When Hurricane Ida was about the hit the US, OnStar used storm data to identify the areas that could be impacted by the hurricane. Then, we identified 317,000 GM cars in the affected area, with and without active Onstar subscriptions, and activated all of them for free. Instantly, these vehicles became hubs of safety, providing communication with our specially-trained advisors, mobile service, and Wi-Fi, even before the hurricane landed.

We changed all of our paid social media from selling messages to helping messages, letting those in the affected area know they could use the service for free.

As soon as we had word of Hurricane Ida, we determined the scale of impact, the severity of the crisis, and what services we could offer.

On August 29th, we activated our Crisis Mode playbook. 317,000 OnStar-equipped vehicles in the affected area were identified, and activated ahead of the hurricane’s landfall. These vehicles provided a free source of mobile and Wi-fi service for the community, along with access to our live OnStar Advisors.

We activated our social channels to serve people in the New Orleans area affected by the storm. We used our long-standing partnership with the Red Cross and amplified emergency updates from the emergency sources and response locations, including from FEMA, the National Service and more. As the storm moved/changed, our source list was routinely updated in lockstep with the event.