Loquendo, the global speech technology company, and Magneti Marelli, international leader in high-tech components and systems for the automotive industry, announced the integration of Loquendo's multi-lingual Automotive Text-to-Speech Solution into Magneti Marelli's latest car navigator, the MMSE 4G Navigation and Full Multimedia platform.

The Magneti Marelli MMSE 4G Navigation and Full Multimedia platform has been installed by market leaders in Europe and Asia to offer their customers the latest in-car telematic technology, enabling Internet connection, rapid access to breakdown and emergency services and one of the most sophisticated satellite navigation systems available.

The new high-end infotelematic system is a device which combines entertainment, navigation, telematics and telephony. It is a natural evolution of the current high-end telematic platform and its performance has now been enhanced even further with the use of a 30 GB hard drive (used to store music and maps covering the whole of Europe), a 3D graphic processor and solutions which have further improved the system's audio performance.

Loquendo offers a high quality, multi-lingual portfolio of speech technologies, including the Loquendo Automotive Solution, which has been integrated by Magneti Marelli into the MMSE 4G Navigation and Full Multimedia platform. This solution, which combines embedded, lifelike text-to-speech software and pre-recorded prompts, gives users intelligible and natural-sounding instructions and information in the language of their choice. Street names, including foreign names, are also read aloud thanks to Loquendo's unique mixed language capability. Loquendo embedded software currently supports 18 languages from around the world with 43 different voice personas and the language portfolio is constantly expanding.

"All over the world, our synthetic voices are helping drivers reach their destinations, safely and pleasantly," says Paolo Coppo, VP of Business Development at Loquendo. The expressive feature of Loquendo speech technology makes every journey an enjoyable one. We are confident that drivers will greatly appreciate all the latest technological advances that Magneti Marelli have integrated into their product."

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
With over 30 years experience in speech technology, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech market. Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Speaker Verification and the Loquendo VoxNauta Platform are high-quality, high-performance technologies that guarantee systems integrators the best solutions in 20 languages with 47 voices.

Loquendo has developed a specific range of products for embedded environments, which make high-quality TTS and ASR available for devices such as wireline and mobile phones, PDAs, car navigators, etc.

Loquendo has also created a specific solution for any kind of navigation device, which is closely tailored to the sector's specific needs and boosts the technology's quality and performance.

Loquendo is the only speech technology vendor that provides a complete product line for servers, desktop, PDAs and embedded devices, guaranteeing the same wide range of languages and the same core engine in all these environments. For more information, go to www.loquendo.com.

About Magneti Marelli
Magneti Marelli is a leading international group in the design and production of leading edge systems and components for motor vehicles, with headquarters in Italy. With 49 plants, 30 R&D centres in fifteen countries, 25,000 employees and sales of 4.5 billion Euro in 2006, the group supplies all the major car manufacturers in Europe, North and South America and the Far East. The business lines include: Lighting (front and rear lighting systems), Powertrain (gasoline, diesel and multi-fuel engine control systems; robotized gear-box Selespeed), Electronic Systems (instrument clusters; info-telematic systems), Suspension Systems (suspension systems; shock-absorbers), Exhaust Systems and Motorsport.

For more information about the company, visit www.magnetimarelli.com.