Rugged individualism is beeing watched by some asshat. And said asshat is a tatletail. FU OnStar, FU!

Farmer's blood-alcohol content exceeded .30 the legal level for drunken driving in Michigan is .08, Putnam said.


Yeah! That evil onstar!

It could have been a kidnapping or somebody having a heart attack. How dare OnStar tread on the rugged individualism of someone possibly unable to speak and stabbing their car's emergency response button in hopes of getting help!

It could have been terrorists or communists or nazis or chinamen or satan himself! We are scared and we need to be protected by big brother. We dont want to be free, we want to be protected by you big brother, you will protect us, only you can protect us, we trust you, you are the holder of the truth.

Pathetic

We are scared and we need to be protected by big brother.

It's not "big brother" when you pay to have the farking service and you hit the EMERGENCY button SEVERAL times!

Jesus Christ...

log_jammin:

Exactly. It's a pay service. If you don't like it, don't pay for it. Otherwise don't get drunk, drive, and hit the farking button repeatedly.

OnStar, IMO, has absolutely no culpability here, and no evil either. This is entirely the driver's fault and he deserves everything he gets, and more.

Of course, some people want the freedom to drive drunk without interference. Hang 'em.

onstar is retarded anyway

FARKED at 581 hits.

"Rugged individualism" is highly overrated anyway.

Oh this guy is so busted, 3rd offense in MI is a felony.

rugged individualism

Is that the PC term for alcoholism nowadays?

DNRTFA (Link is Farked), but if the farmer's BAC was .30, he was getting mighty close to dying from alcohol poisoning.

Anne Mittelstaedt, a spokeswoman for OnStar in Detroit, said that the advisor followed protocol when she alerted Isabella County Central Dispatch after the emergency button on the Escalade's rear-view mirror had been hit repeatedly. When the advisor could not get either Grant or Farmer to talk, she notified dispatchers, Mittelstaedt said. While at times people accidentally push OnStar buttons, most people who hit the emergency button do so because they are in need of emergency medical or other help, Mittelstaedt said.

'Nuff said.

Man, this `individual' got `rugged' last night. Onstar, can you beam a bloody mary onto my dashboard? Thanks.

Why Wouldn't I Want OnStar?

You very well may want to use OnStar in your vehicle. It is great if you frequently lock yourself out of your own car. It is also useful for recovering your vehicle if it is stolen, but then again so is LoJack. Common sense (like taking the detachable faceplate of your several thousand dollar stereo system with you) and careful parking (such as not parking in bad areas that are poorly lit) are also a great theft prevention tools.

But OnStar is also one of the best tools available that the government and big business could use to invade your privacy.

http://www.onstarprivacy.com/

Doesn't this moran watch the Sopranos? First thing Tony did was take out the OnStar and GPS out of that hunk of shiat.

On Star will be in every vehicle my kids drive. For myself, I take the Tony Soprano view.

I have a friend who used to work for OnStar in NC. He's got some great stories about tards pressing the button. He said there were also a few times when people would be doing it, and 'accidentally' hit the button. If it was accidentally pressed, that might throw me off my game to suddenly have some guy saying 'Onstar emergency, what's the nature of your emergency?'. Of course, I'm sure there were people who did it intentionally.

OnStar leads police to drunken drivers
By SUSAN FIELD
Clare Managing Editor


They found the "on button, but they couldn't turn it off, and it landed them in jail.
Advertisement


Brent Patrick Farmer, 25, of St. Charles, wound up in the Isabella County Jail after following his arrest for third-offense drunken driving early Thursday morning after an OnStar advisor led police to the Cadillac Escalade he was driving on U.S. 127.

His passenger, 35-year-old Denis Gavin Grant, of St. Charles, the owner of the Escalade, was arrested for allowing his friend to drive drunk and for having open alcohol in the sports utility vehicle, state police Sgt. Del Putnam said.

Farmer and Grant were in the Isabella County Jail late Thursday afternoon but had not been arraigned on the charges because they were still drunk as of 2:30 p.m., according to jail officials.

Farmer was being held on a $70,000 bond and Grant on a $6,000 bond, according to court records.

An OnStar advisor called Isabella County Central Dispatch at 4:15 a.m. Thursday in an effort to assist the men, who repeatedly hit the Escalade's OnStar button panel but would not talk to the advisor, Putnam said.

