Rolfe
Moderator
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2023
- Messages
- 7,747
- Reaction score
- 8,638
- Points
- 2,604
- Location
- West Linton, Scotland
- Driving
- MG4 SE SR
I finally got my new phone with Android Auto installed, so I plugged it in to see what would happen. Pretty impressed so far, but I have a feeling I'm not aware of all its capabilities and how to get the most out of it.
I thought I'd try the "call so-and-so" feature, and said "call Elsie", hoping to get the person on my contacts list whose first name is Elsie. Instead the car said "Calling Elsie Ingles nursing home" and before I even had time to react I found myself having to stammer apologies about a wrong number to a slightly bemused receptionist. I tried that again today but instead said Elsie's full name. That got a query about the name and a request to tap the right name on my contacts list, after which it worked. (And as it did, I remember that it's Elsie's birthday today, so I even had an excuse to phone her - I'd been meaning to anyway, but it had slipped my mind. She has covid. We have dinner and the theatre on Tuesday, what are the chances?)
I'm a bit nervous about just asking it to call someone though, in case a similar thing happens. Do I have to go through my entire contacts list training the system? Is it common for it to connect directly to a random business just because the first word was right?
Voice commands on the satnav have a similar thing. I was driving around nearby villages trying to get a feel of what it could do. I said "Blyth Bridge" and the car immediately said "adding a stop at Blythe Bridge, England". Which is hundreds of miles away. I tried "Blyth Bridge, Scotland" but got the same thing. I looked up Blyth Bridge in the menu by typing it in, and it was there as "Blyth Bridge, Peeblesshire". So I tried again, this time saying "Blyth Bridge, Peeblesshire". The correct words came up on the screen so I thought "this time!" But no. "Adding a stop at Blythe Bridge, England." (Eventually I confused the thing so badly that the screen froze, but fortunately it had sorted itself out overnight. I think I was adding random stops to an increasingly complicated route that went to the Midlands and back several times, when I thought I was just setting new destinations, and in the end its brain fried.)
Small places seem to suffer from non-recognition. Even though they're in the menu, the voice recognition doesn't get them. "Carlops" got me "car wash" or nothing. My own address (before I'd actually set "home") tried to send me to a ChargePlace Scotland charging station somewhere in West Lothian, for no readily apparent reason. It's not that it doesn't understand, it's that it jumps to some wild conclusion and sends you off there without giving you any chance to affirm or deny.
The system thinks I have a perol car, and offers me routes to save petrol. Despite the fact that it's bound to Caliban, who is an EV. Not sure how to change this. Will it start showing chargers if I do that? Or is there a way to ask it?
Anyway, all you Android Auto experts here, what should an absolute novice be told about this thing?
I thought I'd try the "call so-and-so" feature, and said "call Elsie", hoping to get the person on my contacts list whose first name is Elsie. Instead the car said "Calling Elsie Ingles nursing home" and before I even had time to react I found myself having to stammer apologies about a wrong number to a slightly bemused receptionist. I tried that again today but instead said Elsie's full name. That got a query about the name and a request to tap the right name on my contacts list, after which it worked. (And as it did, I remember that it's Elsie's birthday today, so I even had an excuse to phone her - I'd been meaning to anyway, but it had slipped my mind. She has covid. We have dinner and the theatre on Tuesday, what are the chances?)
I'm a bit nervous about just asking it to call someone though, in case a similar thing happens. Do I have to go through my entire contacts list training the system? Is it common for it to connect directly to a random business just because the first word was right?
Voice commands on the satnav have a similar thing. I was driving around nearby villages trying to get a feel of what it could do. I said "Blyth Bridge" and the car immediately said "adding a stop at Blythe Bridge, England". Which is hundreds of miles away. I tried "Blyth Bridge, Scotland" but got the same thing. I looked up Blyth Bridge in the menu by typing it in, and it was there as "Blyth Bridge, Peeblesshire". So I tried again, this time saying "Blyth Bridge, Peeblesshire". The correct words came up on the screen so I thought "this time!" But no. "Adding a stop at Blythe Bridge, England." (Eventually I confused the thing so badly that the screen froze, but fortunately it had sorted itself out overnight. I think I was adding random stops to an increasingly complicated route that went to the Midlands and back several times, when I thought I was just setting new destinations, and in the end its brain fried.)
Small places seem to suffer from non-recognition. Even though they're in the menu, the voice recognition doesn't get them. "Carlops" got me "car wash" or nothing. My own address (before I'd actually set "home") tried to send me to a ChargePlace Scotland charging station somewhere in West Lothian, for no readily apparent reason. It's not that it doesn't understand, it's that it jumps to some wild conclusion and sends you off there without giving you any chance to affirm or deny.
The system thinks I have a perol car, and offers me routes to save petrol. Despite the fact that it's bound to Caliban, who is an EV. Not sure how to change this. Will it start showing chargers if I do that? Or is there a way to ask it?
Anyway, all you Android Auto experts here, what should an absolute novice be told about this thing?
