Can your Prius talk with a different voice or language?

Good question! Since I am still on the waiting list I don't have a car with which to try to find the answer, but I think it would be very cool to have it able to speak different languages. Just to annoy my friends I would leave it on German

 

On the US and Canadian version, French is an option. What languages are on the European Prius's?

 

I'd like to raise the possibility that in the US/Canadian Prius, French is a display option (I have done this) but I am not sure the Nav system can send or receive voice commands in the French language. Can anyone confirm this? Just trying to thoroughly explore this issue.

 

I've changed the Language to French thinking the voice language might change to French. It does not. It stays in English. It's odd though reading the MFD in french. If I remember correctly, it's a mix of french and english. I didn't leave it on french for long.

 

I think they should have celebrity voices. Imagine the option of having Ahnold The Governator direct you around... "OK, you are coming to a road junction, you will turn to the right now."

Or how about Gilbert Gottfried?

 

My '05 Mini Cooper Convertible (weekend car) can change her voice to GB English. I did this and even the menu changed on the nav to UK verbiage. I love when she says "go straightaway to join the motorway". I wish I could change this on my Prius.

 

I am wondering whether the display screens and voice objects from non US/Canadian Prii could be added to the US/Canadian car as an aftermarket mod in the same way that others have been adding an OEM EV switch to their car. If somebody were to want to take that on as a project and get it to work and then offer it for sale as a mod kit for a reasonable price, I might be a customer once my car arrives.

Any takers?

 

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Pressing the Français button in v3.1 changed the voice directions to French. I haven't checked the current version though. Is it different?

It certainly is odd reading the MFD in French, but the voice prompts are soothing! Something about a French-speaking woman...

"Vahine, là où ton coeur t'appelle, va."

 

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Pressing the Français button in v3.1 changed the voice directions to French. I haven't checked the current version though. Is it different?

It certainly is odd reading the MFD in French, but the voice prompts are soothing! Something about a French-speaking woman...

"Vahine, là où ton coeur t'appelle, va."
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Not sure that I tested the guidance. I primarilt hit the voice command button and tried a command in english and the voice responded in english, as I recall. I'll try again today and post outcome.

 

so you cannot change the voice from female to male? its not a very big deal but it would be cool to change it, especially so you can name it something manly

 

Oooo-la-la! I've been using the French nav system and voice for the last couple of trips. I think the french voice is somewhat more attractive, though maybe I'm listening more to the voice and not the meaning since I don't understand much spoken French.

Both voices though are still quite pleasant, and seem to be a good balance to the overall technology oriention of the Prius.

 

there was a post about this before, and no it is not possible to change the voice. I would like hear mine speak Japanese, she must remember it, she was born there.

 

Probably not possible because the Japanese use different (and I suspect more advanced) NAV software in the Prius; going by the pictures shown so far, and the generic store NAV software I've seen in the Japanese market 3 years ago.

 

My European Prius speaks English (with British accent), German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish and Danish. The voice is always female. All the menus change the language accordingly. Voice commands can be given to the Prius in either English or German.

An interesting feature is that, if you set for example English as your language, and you drive through Germany, guidance that includes the name of a city will be given in English but then name of the city will be correctly pronounced in German, using the voice of the lady who speaks German when you set the NAV to German guidance. This applies to any country you drive in. Let's say you go to Spain, the NAV will use the voice of the Spanish lady to pronounce names of cities and exits with the right Spanish pronunciation. Another cool feature is that when you cross a border, the NAV will announce that the border has been crossed and will show the flag of the country you're entering for a couple of seconds.

It includes maps for Austria, Andorra, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the Republic of San Marino, Sweden, the UK and the Vatican. Road details differ heavily from one country to another with Germany, Switzerland and Austria having almost 100 % coverage and Portugal and Spain having the worst amount of data. All western European major roads are contained as well. I have traveled from Lausanne (Switzerland) to Zaragoza (Spain) being guided by the NAV. Works like a charm. It takes you door-to-door from a city in any country to any country. It also has a reasonable number of POI's in every country on the list including phone numbers.

Abraham

 

When you switch on the Nav system of my European version 2004-5 there is a screen asking you to choose one of numerous languages. Today I hit the F key for French and then got a screen which read "Sélectionner la langue de la reconnaissance vocale"
But there were only two options "GB" and "D". GB brings on a woman speaking British English ("proceed on the current road for two miles" is an example, but I don't know anyone else in the UK who would put it like that if they were telling me to stick to this road for two miles)
I didn't try the German but after I had hit GB the screen captions were nearly all in French, even the ones not connected to the Nav system.

In other words I would have been extremely disappointed and annoyed if I had been French and not had the guidance in spoken French.

Is this really the version sold in France?

 

That's awesome! Much more awesome than the boringness of the US Nav system. It doesn't announce the names of cities and stuff! hrm...

 

My prius was sat up from the dealer to speak danish since that is really close to the norwegian language. But I had to change it to english just after a couple of miles. I discovered soon after a couple of wrong turns that the two languages is not THAT close!

 

Our Prius is ex-Japan - she speaks Japanese - she does not have sat nav but she speaks Japanese when we turn her on, she speaks Japanese if we do not put our seat-belts on, she speaks Japanese when there is something near the sensors on any of the four corners - Japanese models do not appear to have cameras so they have these sensors instead. WE WOULD REALLY LIKE TO BE ABLE TO STOP HER SPEAKING JAPANESE!