Terminator targets Israeli driving app
Arnold Schwarzenegger provides voice commands for Waze navigation software
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken his career in a new direction — by providing a voice-over for the Israeli-made Waze car navigation application in the form of his most famous role, The Terminator.
According to a Monday report from USA Today, Schwarzenegger agreed to provide the voice instructions as a ploy to promote his next move, Teminator Genisys, due for release on July 1.
Created in Israel in 2008 and sold to Google in 2013 for $1.1 billion, Waze provides navigation instructions to drivers that include traffic conditions and road hazards, and has an estimated 50 million users around the world.
Waze already lets users select a variety of different languages and accents for navigation commands, and the Terminator voice will be available until mid-July.
Fans of the movie series will be delighted to hear Schwarzenegger, 67, begin journeys by saying “I’m a Terminator Cyberdyne Systems Model 101, and you’re coming with me.”
Schwarzenegger starred in James Cameron’s 1984 film “The Terminator,” in which he played a robot assassin sent back in time from the future to the present in order to kill a woman before she can give birth to a man who would later lead mankind’s rebellion against a robotic takeover of the world.
With his terse lines delivered in a deadpan, heavily-accented English, the Austrian-born former Mr. Universe was an instant hit. The movie franchise went on to make four sequels, including the next month’s offering.
“Here we are 40 years later and my accent is a big asset. It’s what people enjoy,” said Schwarzenegger who in the past was told his accent would hamper his acting career. “When I dreamed of a career, I had no idea that one day I would be telling 50 million drivers (where) to drive. Only in America.”
Schwarzenegger spent an hour recording all of the various spoken instructions that Waze gives drivers during navigation — “turn right,” “take the second exit” — as well as some catchphrases from the Terminator movies such as “Hasta la vista, Baby.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73gUUr8Zlw
“In 1984, when we did (the first) Terminator, we talked about the world being run by machines,” Schwarzenegger told USA Today. “It was science fiction then. Now you have machines telling you where to drive.”
The report said that Waze snared Schwarzenegger after forming a partnership with Paramount Pictures as part of its ongoing contest of one-upmanship with rival car navigation applications such as Google Maps and Navigon.
