SMART Navigation with an Attitude for Seat

Set on fulfilling the wishes of mother group Volkswagen to turn around its business by the middle of the decade, Spanish auto maker Seat is slowly stepping up its efforts of becoming more visible on the market, whether through sponsorships of high-profile events or by launching new models and gadgets.

The latest such move is the announcement regarding the introduction of the Seat Media Audio Recognition Technology (SMART), basically a navigation system like no other, says the auto maker.

Using GPS plotting and a 20Gb hard drive, the system does pretty much the same thing all other sat navs do: connects to satellites and then responds to the route queries from owners by telling them, using vocal feedback, what the right direction is.

What sets this sat nav system apart from all others is the way in which the instructions are spoken. Instead of the dull, at times annoying and emotionless voice of usual GPS systems, SMART uses voice accents specific to the region where the car is located at any one point.

In the UK for instance, while passing through East London, a driver might hear “Awright geezer, it’s straight on at these lights, innit?,” while one traveling through West Country will be directed to the required destination with the following phrase: “Now then lovely, turn right at the T junction, mind.”

“This new SMART technology’s bostin man!  It’s, loik, great an’ ar can’t wait to gie it a goo meself,” said in a pure West Midlands dialect Mike Orford, Seat UK's head of Press & PR.