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"OnStar's new Family Link and Connected Family of the Future\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnStar Family Link Website\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnStar Family Link Finds the Car\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnStar Family Link: Setting Up Alerts\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnStar Family Link: Adding and Deleting Vehicles\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOnStar Family Link Website\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSkyping with OnStar and a 4G-equipped Chevy Volt\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFake Son in Loft\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nGMs Demo Loft\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFake Family in the Chevy Volt Verizon 4G concept car with a lot of screens\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFake Dad catching up with his movie\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSure, GM used a hokey fake family to illustrate how OnStar's new car finder and email and text notification service, Family Link, would work for a \"real\" family, but the demonstration, held at an incredible loft home in Soho, did get the point across: OnStar's 6 million embedded system customers will soon be able to find family members either passively or actively with the new alert system.\nOnStar, which started almost two decades ago as GM's in-car crash alert system, now offers customers dozens of potential in-car services including turn-by-turn routes, on-demand diagnostics, a remote-control app (it had a half-million downloads), roadside assistance, and emergency and good Samaritan services. OnStar executives told me that last year one of their advisors (they're on call 24/7) helped deliver a baby. Now GM wants to help deliver your baby \u2014 of any age \u2014 home.\nIn the fake scenario, GM had actors playing family-member roles: there was Dad watching a movie in the living room, the son, Chad, who was playing a video game upstairs, and Mom, who was running around the loft trying to get organized for a family trip. The 16-year-old daughter was on her way home in a Chevy Volt. At home, the father used the new Family Link website to log in and find his fake daughter's exact location on the road. The system is password-protected and shows location, but only for that exact moment. Even though the technology is GPS-based, Family Link will not show you the car in motion on the website's map or how fast the car is going when Family Link finds it.\nThe same interface can be used to set up location- and time-based alerts. So if the fake father wanted to know when the daughter arrived in the neighborhood, he could have Family Link email or text him. Likewise, it could also be set to post a location alert at the same time each day \u2014 useful if you want to know your teen is driving home from school, work or college each day when you expect them.\nThe service costs $3.99 a month and launches next month with a small group of OnStar embedded customers. It rolls wide in the fall. Technically, Family Link could work with OnStar's after-market products (this is where non-GM customers, including Toyota, Honda and Ford car owners, add OnStar rear-views and systems to their cars), however it currently doesn't and GM has no timeline for adding the feature.\nGM's fake family also gave us a little glimpse into the future, showing us how a Verizon 4G-equipped Chevy Volt could enable real-time Skype video chat (the fake daughter used the camera in the OnStar rear-view mirror), and access to home media including movies and games stored on a home media server. Though the car was communicating with the loft home via wireless 4G, communications among the three tablets and large in-dash display were carried out via Ethernet. During the demo, the fake mom, who was in the driver's seat, gave her \"son\" access to the game he'd been playing at home and let her fake husband pick up the movie where he left off on his back-seat-mounted tablet.\nGM doesn't have a timeline for when 4G-enabled cars will hit the road, but they are convinced that this little mini-play we witnessed is future of family life at home and on the road.\nYou can see Family Link in action (and the 4G concept car) in the video below.\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/03/27/onstars-family-link-is-ready-to-reach-out-and-find-you/>