GM Safety Tour Featuring Wireless Crash-Avoiding Automotive Technology Visits Houston June 28-29

New Technology Helps Drivers Watch Out For The Other Guy

HOUSTON – Cars that talk to each other and warn of potentially dangerous road conditions highlight the GM Continuous Safety Tour that visits Reliant Park on Thursday, June 28, and Friday, June 29.

From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon on Friday, GM will demonstrate Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) Communication in two-car scenarios that show how these vehicles can alert drivers and automatically brake during panic situations. The new automotive technology features the first wireless all-around, instantaneous driver advisory system and the first wireless automated collision-avoidance system that can help avoid crashes.

“Driving is a very complex task. Knowing where the other guy is and where he’s headed can be as critical as being in control of your own vehicle,” said Larry Burns, GM vice president, Research & Development and Strategic Planning. “V2V technology gives drivers a sixth sense to know what’s going on around them to help avoid crashes and improve traffic flow.”

Houston is the final stop on the six-city GM Continuous Safety Tour, which is also aimed at helping educate parents and caregivers about some of the non-traffic risks young children face in and around cars, specifically the danger of heat stroke when left unattended in a vehicle and of being backed over while playing near cars or trucks.

Tour displays also feature:

* StabiliTrak electronic stability control in a GMC Acadia, among GM’s newest and safest vehicles. The federal government is mandating electronic stability control, which GM calls StabiliTrak, on all new light vehicles by 2012. All GM retail cars and trucks sold in the U.S. will have this technology standard by the end of 2010, more than a year before the federal mandate.

* Crash-test dummies from as early as the mid-1940s, when the Air Force tested early models by tossing them out of airplanes, to today’s Hybrid III dummies with integrated data collection abilities.

* OnStar’s Advanced Automatic Crash Notification, which provides information that can help reduce the times needed to notify emergency rescue, for EMS to reach the crash site, and for the crash victim to reach the hospital.

“GM is implementing automotive technology that’s been proved to help save lives,” said Bob Lange, GM executive director of Structure and Safety Integration. “We are committed to making our vehicles and roads safer for all passengers.”

One especially timely exhibit will demonstrate how the temperature rises drastically inside a closed vehicle – as much as 19 degrees in just 10 minutes. At least 41 Texas children – the most of any state -- have died from hyperthermia after being left in hot cars since 1998.