In-Vehicle Concierge Proliferation Natural Phenomenon

The proliferation of concierge services in new vehicles does not mean today’s motorists are becoming control freaks. Motorists always have been control freaks, academics suggest.

The judgment comes as General Motors Co.’s OnStar subsidiary and Hyundai Motor America make separate announcements that promise an increasing share of the driving public will never be far from aid – or appetizers.

Hyundai introduces Blue Link, which offers services such as restaurant reviews and weather reports, along with automatic crash notification for emergency rescuers. Meanwhile, OnStar will make its services more widely available via specially equipped aftermarket rear-view mirrors.

The news is consistent with increasing market penetration. Since model-year ’04, in-vehicle concierge availability among cars built for the U.S. nearly has doubled to 13.7%, according to Ward’s data.

Marianne LaFrance, a Yale University psychology professor, surmises auto makers simply are exploiting an inherent human trait.

“Needing to control is a human tendency,” LaFrance tells Ward’s. “I would say control over some things makes good sense.”

Such as personal safety, she says, noting concierge-service marketers appear to have done their homework.

“When people worry – to be distinguished from ‘thinking about’ something – they get anxious,” LaFrance says. “And when they get anxious, it tends to feed on itself. And when it feeds on itself, it tends to make people feel more vulnerable.”

But concern about whether the valet is taking your car for a joy ride?

OnStar President Chris Preuss with aftermarket mirror.

Blue Link’s “valet alert” delivers a text or phone message when a subscriber’s vehicle is driven outside predetermined boundaries. Such a feature plays on the innate belief that each of us is “special,” LaFrance says.

“So special you probably need to know that, not only is your car safely parked, it will remain unharmed,” she says. “Wealth and power also tend to magnify the tendency to want things completely under one’s control.”

The proliferation of concierge services is neither a positive development, nor a negative one. It is what it is, says a Canadian communications professor.

“Whenever a new technology comes along, it draws out some kind of reaction or anxiety that (suggests) we’re giving away too much of our humanity,” says Michael Darroch, who teaches at the University of Windsor in Windsor, ON.

Advancements simply afford people the opportunity to “delegate” activities, he says. This is hardly the end of the world.

Darroch recalls dire predictions that digital watches would cause people to forget how to read analog watches. “A lot of people have analog watches,” he says. “People haven’t forgotten.”

Hyundai believes the time is right to offer its customers an alternative to OnStar, which has been, for most of its 15-year history, exclusive to GM vehicles.

Available first on the Sonata midsize sedan and the all-new Veloster 3-door coupe, Blue Link will be featured on all Hyundai vehicles in the future.

The auto maker does not discuss pricing, but says several packages will be offered. Available services will include vehicle diagnostics.

“Blue Link combines safety, service and infotainment into a complete package that works to both help simplify Hyundai owners’ lives and reduce distracted driving,” Barry Ratzlaff, HMA director-customer satisfaction and service business development, says in a statement.

Also available is a feature called “Eco Coach,” which monitors a motorist’s driving habits and provides information aimed at optimizing vehicle performance.

Hyundai dealers seem receptive. “I believe it will generate more business,” says Rick Ziegel, sales manager at Taylor Hyundai in Perrysburg, OH.

Some customers who were unaware of OnStar’s exclusive relationship with GM inquired about the service, Ziegel says.

“But I don’t think we lost any business,” he adds. “People don’t be car just because it has OnStar.”

Blue Link features expected to resonate with Hyundai buyers are those that provide “peace of mind,” such as stolen-vehicle recovery.

OnStar is expanding its horizons beyond GM despite a decree by former GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre. He ordered the feature be used to bring new customers into the GM fold.

But public pressure forced a compromise.

“For years, thousands of drivers have asked us to get OnStar in vehicles that didn’t feature it as standard (equipment),” OnStar President Chris Preuss says in a statement.

However, the move is promising from a financial perspective.

“It represents a quantum leap forward in our plans to grow our business and provide a strong new revenue base for GM and OnStar from which we can further develop our core offerings in the factory-equipped market,” Preuss says.

By late May or early June, non-GM customers will be able to subscribe to OnStar via an aftermarket rear-view mirror. Initially, they will be sold at Best Buy, with which the auto maker has forged a strategic partnership.

Cost of the unit is $299, plus installation, which could add up to $100. A range of service plans will start at $18.95 per month, or $199 per year.

Making OnStar more widely available worries some GM dealers who regard the feature as a competitive advantage.

“OnStar is huge,” says a Texas Chevrolet dealer who requests anonymity.

He says his customers benefit greatly from OnStar’s vehicle diagnostics and he expresses frustration over the decision to seek subscribers outside GM showrooms. “I don’t know how they could do that.”

But OnStar spokesman Vijay Iyer tells Ward’s key services such as vehicle diagnostics will remain exclusive to GM because the aftermarket product will not be integrated to the extent of OnStar’s factory-installed hardware.

And while the aftermarket mirror will transmit to emergency OnStar advisors such data as vehicle location and speed at the time of impact, that data will be less detailed than the information captured by OnStar’s “embedded” system, Iyer says.

Sensors connected to OnStar’s factory-installed system enables advisors to describe the nature and severity of crash events.

Further, the mirror will not accommodate future OnStar infotainment features developed specifically for GM vehicles, says Iyer, who is mum on details.

The choice of a rear-view mirror is a “great metaphor,” Darroch adds, saying noted Canadian media researcher Marshall McLuhan, once said “we can only relate new technology to our past.”

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