Does anyone use the voice control?

[spinball]

Just curious if you use the voice control feature and if so, what for? In what situations? I've not really used it in my i3 other than as a test and I tend to not use it on my phone either.

 

[MikeS]

No - not on my i3 or X1 except after first purchase to see how worked - not well!. Never seen the point to bother after that.

 

[Piekepuk]

I use it all the time.
It's a great feature. I can call people or set my Navi without bothering with menu's.

Bart

 

[Stevei3]

I use it all the time.
It's a great feature. I can call people or set my Navi without bothering with menu's.

Bart

+1
plus accessing incomming text messages quickly.

Steven

 

[Jeffj]

I use it occasionally and always think "I should use this more". It works way better than I had anticipated, and seems to understand my voice pretty well. But old habits are hard to break.

 

[spinball]

plus accessing incomming text messages quickly.

Not sure if US models have text message retrieval enabled. Does anyone know? Also, do you have to have your phone plugged in via USB cable for this to work?

 

[spinball]

I use it all the time. It's a great feature. I can call people or set my Navi without bothering with menu's.

I will have to try this. To voice control the nav, do you have to read off the entire address or can you do "online keyword" searches like you can with the iDrive controller?

For example, would any of these work?
"navigate home"
"navigate to mcdonald's"
"navigate to nearest charge station"

 

[Stevei3]

Not sure if US models have text message retrieval enabled. Does anyone know? Also, do you have to have your phone plugged in via USB cable for this to work?

Hi,

I believe it is available in the US as well. You have to have the extended bluetooth option installed to have the necessary 'Office' menu in your iDrive system AFAIK. Messaging works only via bluetooth, like your phone (even if the phone is connected with a USB cable or snap-in adaptor btw.). You'll have to check the bluetooth settings for the i3 profile on your phone as well. Messaging over the BT connection should be enabled.
Once enabled, your car will only show new text messages that arrive while you are in the car. You can have the navigation lady read the messages to you if you like. One caveat: you can't directly reply from the 'Office' department :-/. I use my iPhone's Siri for that. You can activate Siri from your steering wheel by long-pressing the voice button.

Regards, Steven

 

[Stevei3]

I will have to try this. To voice control the nav, do you have to read off the entire address or can you do "online keyword" searches like you can with the iDrive controller?

Hi,

yes, this works surprisingly well. In NL I ask my car for 'Online Zoeken' (translated: 'Online Search') after which I am prompted to voice my search criteria. Things like shop or company name icw. city name (e.g. 'BMW Amsterdam') work nearly every time.

Regards, Steven

 

[stumbledotcom]

Yes, I use voice activation frequently. Works well for entering addresses into the navigation system. A quick press of the steering wheel voice button results in a tone, which indicates the system is listening. Then you say, “Navigate to [house number, street, city, state]. System will respond with “Processing your input” then come back with its interpretations. I get about 90% accuracy.

Note: You must say the house number as individual digits. 123 Main St needs to be said as “One, two, three Main Street” not “one twenty-three”

The system does seem to struggle with street names that include numbers. I usually have to enter addresses such as 123 Second St with the controller.

I’ve never been able to get the text message function to work with an iPhone despite having all the necessary i3 options. During the delivery orientation, my CA said Apple restricts data access via Bluetooth; plugging into USB doesn't seem worth the bother.

iPhone users can invoke Siri with a long press of the steering wheel voice button then use it to read and send text messages.

 

[spinball]

Great tip on long-press for Siri, thanks.

I was able to get the voice control to do "online search". That one is useful to me.

Another one I find useful (and other people may think is silly) is "split screen on/off". I turn this on or off surprisingly often depending on my mood and what I'm listening to. I wish it had a third option: turn on automatically when changing track/media source/or to show nav off ramp exits, then turn itself back off.

 

[MikeS]

Must be just me then! I like my cars simple like my microwave. I don’t want loads of buttons and options on the micro wave, I just want to switch on and off!

 

[jelloslug]

Not sure if US models have text message retrieval enabled. Does anyone know? Also, do you have to have your phone plugged in via USB cable for this to work?

Hi,

I believe it is available in the US as well. You have to have the extended bluetooth option installed to have the necessary 'Office' menu in your iDrive system AFAIK. Messaging works only via bluetooth, like your phone (even if the phone is connected with a USB cable or snap-in adaptor btw.). You'll have to check the bluetooth settings for the i3 profile on your phone as well. Messaging over the BT connection should be enabled.
Once enabled, your car will only show new text messages that arrive while you are in the car. You can have the navigation lady read the messages to you if you like. One caveat: you can't directly reply from the 'Office' department :-/. I use my iPhone's Siri for that. You can activate Siri from your steering wheel by long-pressing the voice button.

Regards, Steven

You have to code the Office menu to show up on the US cars. For some unknown reason BMW wants all the i3 owners to use some subscription based service for text and emails.

 

[Stevei3]

You have to code the Office menu to show up on the US cars. For some unknown reason BMW wants all the i3 owners to use some subscription based service for text and emails.

Do you mean the option '6AK ConnectedDrive Services (BMW Online)' ? That could be it. 6AK is quoted to come with 'Office'

Regards, Steven

 

[spinball]

If there is a way to code the text ability in the US, I haven't found it. Will have to do some research on this before I go back in to disable the seatbelt warning gongs that don't even give you a millisecond to buckle before sounding off.

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, in Germany, you are technically driving the car whenever the key is in the ignition. I do not know how they handle cars with the start button. But, way back when, while I was living there, a friend of mine was in his car, engine off, leaning back, taking a nap with the car off, but the key in the ignition...he got a ticket for drunk driving. He would have been fine if he did not have the key in the ignition.

So, given the home market, BMW and most other German cars, have a certain mindset about what is right, whether that is how the car operates, or the decisions on which way to do things. In Germany, the seller must take back major appliances and vehicles to be recycled, and that somewhat dictates how they are put together, and with what materials. These decisions ripple throughout the design process since it's not like here where out the door, the car manufacturer doesn't really care much what happens within reason.

If you do not like the voice commands, you do have the buttons that can perform many tasks. That requires you to take your eyes off of the road, though, to select the proper one, if it had been already programmed. Voice commands can be fussy if you do not remember the proper sequence or keywords. If you're willing to drill down through the menus, you can get anywhere, if you do not remember the 'shortcut'. THen, the voice recognition isn't perfect, nor probably never will be...it will continue to get better as processors get faster and memory gets cheaper. Faster processors tend to use more power, and that's not a good thing on an i3!