Skip to main content

OnStar launches traffic avoidance service in China

In a bid to help its 500,000 subscribers avoid traffic, Shanghai OnStar, the Chinese joint venture between General Motors, SAIC, and Shanghai GM, has announced the launch of a new feature. Aptly named Avoid Traffic, the service is an improvement to turn-by-turn navigation that utilises real-time traffic information to route users around traffic congestion via OnStar’s familiar turn-by-turn voice commands.
November 16, 2012 Read time: 1 min
In a bid to help its 500,000 subscribers avoid traffic, 6889 Shanghai OnStar, the Chinese joint venture between 948 General Motors, 6890 SAIC, and Shanghai 1959 GM, has announced the launch of a new feature.

Aptly named Avoid Traffic, the service is an improvement to turn-by-turn navigation that utilises real-time traffic information to route users around traffic congestion via OnStar’s familiar turn-by-turn voice commands.

Using Avoid Traffic is similar to having an on-board traffic assistant: users simply send OnStar a destination and the service determines the best route based on current traffic conditions. Users can also call in to live OnStar advisors who can optimise a route for optimal traffic conditions. Unlike other, more traditional navigation systems offered by competitors, the maps included in OnStar will be updated every three months for the most up-to-date road information.

Avoid Traffic is currently only available Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen; it will become available in other cities across China in the coming months.

Related Content

  • Motown morphs into Mobility City
    August 7, 2018
    Detroit was once a byword for urban decay – but ITS America recently held its annual meeting there. This gave David Arminas a chance to assess how fast Motor City is moving down the road to recovery. Motor City, as Detroit is still called, was on its financial knees only five short years ago. The future looked bleak as the city and greater urban area bled jobs and population. It was on 18 July 2013 that Motown, as Detroit is also known, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the
  • The bus future is electric, says UITP
    January 11, 2017
    More and more cities in Europe and around the world are turning to electric buses (or e-buses) in an effort to go green according to UITP’s new ZeEUS eBus Report. The report, published as part of the Zero Emission Urban Bus System project, reveals that 19 public transport operators and authorities, covering around 25 European cities, have a published e-bus strategy for 2020. By this date, there should be more than 2,500 electric buses operating in these cities, representing six per cent of their total fl
  • App improves EU’s Galileo Green Lanes
    May 12, 2020
    More transparency ahead for better management of European Union border points
  • Russia ramps-up technologies for transport communications
    March 28, 2018
    Covering an area almost as big as the US and Canada combined, Russia is planning to increase transport-related communications to improve road safety and traffic efficiency. Eugene Gerden reports. Russia’s government plans to increase road safety through the use of modern transport communication and the development of the relevant legislative base. Initially, particular attention will be on the introduction of connected cars and Vehicle to Anything (V2X) technologies. Russia has fewer than 60,000