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My car has onboard voice controls, but, unlike Siri via the car's audio system, they suck. Recognition is slow and unreliable enough that I never bother, and if

My car has onboard voice controls, but, unlike Siri via the car's audio system, they suck. Recognition is slow and unreliable enough that I never bother, and if I did, the cognitive overhead would be unacceptably high anyway. They'd have done better not to bother implementing them at all and instead just offload that work to the driver's paired smartphone, which for a sedan that listed $32k new, it's very reasonable to assume will be present.

at-fates-hands 7y ago
It's interesting, when I had my Windows phone and linked it with my 2014 Ford Fiesta which had Microsoft Sync, it was incredibly fast, responsive and a joy to use. Once you got the format of your queries down, it was super easy to use. They had a button on the wiper knob. Press it, wait for the beep and your're off and running. It synced up instantly. As soon as your phone was connected via bluetooth, you were good to go. I had a text conversation with my GF back and forth for almost two hours, just by using the speech to text recognition capability of the Sync in my Fiesa, it was really amazing to me how well it worked. My 2016 Toyota Corolla has something similar and pairs with my iphone and its a total nightmare. it takes literally ten minutes for it to sync up. That's after the phone has already been connected via Bluetooth. The command queries don't often work, you have to repeat them several times, and then after three of four times of saying the same thing over and over, you finally just give up. I'm not sure if its just with the iphone, but it really does suck.
- throwanem 7y ago
  It might just be the car. Unless I invoke the onboard voice recognition, my Altima essentially behaves as a Bluetooth headset powered by internal combustion, and Siri is as usable that way as via the phone's own speakers and mic. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if that were heavily dependent on the quality of the car's audio system, though; I went for the best available trim package, figuring that if I had to go back to owning a car again then it might as well at least be as comfortable as I could manage, and I might not have so good an experience here if I had economized a bit more.
Dahoon 7y ago
>My car has onboard voice controls, but, unlike Siri via the car's audio system, they suck Using Siri is more dangerous than driving and texting: "Undistracted drivers typically showed a one-second reaction time. Those who used the voice-controlled Apple CarPlay saw a 36% increase in their reaction time, which rose to 57% when they used the touch interface." https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/20/new-study-shows-using-apple-carplay-impairs-drivers-reaction-times-more-than-alcohol https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/20/new-study-shows-u... Touchscreens should be banned in cars. I bought my car without any for that reason.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- throwanem 7y ago
  I'd be interested to see how having a conversation with a passenger lines up.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Yeah, well, people are selective in their concerns. How much does it affect reaction time to have passengers in the car who you may talk to, or may be doing all sorts of things that distract you?
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Aren't passengers much better to have in your car, because they can "copilot" for you?
    - mod 7y ago
      No. Even if they were helping, they would have to communicate things to you in a way where you could interpret them and react more quickly than just doing it yourself. Passengers are largely not helping, and certainly are not good at communicating problems.
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      If you don't stop that right now, so help me, I'm going to turn this car around...
mihaaly 7y ago
Voice command is unreliable. Even human to human level, every safety critical application rely on voice commands has to implement very rigid and strong standards and rules on human speech.

at-fates-hands 7y ago

It's interesting, when I had my Windows phone and linked it with my 2014 Ford Fiesta which had Microsoft Sync, it was incredibly fast, responsive and a joy to use. Once you got the format of your queries down, it was super easy to use. They had a button on the wiper knob. Press it, wait for the beep and your're off and running. It synced up instantly. As soon as your phone was connected via bluetooth, you were good to go. I had a text conversation with my GF back and forth for almost two hours, just by using the speech to text recognition capability of the Sync in my Fiesa, it was really amazing to me how well it worked. My 2016 Toyota Corolla has something similar and pairs with my iphone and its a total nightmare. it takes literally ten minutes for it to sync up. That's after the phone has already been connected via Bluetooth. The command queries don't often work, you have to repeat them several times, and then after three of four times of saying the same thing over and over, you finally just give up. I'm not sure if its just with the iphone, but it really does suck.

throwanem 7y ago
It might just be the car. Unless I invoke the onboard voice recognition, my Altima essentially behaves as a Bluetooth headset powered by internal combustion, and Siri is as usable that way as via the phone's own speakers and mic. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if that were heavily dependent on the quality of the car's audio system, though; I went for the best available trim package, figuring that if I had to go back to owning a car again then it might as well at least be as comfortable as I could manage, and I might not have so good an experience here if I had economized a bit more.

Dahoon 7y ago

>My car has onboard voice controls, but, unlike Siri via the car's audio system, they suck Using Siri is more dangerous than driving and texting: "Undistracted drivers typically showed a one-second reaction time. Those who used the voice-controlled Apple CarPlay saw a 36% increase in their reaction time, which rose to 57% when they used the touch interface." https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/20/new-study-shows-using-apple-carplay-impairs-drivers-reaction-times-more-than-alcohol https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/20/new-study-shows-u... Touchscreens should be banned in cars. I bought my car without any for that reason.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
throwanem 7y ago
I'd be interested to see how having a conversation with a passenger lines up.
perl4ever 7y ago
Yeah, well, people are selective in their concerns. How much does it affect reaction time to have passengers in the car who you may talk to, or may be doing all sorts of things that distract you?
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Aren't passengers much better to have in your car, because they can "copilot" for you?
  - mod 7y ago
    No. Even if they were helping, they would have to communicate things to you in a way where you could interpret them and react more quickly than just doing it yourself. Passengers are largely not helping, and certainly are not good at communicating problems.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    If you don't stop that right now, so help me, I'm going to turn this car around...

mihaaly 7y ago

Voice command is unreliable. Even human to human level, every safety critical application rely on voice commands has to implement very rigid and strong standards and rules on human speech.