That OnStar Voice May Be Closer Than You Think

Tomorrow:

52°

42°

City:

55°

47°

Traffic Map

By Geoff Norcross | July 2, 2009 5:30 a.m. | Updated: June 16, 2010 11:58 p.m. | Portland, OR

Please install Flash to hear the audio. Url:

Mary MacDonald-Lewis

One technology that Americans of driving age know very well is this one:

Mary: “OnStar ready”

Geoff: “Dial”

Mary: “Phone number to dial please.”

Those buttons and that voice are familiar to over 5.5 million OnStar subscribers.

OnStar is the communications and roadside assistance program owned by General Motors.

GM is reorganizing, and plans to drop Pontiac, and sell Saturn, Hummer and Saab.

But OnStar has been profitable for five years now, and a company spokeswoman says GM has taken the necessary steps to maintain the service.

That’s good news for Mary McDonald-Lewis.

She’s the voice of OnStar. She lives in Portland, and she’s with me now.

Oregon Public Broadcasting