Voice Recognition in cars

J

JOhnH

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Right Seater
Why does it suck so bad? I can use voice commands with my iphone with Siri or Google with no problem. They are amazing how accurately they transcribe my voice commands to text.

But my GMC is another story. The translations it comes up with are ludicrous. I might say "grocery stores" and it will respond with "medical centers?". If I say "Publix" it may come back with "Libraries?". Sometimes I do it just for fun, but other times, it is real annoying. It got close yesterday when I asked for "auto dealers" and it came back with "Arab Temples?". I thought Arabs built Mosques.

This happens even if I am sitting in my driveway, not moving and with no other traffic around.

Are there any settings or cures for this?
 
The only solution I found is getting a new year. The comparison between my new BMW and the old one is very noticeably better but not perfect, nor do I expect it to be.

Cheers
 
JOhnH said:
Why does it suck so bad? I can use voice commands with my iphone with Siri or Google with no problem. They are amazing how accurately they transcribe my voice commands to text.
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Put your iPhone in airplane mode and try Siri. Guess what? Not available, because you're not connected to the internet. Siri translation does not happen on your phone, it happens on Apple's high horsepower computers somewhere on the cloud. The small computer in the cars can't compare.
 
JOhnH said:
Why does it suck so bad? I can use voice commands with my iphone with Siri or Google with no problem. They are amazing how accurately they transcribe my voice commands to text.

But my GMC is another story. The translations it comes up with are ludicrous.
Click to expand...

For voice recognition to have any hope in working properly it has to be hosted on the cloud and crowd sourced. This is what makes Siri, Google, Cortana etc. powerful.

When you put voice recognition in a unconnected car, it simply doesn't have enough computing power or background knowledge to be able to give you anywhere near a comparable experience.

Tesla's voice recognition is cloud based, so that one works decent (though it took a few years - it also sucked in the beginning until it learned enough, but it's surprisingly accurate now). The downside to that though is if you're out of cellphone range, you have no voice recognition support. I still prefer that though.


GMC's system is downright dangerous - it often takes me 10 or 15 minutes to try and enter an address while driving. Why GMC thinks that's safer than a passenger simply typing in the address is beyond me.
 
X3 Skier said:
The only solution I found is getting a new year. The comparison between my new BMW and the old one is very noticeably better but not perfect, nor do I expect it to be.

Cheers
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:yeahthat:

I only use the voice recognition in my GMC Sierra pickup trucks for hands free telephone. The one in my 2010 is passable, but the one in my 2014 is absolutely bulletproof. Big improvement.
 
It's hosted "in the cloud" but it's not crowd sourced.
 
My 2016 Chevrolet apparently came with the voice command stuff. The dealer showed it all to me and I've never touched it again. I even amputated the OnStar module(which is a different system). About the only functions I use are the next button to tell my phone paired via bluetooth to play the next track in my music selection and once every month or so the button to answer a phone call.

I have no desire to talk to my phone, my tablet, my computer or my truck.
 
I bought my 2015 Acura TLX with the technology package. Really wish I hadn't...The navigation sucks and the "technology" ain't that great.

Selling it this year and downgrading to something a bit less "fancy".
 
Old Fart said:
Nope - SYNC in Milady's '13 Fusion isn't much better. At least it's a polite moron most days.....
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I have a '14 Fusion, voice recognition works quite well. The only place it falls down is on song titles with non-word words, such as "do ya wanna".
 
Caramon13 said:
Really wish I hadn't...The navigation sucks and the "technology" ain't that great.
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I didn't have a choice for the trim package that was actually available without a custom order. But yea, the built-in navigation is useless. Android Auto is useless. The way I use it most often is with my phone on a RAM mount next to the truck's display for actual navigation and the in-car stuff just for audio.
 
chartbundle said:
I didn't have a choice for the trim package that was actually available without a custom order. But yea, the built-in navigation is useless. Android Auto is useless. The way I use it most often is with my phone on a RAM mount next to the truck's display for actual navigation and the in-car stuff just for audio.
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Yup...same. I use the same ram mount I use when I fly, just a different clip for the phone and I position it so it's right in front of the useless nav screen.

They tried to sell me a maps update for the car, $200...lol.
 