Fearing for Farmer's and Grant's safety, the OnStar advisor contacted emergency dispatchers, telling them the Escalade was traveling north on the highway near the Gratiot-Isabella County line, Putnam said. Because OnStar-equipped vehicles have global positioning systems, the advisor was able to pinpoint where the Escalade was, giving dispatchers the information they needed to direct state Trooper Scott Taylor to the vehicle, Putnam said. Taylor caught up with the red sports utility vehicle near the Summerton Road overpass, stopped the vehicle and arrested Farmer for drunken driving, driving with a revoked or denied license, having open alcohol and for resisting and obstructing police, Putnam said. Grant told Taylor that he was too drunk to drive, instead letting Farmer get behind the wheel, Putnam said. Farmer's blood-alcohol content exceeded .30 the legal level for drunken driving in Michigan is .08, Putnam said. The "dazed and confused Farmer told Taylor that he and Grant were "just messing around with the OnStar button, Putnam said. "Sometimes, you get help that you didn't expect, Putnam said. Anne Mittelstaedt, a spokeswoman for OnStar in Detroit, said that the advisor followed protocol when she alerted Isabella County Central Dispatch after the emergency button on the Escalade's rear-view mirror had been hit repeatedly. When the advisor could not get either Grant or Farmer to talk, she notified dispatchers, Mittelstaedt said. While at times people accidentally push OnStar buttons, most people who hit the emergency button do so because they are in need of emergency medical or other help, Mittelstaedt said.

Hammering 911 on the phone while drunk will get the police at your door as well.

OMG POLICE STATE !!!

The FBI loves OnStar. They can turn it on and listen to what's being said in the car anytime they want to, and the light doesn't come on.

DNRTFA (still farked)

*anything* that gets a drunk driver off the road gets greenlit by me. A royal asshat drunk driver killed a town cop on duty in my small town last month, that sucked.

jasonl6010

RTFA, he was hitting the EMERGENCY BUTTON, and not replying. What would you think if you were at OnStar "Well I guess he is drunk, no need to be an evil big brother snitch and report this" or "Gee, there might be something wrong here, the emergency button is being pressed and I am getting no reply, I had better contact the police"
They do the same in 911 calls, if they get a call and no one replies and talks to them they IMMEDIATY send the police.

Tatletail? What are you 7? Does Daddy know you are on his computer?

if the farmer's BAC was .30, he was getting mighty close to dying from alcohol poisoning.

Did you believe everything else they told you in Driver's Ed?

I don't care how it was done. Getting a drunk driver off the road is good by any means necessary. They weren't looking for the drivers, the drivers brought it on themselves.

planes: The FBI loves OnStar. They can turn it on and listen to what's being said in the car anytime they want to, and the light doesn't come on.
Seriously, can you give us proof? Name a source? Or is this tinfoil hat rambling?

>> Still drunk at 2:30pm.

Holy shiat.

Reading the article, the vision I get is something you'd see in most rap videos... a couple homies chugging down some brews, jumping in the Escalade, and hitting the road, but in this case, minus the scantily clad honeys in the back.

I agree with what OnStar did -- I think they acted completely appropriately. It's the same as calling 911 and hanging up. What would you expect them to do? If you accidentally call 911, you simply say "oops, I misdialed, I have no emergency" and it's no problem. They hang up, you hang up, move on. But not saying anything, in that case, they will assume the worst and try to do what they can to assist you.

I agree that having GPS locators with "On" buttons that we only think turns them on only at that instant... scares me a little. Whos to know if it's really only on when you turn it on?

Who gives a rats ass? Just keep these stories coming so I can feel that much better about myself! Clickity Clack biatches

Officer, why did you pull us over? Was I speeding? Tail light out?

Nope. A woman from some private company told me to.

Oh... why?

Because you wouldn't talk to her.

... I'm going to be on my way now, officer. Don't pull this kind of shiat without a reason again.

It's quite obviously onstar's fault for not making the button far harder to press.

Onstar probally did this guy a favor by gettig him arrested before he caused an accident

was arrested for allowing his friend to drive drunk

What kind of B.S. charge is that? If my Irish friend is at .15 and I think he's stone-sober and let him drive my car, I go to jail?

I must have left my government-issued BAC meter at home.

Clold

I get the impression that the police only needed Onstar to tell them in general where the vehicle was- had they been in the area anyway they likely would have gotten busted without the Onstar call.

I don't want Onstar or a way to track my car via GPS either- but in this case I don't see anything inappropriate. The drunken idiots pushed the button and wouldn't respond, and Onstar did what these same idiots pay them to do in just that case- send help. Though in this case the help ended up being for the others on the road with them and not said idiots.

RTFA, jasonl6010. They pressed the button several times. Operator couldn't get a response from them. Because it could have been someone needing emergency medical help, the operator notified dispatch.

Officer, why did you pull us over? Was I speeding? Tail light out?

Nope. A woman from some private company told me to.

Oh... why?

Because you wouldn't talk to her.

