DailyTech - Kia Pairs With Microsoft to Announce UVO In-car Infotainment System

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Auto Kia Pairs With Microsoft to Announce UVO In-car Infotainment System
Jason Mick (Blog) - December 31, 2009 9:12 AM

25 comment(s) - last by 67STANG.. on Jan 2 at 12:35 AM

South Korea's Hyundai Kia Automotive Group has announced a long awaited rival infotainment system to the Ford SYNC, dubbbed UVO, Like SYNC, the new system is powered by Microsoft Auto. (Source: Hyundai Kia AG via Engadget)

It's Episode I of the Attack of the SYNC Clones

For the last year and a half, SYNC, an infotainment system, has been driving stronger vehicle sales at Ford. Many consumers jumped at the chance to add the feature, which brought cutting edge technology like voice operated music to the car for the first time, while offering many familiar commands like turn-by-turn directions and phone calls, with a voice activated twist.

However, Ford was not the first automaker internationally to deploy a system based on Microsoft Auto, the OS underlying SYNC (that honor goes to Italy's Fiat SpA), and it seemed unlikely that it would be the last. Now after over a year of preparation and discussions with Microsoft, South Korea's Hyundai Kia Automotive Group is getting a similar system.

Microsoft and Hyundai Kia announced a new system called UVO (for "your voice") that should be soon incoming to vehicles according to Engadget. Similar to SYNC, the system will likely fulfill a variety of infotainment roles.

Even as Ford prepares to announce new SYNC features at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, next month, Hyundai Kia and Microsoft are expected to have a showcase announcement for UVO as well.

Details are currently scarce about the new system. It should be interesting to see how it stacks up against the latest iteration of SYNC. If the 2000's could be called the decade of horsepower wars, it appears that the upcoming decade may be called the decade of car-tech wars.

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RE: No thanks...

By Samus on 12/31/2009 6:05:00 PM , Rating: 3

My sister's 2003 Elantra's brakes cost $2000 to replace. The rotor and hub steel is such low quality that they corroded together and requires new hubs, bearings, rotors, pads, and one of the calipers froze because a boot ripped.

Amazingly, it's one of many common issues with that generation of Elantra when exposed to climates where salt is used on roads (in this case, Chicago)

You can engineer something all you want, but if its made with crap material, it's going to be a crap product.

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