GPS navigation celebrity voices: You talkin' to me?

Everywhere you turn, someone is telling you where to go--your boss, your mother, spouse, or kids. And these days, an increasing number of drivers are being told where to go by their portable GPS navigation system. As the novelty of the from-the-factory generic voice wears thin, the electronic navigator can be upgraded to a voice with a bit more personality, like John Cleese's, for example.

TomTom offers a variety of choices for their portable navigation systems. Downloads of various men and women of different nationalities and personalities are available, and you can listen to a sample before you decide. (Choices depend on your country of origin.)

Downloadable options include a grandmotherly-sounding voice, or one billed as "The Don." As in, according to the Web site: "He's about to make you an offer you can't refuse and take you for a ride." All righty, then. Either The Don or Granny can be yours for $5.95, as can a voice described as being that of a New York cabbie. Frankly, I'm not too sure about that one. I was born in New York, and that guy sounds about as much like a New York cabbie to me as does Sharon Den Adel, the soprano siren behind heavy-metal Dutch export Within Temptation. But TomTom is based in the Netherlands, so I'll cut them some slack.

The real fun begins with celebrity voices for TomTom units. How'd you like to take marching orders from Mr. T? For a fee, fool, he'll tell you where to go. And so will the ever-charismatic Gary Busey, trippy Dennis Hopper, and the original Bandit, Burt Reynolds. For inexplicable reasons, baseball star pitcher Curt Schilling, better known for his World Series wins than his speaking voice (not that there's anything wrong with it) can also get you home. Navtones offers all these gentlemen and others as "premium voices" for $12.95 each. For Halloween, they've also added lower-priced, ghoulish choices recorded by a few not-quite-believable voice actors. (While we have listened to samples, we have not installed and tested downloaded voices.)

Customizing your portable navigation system
All this got us thinking, the possibilities are endless. Wouldn't it be fun to be able to choose from a wide array of voices, or even record your own? Why not have the reassuring voice of Walter Cronkite to guide you home? That might be nice when you're lost. Instead of telling you you'd arrived at your destination, Walt could wrap up the same way he ended his broadcast for years: "And that's the way it is."

Sean Connery would surely be a big seller, as would James Earl Jones. Fans of show tunes might go for Liza Minnelli belting out a few rights and lefts, while Marilyn Manson might be the musical guidance of choice for edgier motorists. Music could even be combined with directions. U2, for example, could keep you on course while singing, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for."  The voices could come from characters, like Homer Simpson, South Park's Cartman, or even Yoda.

On the other hand, people who are used to arguing while finding their way to a new place might prefer a nav system that offered up something like this when they missed a turn: "HEY, I SAID TO TURN RIGHT!"  Perhaps a voice-activated system could actually argue with these motorists when they traveled alone, just to keep them company.

We're just scratching the surface, but I think we've scratched it enough. TomTom and Navtones are starting out slowly with the roster of mostly falling Hollywood stars, but the possibilities are endless. Custom voices could be to portable nav what ring tones have become for cells phones. Or not.

We've had too much fun around the office coming up with our own wish lists. What voices would you like to download? Share your ideas in the Comments below.

--Jim Travers

Learn more about portable GPS navigation systems.

Comments

[David Levine]

I tried a "novelty" voice or two in my TomTom and while it was funny at first, it got tiring very quickly because it's the same thing again and again (for John Cleese, for example, the "you have reached your destination" phrase is a long-winded joke that isn't as funny when you've heard it 10 times). Perhaps if the TomTom had several versions of each phrase that it would randomly select between (for example: "turn left", "make a left", "make a left, fool!", "hang left", etc) it might not be as tiresome. For now, I'm sticking with the default voice. However, I found a website which has tools that allow you to create your OWN voice for the TomTom. I'm slowly getting my two-and-a-half year old son to repeat each of the required 59 phrases into a microphone. It should be very cute when finished. The website is: http://tomtom.graemelucas.co.uk/

[David Schad]

I'd buy a system that would talk to me like the co-driver of a World Rally Championship car team.

[Tom Duffy]

My Wife, a non-native English speaker, noted that she found Mike Rowe's (of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs) voice to be easy to understand.
TomTom should be concerned with clarity of communication as well as the fun side of their technology.

[john]

how about the voice of truman capote, or if that proved difficult, david sedaris?

