OnStar's glitches galore have me going nowhere

Jil McIntosh

My house does not exist.

It's been here since 1948, and I'm writing this from my office in it. Canada Post, pizza delivery and the taxman can find it, but GM's OnStar can't.

OnStar's Turn-by-Turn Navigation, included on a number of General Motors vehicles for the first year and with a subscription fee afterwards, consistently sends me to the wrong address when I try it in test vehicles. I'd be willing to forgive it – every system has the odd blip – except this is only the beginning. I've had more bad routes and incorrect instructions than with any other navigation system I've tried.

It's part of a package that also includes automatic crash response, emergency services, stolen vehicle assistance, roadside assistance, remote door unlock and an integrated hands-free calling system. Those alone will cost $289 per year, after the expiration of the year's subscription that comes with the car, in a package called Safe and Sound. Upgrading to the Directions and Connections plan, which gets you all that plus the navigation, is $438.

Here's how it works. When you want directions, you push a button to summon the OnStar operator. Give your destination, and the operator punches it in and locates it. The operator then hangs up, and the information is downloaded to your vehicle through the OnStar system.

As you drive, voice commands for each turn come through your stereo and arrows appear in the instrument cluster. GM touts it as a less expensive alternative to an in-dash navigation screen. Since the operator's system is presumably revised regularly, you also don't have to bother with updating your navigation as areas change.

Here's some of what's happened to me in practice. One night I was looking for Lakeshore Dr. in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Although every hamlet remotely close to the shoreline has a Lakeshore Dr., the operator could only find one, in "Gee-yule-up." Mystified, I had her spell it: Guelph. I found the street myself, using a regular paper map.

On a trip in California, one operator forgot to download the directions to the car. Another couldn't find a small town in her system, even though we were sitting at its "Welcome To" sign.

Eastbound on Highway 407 en route to Yonge and Sheppard, the system had me exit at Woodbine, go south through traffic and stoplights, and then merge onto the 404 – even though I could have stayed on the 407 for one more exit, then gone straight down the 404. I didn't bother following the instructions beyond that, which wanted me to drive south past Sheppard to the 401, and then turn north to come back up to Sheppard again.

As for my house, Turn-by-Turn sends me five km northeast to a new subdivision, has me turn onto a dead-end street whose name sounds nothing like mine, and then proudly proclaims that I've arrived at my destination, repeating my correct street number and address. On one trip, I called OnStar back. The operator came up with the same result and then said he'd ask a supervisor. He hung up and never returned. GM reps have since said they'd fixed it, but a recent attempt showed nothing's changed.

GM says the problem is that it uses third-party map data. That's common – at least one major courier uses the same system, as we discovered when the driver got sent to the same incorrect street. But GM doesn't mind first-party billing for it.

The system has sent me on a wrong course far too many times and I'm just borrowing the cars. I can only imagine how I'd feel paying $438 a year for it.

jil@ca.inter.net

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