In-car navigation systems sometimes make mistakes, and locals usually know the best routes.  But for the most part, the days of getting hopelessly lost are waning, and the direction-phobic male is becoming an endangered species.

This is a very competitive arena, and suddenly, an innovative overlap is happening with the music industry.  Snoop Dogg is now providing turn-by-turn directions for TomTom, a ‘voice skin’ that is available for roughly $13.

But this game goes beyond GPS.  At CES, Gracenote previewed CarStars, an in-car entertainment concept that already features artists Will Pugh (Cartel), Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship), Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy) and Pat Monahan (Train).  As ‘entertainment guides,’ these artists will be doing something different than Snoop by announcing songs, creating playlists, recommending new music, and announcing new releases within the car.  That is just the start, and voices can also be translated into a range of other languages.

The rollout starts later this year, and Gracenote is offering an artist licensing program to recruit new voices (contact carstars@gracenote.com).