AT&T says that it will bring 5G connectivity to millions of General Motors’ vehicles starting in the 2024 model year, according to an update of a partnership between the two companies.
In addition to providing 5G connectivity to new vehicles, US-owned Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles from the 2019 model year onward with 4G LTE will be switched to 5G as it becomes available.
A stated goal of the collaboration is to launch the world’s largest fleet of 5G-enabled vehicles. GM began offering connected cars via LTE in 2014. AT&T and GM have been collaborating for two years, including test driving connected cars on proving grounds in Milford, MI.
AT&T says that 5G will provide four tangible benefits:
- Improved roadway-centric coverage
- faster and higher quality music and video downloads
- faster, more reliable and secure over-the-air software updates
- faster navigation mapping, and voice services.
GM offers OnStar and Connected Services to more than 16 million customers in North America. So far, GM vehicles have used more than 171 million gigabytes of data. AT&T is working with Microsoft’s cloud services to support the automaker.
“By connecting millions of GM vehicles to our nationwide 5G network, we will improve the customer experience for existing services while laying the groundwork for the next wave of innovation including autonomous driving,” Gregory Wieboldt, AT&T’s Senior Vice President, Global Business, Industry Solutions, said in a press release. “We now connect more vehicles than any other carrier and GM has played a critical role in our success. We’re honored to work alongside GM to usher the next chapter of connected driving.”
GM is not the only automaker with which AT&T is working for connected cars. In May, the carrier and the American Honda Motor Company extended the content and model compatibility of their WarnerRIDE app. The entertainment app uses unlimited in-car Wi-Fi provided by AT&T.
The partnership, which began in 2017, was extended to allow access to more than 1,000 hours of live and on-demand entertainment including the Cartoon Network, CNN, HBO Max, TBS, TNT and TruTV. Features including multiple profiles and the ability of adults to restrict access via an access code were added.
