Kia's UVO will be the only other voice-activated information/entertainment system to be put on non-luxury cars other than the SYNC system offered on Ford vehicles. UVO will be released sometime in 2010 on an unknown Kia vehicle.

 

Details and demonstration of the UVO system will be presented at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas next week.

 

The system uses Microsoft's Auto platform, the same one that SYNC uses. Microsoft, software, and UVO in the same sentence doesn't really trigger stellar reliability.

 

However, SYNC has proved itself in Ford vehicles, which may help with increasing sales for Kia vehicles equipped with the UVO system.

 

When Ford's contract with Microsoft expired in 2008, Microsoft announced that it would be dealing with Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group to produce an infotainment system for cars sold on the North American market.

 

No word has been heard from Hyundai with respect to it's use of the Microsoft technology, however Fiat's Blue&Me system uses Microsoft's services as well.

 

SYNC, which became operational on the 2008 Ford Focus, has received many updated features. They include directions and real-time traffic conditions, weather, 911 assist, and vehicle health reporting.

 

The UVO system should be a success for Kia, considering their value driven products and philosophy in offering the optional equipment of other manufacturers as standard equipment.

 

Source: Automotive News