both to subscribers and to OnStar, because it requires a live operator to read directions. The cheapest portable navigation systems have already dropped to $400, but OnStar chases a different market: one that values drop-dead-simple solutions that work at the single press of a button instead of several dozen taps on a screen attached by a suction cup to the car windshield. Factory-integrated navigation systems typically cost $1,500 to $2,000, and about 7 percent of the cars produced this year will have built-in navigation.
To use Turn-by-Turn, a driver or passenger needs to push the OnStar button on the vehicle's mirror, which makes a cellular voice call to OnStar. The car's occupants then tell the operator where they want to go, such as a street address or a point of interest like a theater or park, and then wait a few seconds for the information to be downloaded as cellular data to the car. The operator than hangs up.
Also out of the picture is any kind of directional display; Turn-by-Turn is voice-only, even if the car has an integrated LCD or multiline radio display. OnStar pitches this as a safety feature of sorts, because there's "no data entry or touch screen to distract drivers from the road." A driver also does not need to look at a particularly complex upcoming intersection with two streets branching off to the right and one to the left.
Turn-by-Turn uses a car's integrated GPS receiver for position fixes, as well as an ABS sensor for dead reckoning (in tunnels and urban canyons, for example). Directions are spoken through the car radio, and you can ask to hear the directions again or to preview the upcoming route instruction. OnStar downloads a "navigation corridor" -- the proper route plus adjacent street -- wide enough to steer you back on course if you stop at a highway off ramp or get moderately lost. If you're way off course, you're asked to download additional directions.
The exact pricing hasn't been set, although Turn by Turn is just a month from launching in the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS, followed by the sportier Cadillac STS in June. OnStar president Chet Huber projects the cost will be somewhere between the two current packages: Directions & Connections, $399 (or $34.95 a month), and Safe & Sound,$199 (or $16.95 a month). That's also what cellular providers such as Verizon typically charge for cellular navigation; VZ Navigator runs $10 a month or, for vacationers and business travelers, $3 for a 24-hour period. Huber said OnStar will consider selling trip packs -- 10 for $30, perhaps?
OnStar Turn-by-Turn isn't available retroactively. Other than the initial Buick and Cadillacs, users must own a 2007 or later GM vehicle equipped with the so-called "Gen 7" OnStar platform and anti-lock brakes -- a potential market of 1 million vehicles.
OnStar representatives didn't talk specifics about acceptance and renewal rates. Most industry analysts say OnStar has had a tougher time maintaining revenues per equipped car, as it has evolved over its decade of existence from a device on costlier cars to universal installation on GM vehicles.
What's next for OnStar? Huber says future versions of its nav system might be able to display at least rudimentary navigation information, such as turn arrows, in cars with multi-line radio displays or in cars that have a built-in LCD. But Huber calls that a niche opportunity to reach cars with LCDs that don't also integrate navigation systems.
OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation precedes another low cost navigation system by a month. At the March Geneva Auto Show, Microsoft and Fiat will announce a navigation system that uses a rudimentary integrated instrument-panel display; drivers will request trip routing with a GSM cell phone that's connected to the car via Bluetooth. This is expected to be an option, costing about $200.
Copyright © 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in PC Magazine.
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