GM's OnStar System Hacked

Makarand writes "According to this Mercury News article users of GM's OnStar system are finding that they can modify their OnStar unit to make it work with commercially available mapping software after disconnecting it from the OnStar network. Websites and message boards are rife with step-by-step instructions to personalize OnStar's navigational and communications components. When a driver requests directions from OnStar his GPS data is routed over an analog cellular network to OnStar computers and the directions are read back to the driver on the same network. The price for this service is around $400 each year. Those who tap into their OnStar systems pay no such fees."

I *like* OnStar

[valkraider]

I don't want OnStar for directions to restaurants or gas stations.

I like On-Star for being able to have police/rescue know exactly where I am if/when my Airbag deploys. I like On-Star for when my "check engine" light comes on, I press the button, they run a remote diagnostic on my engine's computer, and can tell me how serious the problem is and can call me a tow truck if needed. I like OnStar for being able to unlock my car when I lock my keys in the car (with an infant in the carseat). I like OnStar for being able to track, and stop my car if it is stolen.

That's worth the OnStar subscription... The other stuff is just gravy, which we never really used - so we cancelled....

Re:Call me silly...

[Nogami_Saeko]

Well, I suppose the hack is handy for those who don't want to purchase a GPS unit, but personally, I'd just buy an RS-232-only GPS receiver (can be around the size of a quarter) and hook it up rather than hacking my system apart and voiding the warantee.

N.

Re:Yes, but...

[Rahga]

Fortunately, if you can't reach the OnStar button once your arm's been sliced off, they will call you if a collision has been detected.

It's not just directions...

[thparker]

I'm all for hacking OnStar to see what happens. But to tout this as a brilliant move because it saves you a few hundred bucks a year is ridiculous.

For $420 a year, you're also getting a call to emergency vehicles instantly when your air bag [onstar.com] deploys, a Lojack [lojack.com]-like tracking system [onstar.com], remote door unlocking [onstar.com] when you lock your keys in the car, and more [onstar.com]. That seems like a pretty good deal.

It seems to me that if you've bought OnStar with your car, it's not for driving directions. Or at least, not just for driving directions.

Re:Call me silly...

[Dun Malg]

ONSTAR(tm) system onboard... is there something special about it's gps reciever that would make it worthy to find one at a junk yard and purchace one?

Not really. The Motorola Oncore GPS unit has slightly more informative proprietary software [motorola.com] to talk to than your average NMEA serial GPS unit, but it's no better than a decent stand alone Garmin GPS unit.

This is foolish.

[TheSHAD0W]

I'd have to opine that this is an extremely foolish thing to do, tear apart one's OnStar module simply to access its GPS unit. A PC-interfaceable GPS costs well under $100, and doing these modifications to your OnStar system may void your vehicle's warranty or reduce its resale value enormously.

Just disconnect the power on the damned thing and get a separate GPS for your onboard PC.

Re:Cool and all, but

[AKnightCowboy]

Err , given that you have to phone up onstar to find your location , hence use a phone anyway , what exactly is the issue here? YOu stop the car to read your had held GPS and pay nothing , or you stop the car to phone onstar and pay $$$$$$.

Have you ever used Onstar before? At least with my Grand Prix you just push the blue button, it cuts out the radio and you have hands-free communication with the person. It's kind of neat, but I've never used it so I didn't renew it when my free 1 year was up. The only advantage I saw was that if you're in an accident and the airbags deploy they'll call you to make sure emergency services gets to you. I didn't think it was worth $17 for this safety package though since I have a cell phone already. I never used it for directions since I'm a man... we never ask for directions!!! Now, if I could use my otherwise useless onstar system built into my car with a laptop then I find it interesting.

Re:I *like* OnStar

[bear_phillips]

Do you really think thieves are that stupid to not disable the system?

Yes. They are that stupid. [newsnet5.com]

Re:Cool and all, but

[diverman]

Hmmm... Once I have the destination plugged in (which I do before I get in the car), my hand-held (which isn't in my hand at the time), tells me when to turn and gives me warnings as I approach an intersection or offramp.

Many hand-held GPS mapping systems I've used have the ability to tell you direction.

I'm not knocking OnStar, but portable devices can accomplish many of the same features for a flat cost, not a subscription fee.

