BMW voice-recognition systems leading the way

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

The loveliest disembodied voice I've ever heard spoke to me over the public-address system at Charles DeGaulle Airport five years ago.

Systems such as OnStar not only offer directions, but vehicle tracking and a remote unlocking feature. OnStar Corp.

I pictured Juliette Binoche in an Air France uniform.

A moment, please.

Mmm.

Now, where was I going with this?

Oh yes, the female voice of BMW's On-Board Navigation System, recently introduced to the Hawai'i market, is decidedly less sultry. It's more Bankoh than Binoche.

What the system lacks in sultry, however, it makes up in savvy. Try asking Juliette, or whoever was behind that mic, to figure the quickest way out of that pau-hana Friday congestion on H-1.

It's noon, it's hot, it's Wednesday when BMW client advisor Aka DeMesa rolls out a sleek Oxford green 740 for a quickie demonstration of the BMW navigation system.

DeMesa has an impressive understanding of the navigation system in particular and computers in general. No surprise: He was a vice president at Comp USA in Texas before returning home to Hawai'i to develop the state's official Web site.

"Technology is going to take over the automobile industry," DeMesa says. "You never used to think of a car being smart, but that's what they're becoming. There are a lot of changes coming to the industry as a whole."

Pause: Is there anything scarier that a big-brain tech guy using his powers for car sales? Were he so inclined, I'm sure he could smoosh some numbers and figure out a way to get this $66,000 beauty into my (rented) garage.

Thank God I screwed up my credit in college.

The BMW navigation system combines Global Positioning System (GPS) technology with digital map data from Navigation Technologies and Fodor's.

NAVTECH's O'ahu map is on a compact disc as part of a Western Region package. DeMesa says a more detailed, Hawai'i-only version is expected on DVD this year.

"Basically, the accuracy of this system is within a tolerance level of about 5 percent," DeMesa says.

Wha'?

"When it tells you you're at your destination, you'll be within a few feet," he says.

For our demo, DeMesa decides we're going to pay a visit to a bank in 'Aina Haina. On the dashboard display screen, he selects "bank" from a pre-programmed list of shortcuts. He narrows our search by hitting the first letter, scrolls something, taps something and — boing — up pops a street map with our proposed route highlighted in white.

DeMesa adjusts the scale of our map to 400 feet per unit, giving us the highest level of detail possible. He could have opted for the other extreme, 50 miles per, which looks something like those progress maps they show on airplanes between movies.

"That's us," he says, pointing to a red triangle on the screen. "It's telling us we're pointed the wrong way."

Sure enough, the car is facing the BMW service center, not the street. I'm sure we would have noticed this at some point, but it's nice to know there are backups.

DeMesa gets us pointed the right way and we follow the system's audio directions:

In 200 feet, right turn.

The voice's inflection is a bit funky, dropping on "right" and rising at "turn." Still, it isn't as unsettling as one might expect.

For some of us, it could even be a nice change from our usual backseat gallery. Not once did it begin or end a sentence with "you pinhead."

We're heading up Ward Avenue near the Honolulu Academy of Arts when the system alerts us to the right turn up ahead, taking us to the highway. According to the colored map on the screen, we are taking H-1 to the end of the line, when it becomes Route 72.

Eh?

"Kalaniana'ole Highway," DeMesa clarifies. "The systems that we're using are, for Hawai'i, still first-generation, so they don't have all of the detail that they will have when they're updated."

We exit prematurely at the Punahou off-ramp so DeMesa can demonstrate another quirk.

"The system won't tell you that you're off course," he says. "But it will automatically re-adjust itself to get you back on the route."

Of course, if you don't like the route you're on, you can always ask for an alternate. There's one that makes the most use of the freeway, one that should be the quickest, and technically the shortest.

Traffic being murder on the system's ETA calculations — or perhaps the guys in the showroom finally pulled up my credit report — we abandon our jaunt to 'Aina Haina and head back via, um, Route 22.

"Beretania," DeMesa explains.

Along the way, he demonstrates how easy it is to write a new address onto the disk for future mapping.

We use mine. I can't wait for the next BMW test drive to make its way around Palolo Valley.

In 400 feet, left turn.

If the voice of BMW's navigation system startles occasionally, it's because — unlike my usual passengers — you don't actually hear it very much. It keeps to the essentials.

Left turn.

BMW is among a growing number of car manufacturers offering on-board navigation systems, and each system has its own unique features. The Lexus version, for example, operates with a touch screen rather than a dial. There are also several independent GPS-based systems that can be installed in any car.

The BMW On-Board Navigation System is standard on all the company's 7-series cars; a radically reconfigured control system will be introduced in the next few weeks. The system is available for other BMW models as a add-on for about $1,800.

You have arrived.

"A lot of people say 'Why do I need this in Hawai'i?' " DeMesa says. "If you've lived here forever, that's probably true. But as the database gets better and more intricate, I think it's going to be very helpful.

"The toughest restaurant (to find) that I know is the Willows," DeMesa says. "There are places on the island that people don't really think about until that one day a year that they decide they want to go there. I think in those situations, this can be a really neat thing to have."

DeMesa probably is right. I wonder if Juliette Binoche does voice-overs?