Kia UVO In-car Infotainment System honored at the 2010 Telematics Update Awards Conference

Kia’s innovative in-car infotainment system, called UVO, honored at the 2010 Telematics Update Awards Conference!

Kia has something new and wonderful up its sleeve. This leading global carmaker announced recently its new, unique, innovative, and high-tech in-car communications and entertainment system – the UVO powered by Microsoft.

This exciting in-car infotainment system is scheduled to debut in select Kia models to be released in the company’s 2010 calendar year. It has already received honors at the annual Telematics Update Awards Conference. This is the world’s biggest forum for telematics industry leaders, recognizing excellent achievements and innovations in the telematics market. The Conference honored the Kia UVO with the 2009-2010 Industry Newcomer Award.

The Industry Newcomer Award recognizes and honors this year’s best new products and companies in telematics. It also helps introduce to the market new ventures that truly show potential and innovation in the field of telematics. Kia Motors is happy to have been recognized by the Award, as Kia was also a finalist for the Car Manufacturer Innovation Award.

The UVO, which is short for “Your Voice”, is set to make driving fun and entertaining for Kia owners. It boasts of the following features: a friendly voice- and touch-activated operation for hands-free mobile phone and SMS text operation while you drive. It also has simple, intuitive, and easy-to-manage music files.

Michael Sprague, marketing vice president of KMA, said, “UVO powered by Microsoft is a breakthrough for in-vehicle infotainment and another solid example of why Kia is a true tier-one automotive brand. With UVO, Kia is able to offer drivers a rich telematic experience and a clear competitive advantage, allowing Kia drivers to safely and easily use all of their personal technologies and create personalized in-car communications and entertainment experiences.”

Co-developed by world renowned Microsoft company and based on Windows Embedded Auto software, the innovative, the hands-free UVO system is easy to use by allowing its drivers and passengers to make and answer phone calls, receive and respond to SMS text messages, access and play music from a number of media sources, and create a customized music experience at the same time.

Based upon learning and understanding the wants and needs of drivers for intuitive control, Kia Motors and Microsoft designed UVO with a new level of voice recognition using Microsoft speech technology. With such cutting-edge technology, you would not need to take your eyes off the road as you drive to navigate through several menus. All you have to do is say the commands and UVO will perform the operation.

You don’t even need to speak in complex sentences. You only need to say quick and simple voice commands and questions such as “What’s playing?” and UVO will provide an audible answer. You can easily and quickly access your music and get connected with people while driving safely with your eyes focused on the road.

Kia’s in-car infotainment system UVO also features a 4.3-inch, full-color screen interface that displays detailed information about the music you are playing, as well as phonebook data and car information. What’s amazing is that as you shift to reverse, the screen serves as your rear-view camera.

As an open platform, UVO effectively integrates with various kinds of mobile phones, music players, and other infotainment gadgets and can be easily updated to make it compatible with new devices that may be introduced to the market in the future. This promises a complete in-car technology immersion.