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Arnold Schwarzenegger is your new Terminator on Waze

Technically Incorrect: Wouldn't you love to have the Terminator offer "Hasta La Vista, Baby" at the end of your journey? Well, now you can.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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The voice of reason? MGMVOD/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

We've got so many more gadgets yakking at us nonstop, yet the voices seem to come from a fearsome authoritarian world, where emotions are banned.

How thoughtful, then, of community-based traffic app Waze to give you a voice from a world that is much closer to your own.

Yes, you can now have the Terminator warning you that police are lurking somewhere near you. As USA Today reports, Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who played a cyborg assassin in 1984 film "The Terminator" -- spent one hour of his very expensive time in a studio recording voice commands for Waze, to which which you will leap like a startled salmon.

When he says "Let's hit the road," you will surely obey. When he explains that he is "a Terminator Cyberdyne Systems Model 101," you might wonder whether the future has come to you a little quicker than you thought.

Of course, the former governor of California is doing this to promote his latest movie -- "Terminator Genisys" -- which opens on July 1. Schwarzenegger certainly sees the tinges of irony in his suddenly voicing a machine.

He told USA Today: "In 1984, when we did (the first) Terminator, we talked about the world being run by machines. It was science fiction then. Now you have machines telling you where to drive."

He is, at heart, an actor. So who can be stunned that he will put the app on his own phone and listen to his own Terminator instructions? That should amuse -- or freak -- one or two of his passengers. I wonder if, the first time he hears it, it might make him jump too.

Naturally, you'll be wondering how many Terminatorisms are included in this fine recording. Well, the most important, perhaps, is that when you reach your destination you will indeed hear: "Hasta La Vista, baby."

Sometimes, these instructional voices can be annoying. I would warn you that I have no information as to what happens should you shout at the Terminator to shut the hell up.