Verizon Brings 4G To GM OnStar Vehicles

Anticipating that demand, GM and Verizon Sunday at the Consumer Electronics Show introduced a Chevy Volt that's been dubbed a "second-generation connected research vehicle."

The car connects to OnStar's Advanced Telematics Operating System (ATOS) cloud server via Verizon's 4G LTE network, in essence giving passengers a built-in mobile hot spot.

The OnStar research vehicle is able to stream online and home content to individual users in segmented zones. For example, front- and rear-seat passengers can view different content: Video chat using Skype and gaming can co-exist.

Users that have smart homes -- with Web-controlled alarm and thermostat systems -- can connect to those systems as well.

As of Sunday, Relay Rides, a peer-to-peer car-sharing service that offers a mobile app to unlock OnStar-equipped vehicles, was the only developer to unveil an Onstar program. Previously, Relay Rides members had to install an add-on device that was accessed through a membership card.