voice comands not good enough

Good thoughts!

I completely agree. I'd love to see them integrate something like wit.ai so that it could take voice commands in a more freeform manner (a la Siri) and expand its repertoire.

Yesterday I was distracted driving trying to close the sunroof from the screen but afterwards realized that I could do this with the right side steering wheel button.
It would be nice to have additional voice commands and no doubt these will come in time. That's the nice thing about the frequent software updates. I think if we make suggestions in a positive tone, they will be received and acted on by Tesla. It doesn't help to whinge and moan.

AnOutsider said:

Where did anyone "whine" and moan?

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I thought the OP comment that "...its 2015 come on"(sic) was a bit of a whinge.

richardfallows said:

so when do you think we will get full control of are tesla with voice control
I mean I was in heavy traffic the other day and found it hard to hit the little fan button to slow it down.
it would have been nice to not have to take my eyes off the road to do that and just tell it to reduce fan 50% in fact I don't understand why we cant use the voice for all the controls I mean its 2015

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The voice commands are pretty good evidence of Tesla's scattered development process. They already did the hard work. There's a voice command subsystem that works well. It's easy to use, and can integrate with the center console. Then instead of finishing the work with the rest of the commands, they checked the box next to Voice Command Feature and moved on.

You see this kind of "let's do something just barely enough to say we have that feature" throughout the vehicle. I thought they'd circle around and finish those things off, but mostly they haven't.

Gizmotoy said:

You see this kind of "let's do something just barely enough to say we have that feature" throughout the vehicle. I thought they'd circle around and finish those things off, but mostly they haven't.

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And if this philosophy doesn't change by the time Model 3 rolls out, Tesla's goose will start cooking.

The voice commands are awful, just awful. It doesn't understand a simple query like "Call Daniella, cell". It's not hands-free at all, most voice commands require completion by interacting with the screen in some manner. People think Tesla's are some tour-de-foce of technology until they sit in one and actually use it. Then they find out that yah, it's a tour-de-force of incompleteness.

These days I just say "Hey, Siri." That covers most of my needs!

Many folks here keep saying that if Tesla doesn't start getting more things ironed out before the Model 3, the company will fall on it face. Frankly, I think that's giving Tesla too much leeway. At this point, they have to nail most of these items in the Model X. Unlike the Model S, which got a "new and shiny" + "radical step forward" pass in its reviews, the Model X cannot, and should not, be a beta tester vehicle. Otherwise, the reviewers and the potential target audience are likely to lambast it. Thus, Tesla has a lot of work to do this year.

And I believe that is in part why the X is so late: Elon realizes that at launch the X has to be outstanding. We are past being amazed at the "skateboard" battery package and the astonishing acceleration and the loads of luggage space and the 17" screen. The X has to impress for other reasons, so the Falcon Wing doors have to work perfect.y and the rear seating has to be mind-blowing and the carrying capacity for skis and bikes has to be innovative and very functional. None of that is easy.

Gizmotoy said:

Then instead of finishing the work with the rest of the commands, they checked the box next to Voice Command Feature and moved on.

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Not to mention that they are tied to internet connectivity so if that doesn't work, or if you don't pay for it when they start charging, then you no longer have voice commands.

AmpedRealtor said:

The voice commands are awful, just awful. It doesn't understand a simple query like "Call Daniella, cell". It's not hands-free at all, most voice commands require completion by interacting with the screen in some manner.

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Leave aside for the moment being able to complete this command using voice only. (I mean I'd love to be able to do that, but I know that's currently not possible.) Am I correct that even if a contact has just a single phone number entry in my phone, such that when the Model S voice dialing identifies that contact and pulls the one and only number for this contact up on my display, there's still no way for me to actually call this contact without physically touching the screen? I can't use any buttons on the steering wheel, etc., right? I'm not missing anything? I almost recognize the issue if a contact has several numbers, although it shouldn't be that hard for Tesla to allow us to use the scroll wheel to scroll through them and then press the scroll wheel to dial, but perhaps it has a different function at that point, but if there is just a single number available for a given contact you'd think there would be some way to just dial it. Perhaps someone will tell me there is and I've just been in the dark about it.

iadbound said:

Many folks here keep saying that if Tesla doesn't start getting more things ironed out before the Model 3, the company will fall on it face. Frankly, I think that's giving Tesla too much leeway....

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Yeah, Tesla's going under because you can't tell the car to turn the fan down... sheesh!

Voice commands are highly overrated, in my opinion, which is why I am typing this on a qwerty keyboard rather than speaking it. I know driving is different but still the scroll wheel lets you turn the fan down easily without losing sight of the road. I keep it at the default for dimming the screen at night (because I use that most) then easily push the lower button to change it to the fan, sunroof, etc. I never use the touchscreen for those things. I wouldn't be speaking to the car to turn the fan down even if I could, just like I'm typing this on a keyboard, rather than speaking it, and it's far more key strokes.

Those of you seeing the demise of Tesla over things like this need to put your shovels away. Tesla is not going anywhere anytime soon. Your dreams of being David Hasseloff with your car, Knight Rider, will need to wait a bit though.

It's completely staggering to me how a feature that didn't exist a few years ago in ANY car, and still does not exist in the majority of cars today, is suddenly a deal breaker. For serious guys??

Would be cool to see them implement more voice commands as time goes on tho.

As mentioned above, the Nav is very much a work in progress and does not have the functionality of even some basic aftermarket models. And, yes, voice commands do indeed need to be expanded.

Canuck said:

Yeah, Tesla's going under because you can't tell the car to turn the fan down... sheesh!

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I should have been more clear I didn't just mean voice commands as things that need to be ironed out sooner rather than later. I agree that voice commands are hardly the biggest deal. However, Tesla has a lot of niggling issues and some bigger ones that need to be addressed.

iadbound said:

I should have been more clear I didn't just mean voice commands as things that need to be ironed out sooner rather than later. I agree that voice commands are hardly the biggest deal. However, Tesla has a lot of niggling issues and some bigger ones that need to be addressed.

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Understood. I also agree with you that there's still a lot of room for Tesla to get better and it's good that you hold their feet to the fire.

I agree it needs to improve, in most cars that have it. But, c'mon ... Fan speed? How is it possibly easier to speak it than to look down for 1 second and then push the (-) button a couple of times?

This is such an interesting discussion. On the one hand we have the "if Tesla doesn't do XYZ that is a sign that Tesla will fail" faction, on the other hand the "who on earth needs this" faction.
We run into this in a lot of threads here on TMC. Why does it always have to be one of the extremes.

Voice commands as implemented today are lame. In general, the importance of voice commands depends on the driver. I hate using voice commands and battling with it not giving me what I want. So I don't use Siri or OK Google or Tesla's two or three commands. It's way more distracting to figure out how to get it to correct what it mis-heard :-/ Others appear to think they are awesome. I see them talking to their phone for stuff that I'd do with a couple of finger strokes...

So yes, eventually they'll need to improve voice recognition. Just as they need to improve <fill in your pet peeve>. I seriously doubt that any of this needs to be perfect "or else". I much more think that this is a sliding scale. The more things they get right, the more successful they'll be, the quicker they'll grow.