RemoteLink to Be Added Free of Charge to GM Vehicles for First Five Years Starting in 2014

General Motors was an early adopter of remote auto technology with the introduction of the OnStar system in 1995. Since then, OnStar has saved lives, helped apprehend car thieves and bailed out countless owners who had locked themselves out of their cars.

The innovation continued three years ago with the introduction of the auto industry’s first mobile app.

Enter RemoteLink.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, the RemoteLink app allows owners to use their Android, Apple or Blackberry mobile device to connect with their car through the OnStar system. Since its introduction in 2010, RemoteLink has been downloaded over 1.5 million times and is used regularly by 320,000 people. The only drawback with RemoteLink is that a subscription to OnStar is required, and subscriptions start at $199 per year.

A new announcement by GM has changed all of that. Starting in 2014, RemoteLink will be available on all OnStar equipped Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC vehicles free of charge for five years. This is the widest availability of remote controlled services by a mobile app in the industry, and continues General Motors role as a leader in this area. To install the app, an owner simply downloads it onto their phone for free and agrees to the terms of service. The five years that the service is free run from the delivery date of the vehicle, not the date that the app is downloaded.

GM expects the app to be a big hit with drivers who are getting more and more used to the benefits offered by technology, especially mobile technology. Mary Chan, President of GM Global Connected Consumer, said that mobile devices were becoming a “bigger part of our lives” and that customers expect a “connection to their vehicle” which should be available “anywhere”.

The RemoteLink features that will be available at no cost for five years are the key fob options of remote lock, remote unlock and remote start. Other features such as the monitoring of fuel level, oil life and tire pressures will still only be available in the paid version of the service. However, it’s the free services that customers use the most. Remote start is the most popular feature, and remote unlock is used over 60,000 times each month.

The main benefit of a remote control system built around OnStar is far greater range. A traditional system is limited by the range of the remote control that the driver carries on their keychain, but OnStar is satellite based and has no restrictions. A driver could theoretically check that their car was locked from the other side of the world. Similarly, using the remote start feature to warm up a car on a frigid day could be done from a comfortable distance.