Finally, a car that predicts the future!
Ok, not really, but it can at least predict if something is going wrong with your car. There is nothing worse than being stuck on the side of the road not knowing why your car has broken down. Chevrolet is introducing something that should hopefully ensure this never happens!
The industry’s first predictive technology will enable your vehicle to warn you about a potential maintenance need before it occurs. This is similar to a Boeing 787’s technology which can send in-flight messages to ground crews alerting them to parts needing inspection before the plane arrives.
OnStar Proactive Alerts continually monitors the vehicle’s start motor, fuel pump and 12-volt battery. If something is detected, it will notify the driver to take their vehicle in for a service which Chev says reduces unexpected repairs.
Steve Holland, chief technologist for Vehicle Health Management at General Motors says, “With Proactive Alerts, we now can offer customers even greater peace-of-mind by taking the guesswork out of when to service their vehicle.”
Proactive Alerts collects a small batch of data each time the vehicle is started, and monitors it on an ongoing basis. Then, sophisticated systems analyze and refine billions of pieces of data, accumulated across the fleet of vehicles. If the data indicates a particular vehicle’s component is not performing as expected, the system will automatically send the driver a message through an in-vehicle notification, and either an email or text message based on customer preference.
“Accuracy is the key to our prediction algorithms,” Holland said. “We will be able to inform dealer service departments so they can spend less time testing for a condition we have already diagnosed. They can replace the necessary part quicker and minimize the amount of time a customer’s vehicle is at the dealership.”
This service is not available in South Africa at this time, but still worth noting don’t you think?