Press Releases
New Blitzsafe Website!
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. — We have finally redesigned our website! Check out the online store, dealer locator, helpful support section and more!
We plan on continuing to add helpul product information to this site and providing our customers with the best selection of OEM and aftermarket integration products. Keep checking back as we continue to add more and more features to the site. Any comments can be directed to blitzsafe@blitzsafe.com.
BlitzSafe Announces New Website Update for the Millenium!
BlitzSafe announces their new updated website with new features, including showcasing their entire product catalog, a dealer locator, an online help desk, professional advice and expert questions and answers to the most common questions, the BlitzSafe Application Guide, the ability to have dealers signup online for services and to be included in the dealer locator, and valuable news from BlitzSafe and throughout the OEM industry.
Blitzsafe witholds new GM kit
ENGLEWOOD, N.J. - BlitzSafe has decided not to ship a General Motors radio replacement interface product because of possible liability issues in the event of an airbag deployment. This interface allows the removal of the OEM GM radio to allow the installation of a aftermarket radio.
BlitzSafe’s interface, called the GM RRD, is a kit that allows users to remove a GM radio and replace it with an aftermarket product without losing some of the car functions, which are now tied into the GM radio. These functions include OnStar voice communications and chimes for door open, ignition key, safety belt fasten, etc.
BlitzSafe’s president Ira Marlowe said the company learned that if an airbag deployed and its GM RRD had a failure and OnStar did not work, then BlitzSafe could be liable. The critical issue is that OnStar automatically contacts the driver when an airbag is deployed and will dispatch an emergency vehicle.
“We don’t know if the radio is considered a piece of safety equipment, like an airbag. So now when we talk about integration there’s a big question,” Marlowes said. “Even if our device works the way it should but then there’s a failure and someone’s life is on the line and emergency service doesn’t get there, what do we do? We’re confirming [the liability issue] and if it’s true, it’s never going to see the market.”
BlitzSafe said it invested a year of R&D in the GM RRD, and it was expected to ship in November at $59.
Marlowe noted that the issue might have implications for the entire aftermarket. “Removing a radio in an environment when you have certain warnings and emergency service notification going through the radio, it becomes a tremendous liability. People are going to be reluctant to pull out their radios. And the aftermarket’s ability to do this, without what we [integrator companies] do, is then threatened.”
In the event of a liability case involving an aftermarket radio, “everyone would be brought in, including the supplier, distributor and the retailer who sold it,” he said.
