Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Toronto puts an end to GM OnStar's service.

BLD News - General Motors trial to increase its customer base by providing its OnStar service to cyclists has been brought to abrupt halt. The service providing live voice directions via a console mounted inside cars and in this trial, bicycle handlebars, to help customers find their destinations was plagued with problems.

During the first few weeks of the trial many cyclists living in hilly cities complained of being hung up on. While GM would not comment, an unnamed source reports that many OnStar agents confused cyclists huffing and puffing up hills as being involved in self gratification. This resulted in the agents promptly disconnecting the cyclists in accordance with company policy.

Though apparently Toronto proved to be the last straw for GM. Its agents were spending an inordinate amount of time trying to come up with cycling friendly routes. They had to issue at least 5 times as many instructions, compared to those issued to drivers on with the same destinations, during each call to relay information from Toronto's bike way network map. A GM executive was overheard saying, "...if drivers had to follow these routes they would never get anywhere. Let's bail now!"

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