Microsoft is expanding its in-car software system, which combines things like music, GPS and hands-free cell phone all in one, with voice activation. The next partner to adopt the service is Korea’s Kia Motors. But the system won’t be called “Sync” like it is in Ford cards. Datamation has the details.
Automating in-car entertainment, information, and communications functions via voice recognition technology has been an important Microsoft goal for more than a decade. But it’s also been a slow uphill fight.
First on board Microsoft’s bandwagon was Ford in 2007, then Italian automaker Fiat.
Next week at the Consumer Electronics Show 2009 in Las Vegas, Microsoft plans to announce that Kia Motors is the latest manufacturer to sign up to use its Windows Embedded Auto software. However, where Ford’s offering is called Sync, the Kia in-car system will be dubbed UVO, Microsoft confirmed Thursday.
UVO, reports said is short for “your voice.”
The Kia deal itself isn’t really new, however. Microsoft and South Korea-based Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group (HKAG) announced the long-term deal in May 2008.
