The year starts off with two big shows for two groups of hobbyists. First was the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and this week starts the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. On display at both of the shows will be GM and OnStar's work on an application for various smart phones for the upcoming Chevrolet Volt. Yes, there is an app for that, and this app goes a lot farther then making fart noises or turning into a machine gun for harmless road rage. This application gives you a direct connection to your brand new, rolling technological break through, giving you informational read outs about the car, even locking and unlocking the vehicle . It can even get the car comfortable for you before you get into it, a remote start type feature for the electric car.
When you first open the app, you get a battery status screen giving you battery life percentage, estimated EV Range and an estimated Total Range
A battery icon shows that the vehicle is plugged in, and in grid friendly mode, more on that later. Below the icon is another bar full of the vehicles statistics. It gives you lifetime information of MPG, EV miles, and total miles. Clicking the statistics bar, it gives you the stats of the last trip made in the vehicle.
Below that is the area for the actual interactive vehicle controls of unlocking and locking the car, honking horns, and the remote-start feature. When you plus these buttons, a window pops up telling you that its sending the signal, and then confirming that it was done. Very smart, easy, and eliminates any and all need for conventional keys.
At the very bottom, there are personal preference bar that allows you to changes everything from how the Volt will recharge, how you will be notified if the charging is done or interrupted, and even have the ability to personalize the Volt by giving it a name! The Charge Mode button can help you select between an Immediate Charge which starts charging the car no matter what time of the day it is for the quickest charge. The other option is a Delayed Charge which allows the car to be charged based on the current draw on the electrical grid. This is by far one of the greatest features of the Volt, as it gives you the ability to vary your greenness!
This application is a fantastic move on GM's part, and it sure got a lot of attention at CES in Las Vegas. This type of integration is what the future will be. No more stumbling for keys or even pushes a button to start your car from inside of it. No more holding the remote under your chin, hoping to see the lights flash. Because it uses OnStar, and not a radio signal, you could be anywhere that your phone has a signal. This opens the door for a system like this for all future GM cars, offering something that at this point no one has. GM leveraging the OnStar technology will separate it from the Sync's and other telematic systems around. I hope that this does spread to other OnStar equipped GM vehicles. If you would like your own app, GM does offer it for BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone (sorry Windows Mobile fans.) Check out
www.onstarmobiledemo.com to download your own copy to see how it works yourself so you too can feel like you own one of the most revolutionary vehicles of the last 100 years.
Source:
www.gminsidenews.com
