nicotino15

@superswiss you are way too sensible for this forum, don't you realize people paid 80k+ for this car (number creeps up every post)

The G Man

I find the system work better if you would talk normally into. Do not say commands slowly and loudly, say it just like you would if you were talking to the passenger next to you.

superswiss

Hehe. Trying to keep things realistic one post at a time

mplsbrian

In reply to Superswiss, that is all fine and good but I also have a 600cc supersport motorcycle and when I ride I wear a Sena bluetooth mic/speaker unit which is mounted inside my helmet. The Sena unit which was designed specifically for motorcycling. The noise cancellation/filtration on that thing is unmatched: I have taken conference calls with clients from it while riding 80+ miles an hour buffeted by wind with no baffle in the exhaust. From the other end I sound like I am sitting quietly at a desk with a professional call center headset on. Nobody suspects a thing -- the voice clarity on that thing is insane, even though it is essentially mounted to the outside of the screaming fire-breathing high velocity banshee that is my track bike...far from the relatively isolated chamber of quietness that an Audi cabin is.

Why does Audi not license the microphone / processing unit used in Sena headsets, and the voice recognition technology currently owned (even if not originally developed by) Google or Apple?

Why do these companies invest tons of hours into redeveloping a product that they have no chance at squaring the market on?

Why, to OP's point, does he have to bypass Audi and use Siri/Carplay to get useful directions?

Users on webexes tell me I sound "muddy and far away" when I take calls from my S4, even while parked with the engine off. I get it all the time and it is embarrassing to be taking a call from a $65000 car and sound like I'm on a cheap speakerphone.

The S4 and S5 microphone position is located on the overhead console. It is not an ideal position and there is no second mic on the A pillar for example. That is part of the problem. I have heard the issues are less pronounced on the cabrio, where there is a mic built into the seatbelt instead because there is no overhead console.

Audi needs to revisit these issues badly for the next model year, even if all they do in the interim is begin using a better quality microphone part with a processing filter a la Sena, or the adaptation of what is used in the Cabrio in terms of mic position across the B9 model lineup. It's ridiculous at this price point to ask for "directions to Riverside Drive" and have the car hear "list of Restaurants Nearby."

Tundraman

My girlfriend uses SIRI CarPlay in her car, most of the time, but last week we were trying to go somewhere, and she couldn't get Siri to recognize the location. I pulled out my droid... and told it the address... it recognized it, and away we went, using Android Auto for directions... So, even between competing voice recognition devices, there's a lot to be desired.

njspeedfreak

I've performed this sketch myself. It usually ends with me yelling a string of 4 letter words at the nav system, but it doesn't seem to understand those either.

luder888

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comme...gz&sh=cc510b9f

superswiss

Valid points for sure. One thing that would help is if folks specify their spec level. My understanding has always been that the B&O system comes with better noise cancellation for the mic. I could be wrong, but I've never gotten complaints about how I sound when taking a call from the car.

Audi as far as I know is closely working with Google now. The plan is to switch to Embedded Android as demoed in the Q8 concept. What I'm not sure yet is if the all-new system in the upcoming A6,7,8 is already the Android based system or a step in between. I think the car manufactures have received the message. Have you seen the new infotainment system in the Mercedes A-class? Miles above anything I've seen from Audi yet. First production car with augmented reality navigation, as well as AI based voice recognition. Now that I'm seriously looking at Mercedes for my next car, I am finding that Audi is behind the curve.

markcincinnati

I so want to use the word flawless, but even nearly flawless is just "this much" too much.

Having said that (those), I find the voice system to work most to almost all of the time for specific commands.

"Dial number" -- very rarely fails
Saying the actual number (7 or 10 digits) -- again, very rarely fails.
"Dial" -- again, very rarely fails.

"On line destination (-- no pause --) Morton's of Chicago, Cincinnati Ohio" -- rarely fails (unless someone else is in the car and starts talking). This one works "almost flawlessly" "almost all of the time" at least a 95% success with this one.
"Previous destinations" -- never fails
"Last destinations" never fails
"Drive me to" -- rarely fails, but can be frustrating at times
"Siri, send text message: to whom? to Jim Smith What would you like to say 'Hello Jim (period) I hope you're doing well (period) I am calling to confirm our 1 P,M, tee time (exclamation point) Beautiful weather (comma) it ought to be a great day for nine holes (period) See you at the club (period) Regards (comma) Mark" She reads it back to me in a British accent -- female -- and asks me if I'm ready to send it, I say yes and she confirms it was sent -- almost flawless (I know this isn't really the MMI's AI voice system, though.)
"Enter address" -- rarely fails and if it does it is usually attributable to me trying to do this without asking others in the car to shhhhhhh.

These are the commands, as I recall, that I use regularly.

Full disclosure, my wife seems to have difficulty with the voice recognition -- but I attribute this to what I perceive as an unwillingness to use it with enough frequency to get used to "its" expectations. She uses Alexa at home, though, like an old hand at it.

The system seems thoughtfully engineered, when I go to speak the A/C fan speed is suppressed whilst I enter a phone number, etc.

It is, however, frustrating at first until you figure out that it trains you, not the other way around,

I'd prefer that it behave more like Alexa (or maybe even Siri) but it is what it is and I find it "pretty good to very good" -- almost all of the time.

I rarely use the handwriting feature -- unless the car isn't moving.

Overall, I give it a B+ considering that the only other thing I have experience with is the SR or VR in an Acura which has many more commands, but since I didn't remember most of them, I just used it to make phone calls. I find the Audi system is primitive but it works pretty well.

====

If we're (not me in the "we") so pissed at the system who, pray tell, has a better system -- not via rumor but via hands-on experience?

superswiss

That's probably the best point so far and I find this true with all current systems including Siri and Google. While the latter are more flexible in how you can phrase a request they are still very robotic. You still have to think about how to phrase the request and you better have it together before starting. There is no stumbling or changing your mind half way through. I almost prefer the strictly command based systems. Once you have learned the commands and they usually display them on the screen it's pretty straight forward.