WARREN, Mich. — An unprecedented study, conducted as part of General Motors' "SenseAble driving" program (a $10 million, multi-year effort to address driver distraction), reveals that the embedded cellular phone used in GM's OnStar system has had an outstanding safety performance record since it was initiated five years ago.
The study is the world's first analysis of a database that has extensive and actual — not estimated — information about whether a crash occurred at the same time a cell phone was in use. This database, maintained by GM's OnStar subsidiary, consists of automated information with time stamps that show exactly when a cell phone voice call was initiated and when the OnStar advisor was in contact with a vehicle after an airbag deployment. In keeping with OnStar's privacy policy, no personally identifiable information was made available to researchers.
Previous studies that have attempted to associate cell phone use with crashes — including a much-publicized 1997 University of Toronto report — could use only small statistical samples and estimates of when calls were made in relation to a crash.
Using the actual OnStar data, the GM study concludes that an air bag deployment crash associated with the use of OnStar's embedded phone system was rare, and that the chance an embedded cell phone actually caused a crash was even more rare.