Your Chevrolet will predict problems before they happen and remind you to take it in for service. The new service called, OnStar Proactive Alerts that offers predictive alerts for vehicle health. GM claims it is the first of its kind service. The service is free for the first 5 years of ownership.
After enrolling in the service, OnStar Proactive Alerts monitors the health of the vehicle’s starter motor, fuel pump and 12-volt battery. If anomalies are detected, OnStar will notify drivers to take their vehicle in for service, reducing unexpected repairs.
The service, is available now for OnStar subscribers who own a 2016 Chevy Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Corvette and Equinox.
Chevrolet contends that Proactive Alerts, offers customers greater peace-of-mind by taking the guesswork out of when to service their vehicle.
Proactive Alerts collects 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.
Beside informing the driver of the problem, the dealer service departments will also be informed of what needs to be fixed. When the customer takes the vehicle in for service the repair technician will not have to spend time diagnosing the problem and replace the part faster.
Proactive Alerts is offered with all OnStar service plans on eligible models, including the OnStar Basic Plan that comes standard for five years on new Chevrolet vehicles. In the future, plans are in place for Proactive Alerts to monitor additional vehicle components and expand to other Chevrolet models.
For example, Proactive Alerts can monitor the health of the 12-volt battery. The system is intelligent enough to distinguish between a low state of charge – which can be solved by going for a short drive – and high electrical resistance that could indicate the battery needs replacement.
A few car companies are doing limited in-vehicle diagnostics, but none have yet demonstrated the capability of this service.
Chevy plans to increase features monitored models in the future.