Innovative Spanish car maker SEAT is once again leading the way on in-car technology with the debut today of a pioneering and dynamic new satellite navigation system.

The SEAT Media Audio Recognition Technology (SMART) uses state-of-the-art GPS plotting allied to a 20Gb hard drive loaded with voice instruction data to offer bespoke satellite navigation instructions.

The new SMART system features revolutionary Automatic Regional Speech Equivalence software that identifies the area through which the SEAT is being driven, and tailors its navigation instructions accordingly.

The idea is to ensure local drivers feel more ‘at home’ with the car’s satnav instructions, while those unfamiliar with the region and its dialects are given a valuable flavour of the district’s idioms before arriving at their destination.

So, for instance, a driver navigating his way through East London might be treated to the following soundbite by the SMART system: ‘Awright geezer, it’s straight on at these lights, innit?’

Meanwhile a motorist using his SEAT satnav in the West Country could well receive the following instruction in a typical Bristolian lilt: ‘Now then lovely, turn right at the T junction, mind.’

Drivers on a long haul from, say, London to Glasgow can enjoy instructions in a variety of regional accents or, if preferred, opt to select one dialect for the majority of the journey.  However, the system always ensures that the last ten miles of a trip are directed using the most relevant local inflections.

Thus the final instruction for a Glasgow-bound driver might be: ‘Aye, right… you’ve made it at last then, eh?  Yer numpty.’

Further, the system regularly interrogates the car’s various ECU chips to keep abreast of its condition and report relevant facts to the driver at an appropriate time.  So, for example, if the car undergoes routine maintenance and the wiper blades are changed, the system can identify and refer to the change when it next activates the automatic wipers.

A typical comment might be, therefore: ‘Raining again!  Glad you got those wiper blades changed now, aren’t you?’

British drivers are the first in the world to be offered the system, with deliveries of the first SMART-equipped Leon, Altea and Alhambra models beginning today.

Commenting on the debut of the impressive new technology West Midlands-born SEAT UK Head of Press & PR, Mike Orford, said: ‘This new SMART technology’s bostin man!  It’s, loik, great an’ ar can’t wait to gie it a goo meself.’