FMR Corp.'s Fidelity Investments wants to take stock trading on the road, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The Boston firm plans to do that through an alliance with OnStar, a unit of General Motors Corporation (GM) that provides automobile safety, security and information services. Fidelity and OnStar will offer a wireless in-car service that lets OnStar subscribers access stock market information while driving a vehicle, the two companies announced Feb. 13. At first, the service will offer in-vehicle access to stock quotes, stock watch lists and other information to all subscribers of OnStar's Virtual Advisor service. But later this year, the service will allow OnStar clients who are also Fidelity customers to buy and sell stocks from their cars, as well as check account balances and holdings, said Robert Reynolds, Fidelity's vice chairman and chief operating officer, in a conference call on Feb. 13. Investors also will be able to open a Fidelity account through OnStar. OnStar and Fidelity did not provide financial details on the alliance. OnStar's Virtual Advisor car service is now available in the northeastern part of the U.S. and will be rolled out nationwide in the spring. Aside from the Fidelity service, Virtual Advisor will allow subscribers to use e-mail and receive news, sports reports and weather updates. OnStar President Chet Huber said Virtual Advisor is a voice-activated service that allows drivers "to keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel." To ensure safety, the OnStar communications service uses software which reads information aloud to the driver. Fidelity's alliance with OnStar is part of a continuing trend among brokerage firms, which have been ramping up their wireless investing services through devices such as cellular telephones and pagers, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The service will be a free addition to OnStar's Virtual Advisor service, currently being rolled out in the U.S., beginning in the Northeast. However, users will have to pay for cell phone service provided by OnStar starting at 18 cents per minute. OnStar buys bundled cell phone time from Verizon Communications and resells it to its customers at a marked-up price, according to Reuters. Driving the service is the increasing time Americans spend behind the wheel, and their shift to conducting financial transactions through the Internet or over the telephone. Americans spend an average of 90 minutes a day in their cars, and Fidelity customers conduct 85 percent of their transactiosn through wireless communications or over the Web, the companies said. "What we're trying to do is just reach out and provide people with the method they want to deal with us," Reynold said in the conference call. OnStar, offered as standard equipment or part of an optional package on 32 of 54 new GM models, currently has 800,000 subscribers.