-Alex

Re:Not quite as spectacular as advertised

[Tim Doran]

This could be FUD on the part of GM. I remember a few years ago, Mazda Canada tried to claim that your warrently would be void if your car was serviced by anyone other than a Mazda dealer. Needless to say, they lost the court challenge.

Two ways of looking at it...

[Phoenix]

Two ways of looking at it.

Either:
$400/year for EMS contacting, vehicle location, vehicle unlocking, directions, mapping, list of local services. This is far more than what the crippled Onstar would be able to do and in my opinion well worth the investment

Or:
Delorme Mapping software - $40
Delorme Earthmate GPS - $90
Laptop Computer - $1100

This is capable of:
Mapping, GPS Location, local service look-up (gas stations, hotels, businesses, eateries, etc.) play DVD's, play MP3's, let your driving companion play Q3A. Again well worth the investment.

However since many of us geeks out there already have laptops and since it would seem that you need on to do the OnStar hacks, the $130 for a Delorme GPS rig seems to be the cheaper and FAR simpler solution.

But that's just my humble opinion

Re:Not quite as spectacular as advertised

[Otto]

This is definitely FUD on the part of GM. The Magnusson-Moss Act of 1975 specifically addresses this. Mainly, while modifying your OnStar system may void the warrenty on the OnStar box, they need to be able to *prove* that your modification was the actual cause of whatever is wrong with the car before they can claim that it's not covered under the warrenty.

Re:I *like* OnStar

[WeirdKid]

Wrong. Completely wrong. The airbag notification is an outbound (from the vehicle) call. OnStar does not track your vehicle unless you ask -- and that's only if your car is stolen. Keeping a live connection with the car is incredibly expensive. I mean, think about it, it's a cellular call on a private network. Then, if you really knew anything at all about how OnStar works you'd know that the maximum data transfer rates and storage capacities make even periodic upload of historical positions virtually impossible and prohibitively expensive. That's about all I can say, so just get over your paranoid selves already!

Re:Not quite as spectacular as advertised

[wwwillem]

Anyway, this guys mod is pretty basic and doesn't involve tinkering with the "brain" of the OnStar box in any way. All he did was to solder a serial connection onto the GPS board and then disconnect that board from the OnStar system.

I couldn't figure out from his description whether he did, but it should be possible to tap onto the serial signal and still keep the OnStar connected and functioning. I don't know if that Motorola protocol is a two-directional protocol, but normally with GPS protocols (like with NMEA) the unit just sends it's data over the wires, not listening to any input.

If you take a NMEA GPS unit and you just connect the TxD (from the GPS' point of view) and the GND wires you can read the lat/long with your laptop. Because you don't send any info to the GPS, that TxD signal can go to many listeners. Been there, done that!!

So, in case of the 5V logic of the Motorola OnCore, you maybe have to add one or two diode's, but it should probably be possible to tap off the GPS signal, leaving the OnStar system functioning as it was before.

OEM units

[hey!]

I agree. It seems like the point of this "hack" is to get access to the GPS unit. Seems like a bad idea to mess with an expensive unit and possibly void your warranty, especially when you're just getting access to a $20 OEM GPS unit.

I'd say the main thing about doing this is that they've already mounted the GPS antenna and routed the cable. This is going to be cleaner looking and probably get better signal than slapping a GPS on the dashboard. It'd be nice to make a little box that sat under your dashboard, or maybe in your glove box, that you could just plug your laptop into.

I've had a little experience with the OEM GPS units in embedded systems. They send the standard NMEA strings so any GPS program can use them. The main issue is that they output TTL level (0,5V) rather than RS-232 (-12/+12). Your laptop probably won't care but some PDAs won't be able to read the data. I'd just mount the thing on a little breadboard,wire up th e power leads, run the two I/O wires to an DB-9 shell and the antenna input to the appropriate connector. Then unplug the GPS antenna from the onstar unit and plug it the antenna jack. The advantage of this is that there are no warranty issues; just plug the antenna lead back into the onstar unit when you take it in for service and nobody's the wiser.

You can get completely assembled, self contained, true RS-232 units for about $120. For less than $200 more, you can have differential GPS with 3m accuracy.

Another option I've messed with are little bluetooth enabled GPS receivers. These would be very clean and unobtrusive on a dashboard.