GM / OnStar (Smart Driver)
General Motors / OnStar · Connected Car
Staff Reviewed — a person at DeSpy reviewed this rating.
Index
Collected precise geolocation every three seconds and driving behavior like hard braking and speeding, selling it to LexisNexis and Verisk until an FTC 20-year consent order and Texas AG suit ended the practice.
Why this rating
GM's OnStar Smart Driver sold precise geolocation logged every three seconds and detailed driving-behavior data to LexisNexis and Verisk, prompting a Texas AG lawsuit and a 20-year FTC consent order — among the most severe substantiated cases in this dataset, now discontinued.
What it is
- Microphone
- GPS / location
- Requires a cloud account
- Works offline
- Manufacturer
- General Motors / OnStar
- Category
- Connected Car
- Model years
- 2015-2024 (Smart Driver discontinued)
- Market status
- Discontinued
- Companion app
- myChevrolet / MyGMC / MyBuick / MyCadillac
The evidence 8
Independent research, regulatory action, lawsuits and journalism about how this device handles personal data — the "what actually happens" axis. Each links to its source.
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FTC issued a 20-year consent order barring GM/OnStar from selling precise geolocation and driving-behavior data to consumer reporting agencies without consent.
Why it matters here: FTC 20-year consent order directly targets GM/OnStar's Smart Driver location and driving-behavior data sales.
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Texas sued GM in August 2024 alleging it sold detailed driving-behavior data collected via OnStar to data brokers without adequate disclosure.
Why it matters here: Texas AG lawsuit specifically names GM's OnStar Smart Driver program.
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Filed petition detailing Texas's claims that GM collected and sold consumers' driving data without clear consent.
Why it matters here: Filed petition detailing the specific allegations against GM's data practices.
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CNN investigation into ongoing automaker driving-data sales to insurers even after high-profile settlements with GM and Honda.
Why it matters here: CNN follow-up confirms automaker driving-data sales continued in some form even after GM's settlement.
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Reporting on how GM drivers were enrolled in Smart Driver without clear consent, later seeing their insurance rates increase.
Why it matters here: NYT investigation describes how GM Smart Driver enrollees ended up with raised insurance rates.
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Texas AG opened a broad investigation into multiple automakers' data collection and resale practices.
Why it matters here: Texas AG's broader investigation into car-data practices that led to the GM suit.
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Coverage of the New York Times investigation into automakers selling driving-behavior data that fed into individual insurance rate increases.
Why it matters here: Coverage of NYT reporting on GM driving-data-to-insurance pipeline.
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LexisNexis announced a telematics data partnership with GM to power usage-based insurance scoring.
Why it matters here: Original LexisNexis-GM partnership announcement establishing the data pipeline later halted.
Where your data goes
Third parties this device's data has flowed to, and on what basis. An ended tag means the flow has verifiably stopped — it stays listed for the record.
- LexisNexis Risk Solutions ended
- Verisk Analytics ended
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Descriptive, cited, not legal advice; ratings are versioned and corrections create a new version. Data from the IoT Info Grabber DB research project, CC BY-SA 4.0.