> Industrial News > News   Automaker-Initiated TSP first Appears in China; Onstar Enters Chinese Market   General Motors, Saic Motor, and Shanghai GM announced yesterday to jointly establish Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co., the eighth joint venture between GM and Saic Motor and the first Onstar service provider beyond the North America market. With the total investment of US $46 million from the three parties, the new company will provide extensive car safety information services, including automatic collision alarms, road assistance, remote unlocking, hand-free phone service, remote vehicle diagnosis, and direction-by-direction road navigation. These services will be initially used in 2009 on main car models under Shanghai GM. Comment: Year 2007 is doomed to become a landmark of the Chinese telematics industry. After many years’ trying efforts and market researches, automakers take actions at last. After Toyota announced to put its GBOOK into the Chinese market last month, GM also announces to make its OnStar appeared in China, which will greatly change the industrial pattern. Anyhow, the biggest challenge facing automakers, operators, and telematics service providers (TSP) is to put forward telematics services suitable for China. Some telematics service may involve sensitive fields of China government, and how international giants deal with this matter will be commonly concerned. In the panel discussion in the track “Telematics” on Dec 7, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Satcom, Saic Motor, Continental AG, WirelessCar, and ATX Group will share a discussion and their respective insights.   Time:2007-12-18 Source:NaviForum Shanghai News Center Relative