[Berry]

I do not own a tom tom yet, but I am sure that I would purchase one if I were able to receive my cues from the likes of Halle Berry, Julia Roberts or Jessica Simpson. I beleive that receiving directions from such soothing voices may prove to be therapeutic as well as useful when aiding in directions.

Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion on this website.

K.M. Berry

[Thomas Ayau]

Several years back I asked my niece why she disabled the voice response on the GPS of her Honda Odessey. She said she was tired of arguing with it. It would repeatedly try to reroute her to the GPS's chosen route even though she "knew" the preferred route (having knowledge of local traffic conditions, etc.).

[Mike]

Do you suppose that other GPS makers will be making alternative voices available through web site downloads or card loads?

[Steve Kneidel]

I've thought about fun GPS voices for a while-for example, taking directions from Hanibal Lechter, complete with comments seems like a pretty entertaining option. ("We're here-goody goody!") or Ray Romano yelling "you just missed Main St, genius!-slow down!" Certainly the technology to accompish this is already available, or at least forthcoming.

[Bridget]

Prior to reading this article, I was joking with my new friend in Germany (I just moved here) and he was making a joke about what a GPS system might try to say to me, an American, driving in this new country..."Recht! Turn recht! Didn't you hear me? Nicht verstehen Sie?! I told you to turn recht!!!"
We laughed long and hard about that. And now I read in your article the same joke. I showed it to him, and he is willing to provide his voice for voiceover. I think it is an excellent idea!

[Holly]

Hi. I have the Mio Digi Walker C220. I would love to have a funny voice to guide me along the way. Does anyone know what program to download or if these websites you've mentioned are compatible with my system? Outside of buying a more expensive model, I am willing to put forth hours of frustration in getting celebrity naration for my journeys. Thanks!

[Mark McCormack]

Austin Powers!! Yeah, baby! Right turn, groovy!

[Dave Varner]

Bruce Willis (Yippe-ky-yeh) or Clint Eastwood (Go ahead,make my day) are the kind of voices I'd like to here.

[Kiki LaRue]

I always thought it would be funny to have a disappointed copilot voice so when you decided not to take the recommended route it would say things such as, "Why didn't you take a left? I don't know why I bother to tell you. Why don't you just find it yourself, then."

[Phil]

How about Stewie from Family Guy?

[Charles S. Waters]

I would like the voice of William F. Buckley or Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

[Frank Johansen]

I suppose the cartoon voices are obvious. Bugs Bnny, Elmer Fudd jump into my head.

[Radman]

I purchased a TomTom One 3rd edition for $150 because of comedic voices. I have downloaded about 40 voices so far. Please note that it does not matter which TomTom model you have as all models lose "text to speech" when employing the downloaded voices(hence the reason I bought a $150 vs $600).
My favorite voice is Navtones "Candy", although Satnavs "Steve Dangerous" a Croc Hunter knockoff is also a hoot. Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery, Sexy Selina etc... are entertaining on solo rides.

[P Phimister]

Got my TomTom today for Christmas and think that it'll probably work out Great... Had a chance to charge it up and use it on my way to my Mom's house, deliberately (along the way) taking an incorrect turn. It almost immediately came up with an alternative route which happened to be the way that I normally go anyway. My only gripe thus far would be that their website seriously underperforms - 5 hours and counting and I still haven't been able to get to a page that takes me through all the special features that I might be able to order.

...and yeah, yeah, I know I've got my User Manuals, but it's so much nicer to see everthing online.

[Tom Horton]

Yes, the site was slow, to unresponsive on Christmas day. I can just picture millions of happy people with their new gps logging on Christmas morning. It was annoying but I understand the problem. It got better that evening.

[Paul Fairclough]

Did anyone ever find a voice for Julia Roberts?

Is anyone please able to help me find a decent variety of celeb voices to use? Someone once told me you could have white van man. The trouble with the Tom Tom website is that choice is very limited.

Thanks in advance.
Paul.

[Bill]

I'd like to hear the former, 'badest man on the planet', Mike Tyson, lisping & cussing me to my destination.

[Scott]

I'd like to have Jimmy Stewart in his studdering way, guide me or the voice of HAL from space oddyssey 2001.

[Eric]

I'd like to know, what about the other GPS units? Like the Garmin? Any addd voices for them?

[Terri]

I would like to have the soothing voice of HAL 9000 guiding me to my destination.

[Jim]

I think one voice that would be rather entertaining would be Jerry Seinfeld.