Word: advisor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Safety concerns and the threat of legislation banning portable gadgets in cars have spurred the automobile and electronics industries to develop driver-friendly onboard systems that are now being promoted as safety features. Earlier this year, General Motors began selling Virtual Advisor, a hands-free, voice-activated system that allows drivers to make phone calls, access e-mail and get news, sports and stock quotes--all simply by pressing a button and talking to the dashboard...
...Virtual Advisor--available by year's end in 32 of GM's 54 cars (as well as some Lexus, Acura and Saab models)--is an extension of GM's OnStar system, which when introduced in 1996 was touted mostly as a luxury option for drivers who could use it to get directions, make restaurant reservations and buy theater tickets over a speakerphone from the comfort of their Cadillacs. This year the selling point is safety first; the pampering will cost you extra...
What Virtual Advisor adds is wireless, voice-prompted phone service and Internet access to a customized menu of news, sports and stock portfolios. Just say the word stocks, news or weather--or the word dial when you want to place a call--and the onboard computer fetches. Access is limited (you can't get AOL, for example), and there's a lag in news and sports scores, because they are first read into the system by real people. E-mail, on the other hand, is instantly "verbalized" using text-to-speech software that recites your mail in that eerie, intonation...
...didn't do much to overcome the administration's credibility problem, either. After a series of reports issued by the U.N. this year, most observers believe the science is a lock. Many European officials expressed their concern about Bush's decision. And European ambassadors were shocked when National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice told them at a private lunch at the Swedish embassy in Washington last week that "Kyoto is dead...
...very proud of them," said their coach and faculty advisor Robert Walton. "They perspired hard--there's a fair amount of practice involved to get to this level...