Our old TomTom GPS

I was speaking to a friend about auto GPS's last night. It made me remember a funny story about our old TomTom car GPS.

It included free updates, but you had to take it in the house, plug the cord into your computer, and run the free tom-tom program. I think I only did it once or twice, but I noticed a few other tricks you could do with it.

One of them was downloading voices. They had some pay ones, like Darth Vader/James Earl Jones and other stars. They also had some free ones, so I downloaded Cartman (from southpark), C3PO, and Yoda. 

Cartman was completely NOT kid friendly.  Nearly every command contained profanity. "Merge right, a**wipe!" It was funny at first (when driving alone), but eventually he made nearly every trip less enjoyable. As it turns out, driving is not a good time to have someone cursing at you. Particularly if you just missed your turn.

C3PO was interesting, because your TomTom would give you directions like, "Turn left at Main Street, Master."  It sounds funny, but it was a very realistic if you are a star wars fan.

Yoda was very cool, but not very practical. I didn't realize until I was on a roadtrip (with Yoda giving directions) and I had the radio on.  As I approached an unfamililar intersection, there were multiple streets converging. I had been driving for a bit since the last GPS command, and I wasn't listening for the GPS.  I apparently miss the first word when I'm not paying attention. It's as if the first word is the one that alerts me to listen, then I pay attention.

So instead of saying "Turn left in one mile" (like all the other voices) and me hearing "LEFT in one mile", Yoda said "Left you will turn in one mile."

True story.

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I also discovered you could record your own voice into the TomTom.  It took hours at the computer. I had to record a list of about 150 words and commands into the computer, then clean up each command, save it as a special file, then upload it to a particular directory on the TomTom.

As a surprise, I spent a day recording and saving my voice into the GPS for my wife.  I set it up and installed it in her car.

On our next trip, she entered the destination and the directions started.  She was impressed. The kids were amused. 

A week later, we took her car again and I noticed that the voice had been set back to the default.  I asked her about it.  Her response:  "I got sick of you telling me what to do!"

Also a true story.