Thought this was pretty interesting. The question is, "How do I get from point A to point B", but how the response is articulated makes the difference between a successful and unsuccessful system. A researcher at IBM I talked to stressed the importance of car personality as well. They seem to be actively working on this.
"Co-pilot": good; "mother-in-law": bad! (I'm betting they didn't need to test mother-in-law.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/automobiles/autospecial/26stein.html?pagewanted=print
...As dashboard navigation systems become increasingly complex - offering traffic updates or restaurant recommendations and even reviving drowsy drivers - more and more consumers find themselves not only buying a car but also searching for carpanionship.
The key to this delicate chemistry is finding the right voice[.]...
A few years ago, BMW hired a team of researchers to find the ideal persona for its new 5-series sedan. It quickly became evident that the female voice was far from the perfect fit for the car's overwhelmingly male customer base, according to Clifford Nass, a communications professor at Stanford University who worked on the team.
...People found it jarring to hear a female voice coming from a powerful, overtly male "driving machine," ...
But creating a new sound for performance personality required more than just changing the sex. First,...the team identified potential personas, like mother-in-law, chauffeur, golf buddy and engineer. Ultimately, the team settled on the co-pilot: helpful, friendly, competent, but subordinate - "someone BMW sent to work with the driver," he said, "not to help the driver, because BMW drivers don't need help."
...Drivers can pay $9.99 for one of 20 personalities from Voice Skins, a British company whose Web site features voices ranging from a foul-mouthed Ozzy Osbourne impersonator to a Clint Eastwood sound-alike programmed to say things like, "Turn left, punk." An Austin Powers-inspired voice says: "You've reached your destination. Groovy driving baby, yeah!"
There is even a backseat critic of the Bush administration: "This is George W. Bush, and I hope this will acceleratificate you getting from point A to Z after 400 yards, bear right."
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