How do you say lost in Mandarin?
OnStar Shanghai said today that it passed two major milestones in May with its subscriber base across China reaching 450,000, and requests for Turn-by-Turn Navigation totaling 13.8 million since the launch of the telematics service in October 2009. OnStar has 6 million subscribers worldwide.
Shanghai OnStar received certification from China’s State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in 2011, becoming the first telematics joint venture allowed offering mapping service in China. OnStar provides map searches, location-based services, geographic mapping, and map download and delivery. To ensure the accuracy of navigation, OnStar maps are updated every three months.
It offers two unique options for navigation: ODD (OnStar Destination Download) and POI (Point of Interest). ODD sends navigation routes to vehicles and then guides drivers to their destination via in-vehicle navigation. POI offers information on more than 13 million points of interest, including gas stations, parking lots, restaurants, hospitals and banks, saving subscribers time and energy.
In 2011, Shanghai OnStar was the first telematics company in China to launch a mobile app that integrates Turn-by-Turn Navigation. It allows subscribers to search for destinations and even control vehicle systems remotely through a cell phone. Turn-by-Turn Navigation is automatically loaded when the vehicle’s engine is started.
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, publisher (kzhw@aol.com), is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
Zino is at home on test tracks, knows his way around U.S. Congressional hearing rooms, auto company headquarters, plant floors, as well as industry research and development labs where the real mobility work is done. He can quote from court decisions, refer to instrumented road tests, analyze financial results, and profile executive personalities and corporate cultures.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
