Recalculating: The surprising lives of GPS voices

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Design, Music, Music Commentary, Arts

4.9 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The voices inside our navigation systems are with us nearly every day. They frustrate us when they lead us astray, and guide us through our most memorable adventures. But who are the people behind those voices? In this episode, an Australian musician discovers she is the voice inside millions of GPS units, and the Polish voice of Google Maps goes head to head with a robot. Featuring “The GPS Girl” Karen Jacobsen and “Głos Google Maps” Jarosław Juszkiewicz. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by ⁠Defacto Sound⁠. Subscribe on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see our video series. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mystery.20k.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Support the show and get ad-free episodes at⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠20k.org/plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Dallas on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠ ⁠Facebook⁠⁠, and⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our community on⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reddit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Watch Jarek’s farewell video that inspired the online protest. To learn more about Karen's work, visit thegpsgirl.com. Find the right doctor, right now with at zocdoc.com/20k. Visit shopify.com/20k and sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/recalculating Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:05.0	Thank you for calling the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
0:08.0	For English Press 1.
0:10.0	For Spanish or Prima the time when the most we interacted with digital voices
0:16.0	was through answering machines like this.
0:18.0	Hello, I am Miles, DMV's virtual assistant that provides general
0:22.6	information. How can I help you? Nowadays, we hear digital voices all the time. They're in our smart
0:29.5	speakers, our phones, even our vacuums. Please charge Rumba. But before Siri, Alexa and Rumba, there was one digital voice who many of us already treated like a companion.
0:44.3	This voice frustrated us when it led us astray, and it came with us on some of our most memorable adventures.
0:56.0	Ready to navigate.
0:59.0	At the next intersection, turn left.
1:03.0	At the next intersection, turn left.
1:06.0	That's Karen Jacobson.
1:08.0	Karen was the Australian English voice for millions of GPS units.
1:12.4	My voice was in the Garmin, the Navman, the TomTom, the Mio.
1:22.7	If you had a GPS unit in your car in the 2005 to 2010 range, there's a good chance you might have heard Karen's voice.
1:31.3	Turn right on to southeast Woodstock Boulevard.
1:34.4	Some of you may remember this infamous phrase that triggered when you took a wrong turn.
1:39.6	Recalculating.
1:41.2	Recalculating.
1:43.4	At the time, many users wentating, recalculating.
1:48.4	At the time, many users went online to complain about this phrase.
	...

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