GM launches Proactive Alerts connected car app
General Motors (GM) has launched a new aspect to its OnStar connected car technology, an app called Proactive Alerts which can undertake diagnostic investigations on a vehicle, allowing any faulty parts to be identified and ordered, or warranty repair work to be approved, before the vehicle is taken to a mechanic. The ultimate goal of the technology is to detect and repair any “vehicle-stopping” issues before they become a problem. So far, Proactive Alerts monitors the three components most likely to cause problems – the battery, fuel pump, and starter, and is available in nine 2016 models, although planned to eventually cover all new vehicles.

Imagine a customer arriving at a dealership's service drive with the diagnostic work completed, the faulty part identified and the warranty repair approved before a service writer even greets the driver.

You don't have to imagine it. It's happening.

This spring, General Motors quietly introduced a new feature for its OnStar connected car technology called Proactive Alerts. The program's goal, says Steve Holland, GM's chief technologist for vehicle health management, is to detect and correct a potential vehicle-stopping issue before the check-engine light comes on.

"Let's take the battery," Holland explains. "We collect data every time the car is started and transmit it to the cloud via the car's 4G connection, and we run our proprietary algorithms there.

"Normally what happens is everything looks OK, a "green' condition that we ignore. But occasionally we'll notice problems."

Sometimes, the battery's state of charge could be lower than normal, because the vehicle has been sitting or the lights have been left on. Once the car is driven, the alternator charges the battery. Holland says Proactive Alerts can tell the difference between a discharged battery and a damaged one.

"We have a second stage where we watch very closely what's going on with the battery," he says. "If we make the determination that the battery has a problem and that it is going to fail, we notify the customer by sending a message back to the car. We also provide the same information to the dealer, so that they can be ready when the customer shows up."