Opel cars with OnStar on board have been on the roads for about 18 months now. Currently, every second new Opel in Europe is equipped with the groundbreaking system. The personal connectivity and service assistant offer includes Automatic Crash Response, Vehicle Diagnostics, Stolen Vehicle Assistance and a Wi-Fi Hotspot for outstanding connectivity. In the last 18 months Opel OnStar has already registered more than nine million interactions, around half of those via smartphones and the myOpelApp. Now Opel OnStar subscribers can look forward to further services such as hotel room booking[1] or parking spot search[2] via an OnStar advisor. By the end of the year, Opel plans to offer OnStar in 33 countries across Europe and in 23 languages. Two people who have benefited first-hand from the OnStar guardian angel are Paula and John from England.
What started as a normal journey quickly turned into a nightmare for Paula and John. On the return trip from an outing to Cornwall Paula finds that all of the main roads are closed and cannot find an alternative route. But Paula and John need to get home quickly because John needs his medication. When John suffers an epileptic seizure Paula presses the emergency button and OnStar advisor Kevin Borbidge notifies the emergency services. “I have never been treated so well by somebody on the end of a line. Their personal touch was brilliant, absolutely fantastic,” said Paula.
Since the summer of 2015, the Opel OnStar Service Center has received over 21,000 emergency calls like the one made by Paula. Responding to emergencies is only one of the many innovative functions that make driving safer and more comfortable. Now OnStar advisors can also help find and book a hotel room or locate the best spot to park the car. Both services launched with the new Opel Insignia will be available for all models ranging from the ADAM to the Zafira and will extend the extensive service portfolio of the personal connectivity and service assistant with powerful 4G/LTE Wi-Fi Hotspot[3] .
“The new services from Opel OnStar, such as hotel reservations and parking location, simply mean better quality of life while driving,” said Opel Chief Marketing Officer, Tina Müller; “all it takes is a press of a button, and then an OnStar advisor answers the customer. Not a computer, but a real human-being – that is what we at Opel call personal service.” Todd Gaffner, the boss of Opel OnStar in Europe added: “Cooperation like the ones with Booking.com and Parkopedia help to add further value to our personal connectivity and service assistant. In the interests of our customers, we will continue to extend our Opel OnStar services with such new partners.”
New OnStar services facilitate hotel room booking and parking
Drivers of the new Opel Insignia, for example, can easy book a hotel room en route. This enables OnStar customers to find a suitable place to spend the night even when they are in an unfamiliar city. The driver can contact the OnStar Advisor via the blue button who will then search for and even book a hotel room in the desired price range. This will be done via booking.com – a company with a proven record of accomplishment spanning more than two decades in the accommodation booking industry.
In addition, OnStar will offer a second new service to reduce the stress often associated with the search for a suitable car park. OnStar users can contact an advisor for directions to the most suitable parking lot and have the exact location sent to the navigation system. This will be done via Parkopedia, a key parking services provider.
myOpel app and Vehicle Diagnostics extremely popular
Since its launch around 18 months ago, Opel OnStar has already registered over nine million interactions, most of which coming via the myOpel app. To date, customers with smartphones have chosen this route around four million times. Since its inception, Opel OnStar has received roughly 1.2 million customer calls. The amount of monthly emails with status updates on the vehicles exceeds 1.5 million. In future, Opel will also offer timely diagnostic alerts. Upon request of the customer, this information can also be sent to the Opel dealer looking after the car. This will enable the dealer to offer immediate assistance when required. Elsewhere, customers have accessed Opel OnStar via the website 2.3 million times.
