Darth Vader voice now available for TomTom GPS: ‘Bear left, to the dark side’

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There’s a British woman who tells me how to get around Los Angeles. With crisp diction and authoritative confidence she tell me to ‘exit the motorway ahead,’ and ‘stay left and then go left.’ She’s does good work for me, but she’s going to be out of a job soon.

Why? Darth Vader is now available as a TomTom voice.

Seriously.

And there are more ‘Star Wars’ voices coming -- C-3PO in June, Yoda in July and Han Solo in August. I’m not making this up. And Jar Jar Binks will be on sale by Christmas. OK, that last one was a joke.

I’m not sure, though, if Yoda’s knotty syntax is the best choice for navigating, for instance, the curving confusion of the Hollywood Hills. ‘Ahead right you must go.’ Here’s a bit of promotional fun from TomTom...

If you do choose the Dark Lord of the Sith as your driver’s guide, you will get actual instructions such as ‘Bear left, to the dark side. Then in 200 yards you have reached your destination. The Force is with you, but you are not a Jedi yet.’ You also will get the theme music, the bad-ventilator breathing, light-saber effects and the sound of a TIE fighter zooming by. I might just drive around in circles for days...

-- Geoff Boucher

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