More like "Because you repeatedly pushed your emergency button and didn't respond to the operator. It's standard practice to make sure you're okay if that happens. Of course, now I see why you didn't respond, you're drunk. Please step out of the car."


Onstar did nothing wrong here. If I pay for an emergency service and press my emergency button over and over, I would hope they would think it was an emergency and not ignore me.

/press my emergency button - sounds kinky

Brent Patrick Farmer, 25, of St. Charles, wound up in the Isabella County Jail after following his arrest for third-offense drunken driving early Thursday morning after an OnStar advisor led police to the Cadillac Escalade he was driving on U.S. 127.

Worthless asshats like this shouldn't be allowed to drive anyway. Bravo, Onstar, job well done.

Clold: Because you wouldn't talk to her.

No, because you signaled for emergency help and would not respond, thus you could have seriously needed help.

Everyone needs to chill with the scare tactics. OMG big brother!!!1!1one! Invasion of Privacy!!!1!!

We can't have civilians calling the cops on other citizens without ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. OnStar isn't 911. It's a private company and, regardless of if their actions "confused" the operator, she had no business directing the police to them.

When I purchsed my new car with OnStar in it I was told by the onstar person that if I pressed the emergency button and did not respond to the person they would send the police to the car. AS far as the FBI listing in on my converstation why do I care I am not doing anything illegal and why would they want to they have better things to do then listen to my radio with me

We can't have civilians calling the cops on other citizens without ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. OnStar isn't 911. It's a private company and, regardless of if their actions "confused" the operator, she had no business directing the police to them.

That's a tough call for OnStar, though. If there was a real emergency, they could be held criminally negligent if they didn't alert the police.

I agree with Iblis824,

I work for OnStar.

So I am really getting a kick out of most of these replies.

Some of you guys are very good at making it sound like you know what you are talking about.

But trust me.... You don't.

I think you just want to make yourself sound smart, when in reality you dont know what you are talking about.

This is how bad info gets passed around.

If you dont know about the topic....Dont make yourself sound like you do.

Cuz some farkers beleive anything they hear.

The emergency button on OnStar is there to make it easy to call 911 what if someone was hurt can couldn't talk in the car and OnStar didn't send someone to the car I can see the lawsuit now

We can't have civilians calling the cops on other citizens without ANY REASON WHATSOEVER. OnStar isn't 911. It's a private company and, regardless of if their actions "confused" the operator, she had no business directing the police to them.

Bull. That's her job. To inform the authorities if there is an emergency. That is what this drunken asshat paid her to do. If he didn't want a private company keeping an eye on him - he shouldn't have BOUGHT the service. She had every right to direct the police to them.

If the guy had a heart attack, couldn't respond, and this operator didn't bother to inform the authorities that something was wrong, I'm sure you'd be screaming for her head for not doing her job.

CloldOnStar isn't 911.

No, but people pay for OnStar to act like 911. You press the emergency call button, they send help. Whats so hard to understand about that?

Solution... Request the dealership remove on-star before you buy the vehicle... I've played with the onstar units and removing them does not disable the vehicle.

I was the IT Manager for the office that designed the OnStar logo.

(rip CKS! fark March1st!!!!)

Hero was completely appropriate. He paid for the service, he farked with it, he went to jail. Big brother didn't press the button. Big brother didn't drink and drive. There's nothing "nanny state" about drinking and driving laws. Making sure asshats like that don't drive Escalades through the side of my Tercel is EXACTLY what I want to be paying the cops to do.

Of course, why anybody would want OnStar in the first place is beyond me (why anybody would by a GM with or without it is also beyond me, but we'll skip that for now). So let's see, it's kind of like 911 and CAA (AAA for you yanks)? Is it more expensive than AAA? But it's like AAA with a GPS.

No thanks, I've got a cell phone, I've got CAA, I'm good. Didn't need to buy a POS GM to accomplish that. Maybe I'll buy a GPS some day, but even if I do, I highly doubt I'll ever be so lost as not to be able to give a city name in case of an emergency. A GPS would more likely to be for finding pain in the ass adressess.

Somebody who has it should call them up pretending to be drunk, let them tattle and then sue the piss out of them.

Except these two didn't respond at all. There was no "sounds drunk". Why are you opposed to keeping drunk drivers off the street?

She had reason Clold, not responding to an emergency call was it. There can be many emergencies where you are unable to talk, so you can get help by pushing the EMERGENCY button, that is what it is made for. It is standard OnStar policy and the buyers are aware of that.

Deadend I highly doubt I'll ever be so lost as not to be able to give a city name in case of an emergency.

Just giving the city name is probably not enough you need an exact location and the can be hard if you are not near your home