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. My car has that and it's great.
 
asicer said:
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. My car has that and it's great.
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I don't know about the Apple flavor. But the Android one is basically useless. My music player wasn't supported(now has beta support) and my Navigation app(Waze) isn't supported even though Google owns them now.

If I want to park and check an email or respond to a message on Slack I have to disconnect the phone and use the phone screen and then reconnect it.

If it was just my phone screen on the dash for unsupported apps then that would be useful, but as it is I don't have any use for it.
 
I like the hands free on my Subaru. I say Fritawobblespterez, and it will repeat, Calling mom cell.
 
I find that my voice systems work great when I'm just fooling around. When I actually need it to do a thing it seems to sense that and fail to hear me consistently.
 
The voice recognition in my Honda (a Pilot, of course) is pretty good, but when is goes sideways it does it in a spectacular way.
 
cowman said:
I find that my voice systems work great when I'm just fooling around. When I actually need it to do a thing it seems to sense that and fail to hear me consistently.
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They smell fear...and are programmed to fail when used correctly.

My navigation system can find all the small parks, but sometimes has no idea how to locate a bank, or a particular restaurant. Not to mention there are FOUR, yes..FOUR steps to find anything. The Acura system sucks BAD....
 
chartbundle said:
I don't know about the Apple flavor. But the Android one is basically useless. My music player wasn't supported(now has beta support) and my Navigation app(Waze) isn't supported even though Google owns them now.
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OK, let me rephrase. It's great compared to all the factory nav systems.:)
 
Besides the voice rec sucking rocks, the rest of the features in the on-board Nav blow also... there's literally no good reason to pay the car maker for them. A phone in a mount and a copy of Waze is light years ahead of anything in the dash.

(Similar sentiments about quite a few panel mounted avionics in aircraft... not all, but many...)
 
It seems to work okay on my 2016 Kia on those rare occasions when I bother pairing it with my phone, but I've never asked it to do very much.
Shepherd said:
The voice recognition in my Honda (a Pilot, of course) is pretty good, but when is goes sideways it does it in a spectacular way.
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TomTom used to like routing people over this lovely road not far from me:

tom1.jpg


tom2.jpg


A recent basemap update corrected the problem. Now traffic is routed over a slightly less harrowing route.

Rich
 
If the fan is running (heat or AC) my voice recognition sucks. Turn off the fan - perfect. Go figure.
 
denverpilot said:
Besides the voice rec sucking rocks, the rest of the features in the on-board Nav blow also... there's literally no good reason to pay the car maker for them. A phone in a mount and a copy of Waze is light years ahead of anything in the dash.
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My in dash Nav has been very good.

OTOH, Google maps and Apple maps both directed me to Omaha NE when the destination was in Ardmore OK. The company had moved two years prior:rolleyes:

Cheers
 
The voice recognition in my 45 Willys works perfectly. Never talks back, never makes mistakes, never does anything. I like it that way.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
The voice recognition in my 45 Willys works perfectly. Never talks back, never makes mistakes, never does anything. I like it that way.
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I really miss my '42 Willys. I sold it in 1970 when I went off to college.
 
JOhnH said:
I really miss my '42 Willys. I sold it in 1970 when I went off to college.
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Buy one! I see really nice restored jeeps from 43-45 going for 10-15K they put mine to shame.

They are still the greatest sports car ever made!
 
Acrodustertoo said:
The voice recognition in my 45 Willys works perfectly. Never talks back, never makes mistakes, never does anything. I like it that way.
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Drove a Henry J back in the day with the same characteristics.

Cheers
 
Acrodustertoo said:
Buy one! I see really nice restored jeeps from 43-45 going for 10-15K they put mine to shame.

They are still the greatest sports car ever made!
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I think I sold mine for about $150 back then. So today they are going for about 100 times that huh? I wish I had the garage space for another toy. I could put it in the hangar, but low wings don't play nice with other toys more than around 2 feet tall.
 
JOhnH said:
I think I sold mine for about $150 back then. So today they are going for about 100 times that huh? I wish I had the garage space for another toy. I could put it in the hangar, but low wings don't play nice with other toys more than around 2 feet tall.
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My father bought my willys back in 1964, I believe he paid $200 for it. The payments were $15 a month! He was working for my grandfather at the time and he was getting paid $14 a month, he did that to teach him about money, he had to get a part time job to pay that extra $1. Oh how times have changed.
 
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