Siri from the steering wheel???

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Well, in my personal experience (with my wife's iPhone 4S) and from anecdotal evidence from friends and others, Siri has been a fail!

Apple employees have also supposedly been 'embarrassed' by Siri and there are murmurs that Apple 'tweaks' the answers that Siri gives at times:

Ex-Apple Insider: 'People Are Embarrassed By Siri' - Business Insider
Siri Ads Rigged: Says Former Apple Employee
Apple patches Siri smartphone answer: Nokia not amused - SlashGear

And, if network connectivity is spotty, you are toast anyway as Siri would be dead in the water. Given all that, I'm not too keen on the current implementation of Siri being particularly useful although I could see myself using it in a car scenario more than with the phone by itself.

It's a great concept though (and that's what it still is: a concept). YMMV.

 

[NigelM]

Well, in my personal experience (with my wife's iPhone 4S) and from anecdotal evidence from friends and others, Siri has been a fail!

Siri is great, so long as you're careful about background noise. If I talk into the phone it's a really useful tool, but in the car (even the Roadster) it doesn't work if there is any wind noise whatsoever. I was more than pleasantly surprised that Siri has no problem with my English accent/pronunciations.....Hmmm, anything to do with Jonathon Ive?

 

[AnOutsider]

Siri is great, so long as you're careful about background noise. If I talk into the phone it's a really useful tool, but in the car (even the Roadster) it doesn't work if there is any wind noise whatsoever. I was more than pleasantly surprised that Siri has no problem with my English accent/pronunciations.....Hmmm, anything to do with Jonathon Ive?

*edit* video should not be played loud in a public place

 

[stopcrazypp]

I'm not sure about that. Siri is cloud based, so there is only a need to connect to the apple cloud. Not much software customization needed. What is needed, however, is a way for these vehicles to access the cloud...

You still need software in the car to handle Siri commands and software to pass commands over to the cloud in that case. I suspect like gg_wants_a_tesla suggests something similar to bluetooth connected to an iOS device.

 

[NigelM]

^^We are amused. :smile:

(Outsider, maybe add a NSFW note on that video before people turn up the volume?)

 

[stopcrazypp]

Siri is great, so long as you're careful about background noise. If I talk into the phone it's a really useful tool, but in the car (even the Roadster) it doesn't work if there is any wind noise whatsoever. I was more than pleasantly surprised that Siri has no problem with my English accent/pronunciations.....Hmmm, anything to do with Jonathon Ive?

The voice recognition part is essentially the same for most systems (Siri's voice recognition is by Nuance communications, which powers probably 99% of voice recognition, including Microsoft's Sync, and the voice recognition in most dumb phones). The unique part of Siri is not the voice recognition, but the server processing of your queries.

 

[spatterso911]

You still need software in the car to handle Siri commands and software to pass commands over to the cloud in that case. I suspect like gg_wants_a_tesla suggests something similar to bluetooth connected to an iOS device.

That makes a lot more sense.

 

[Trnsl8r]

Siri is great, so long as you're careful about background noise. If I talk into the phone it's a really useful tool, but in the car (even the Roadster) it doesn't work if there is any wind noise whatsoever. I was more than pleasantly surprised that Siri has no problem with my English accent/pronunciations.....Hmmm, anything to do with Jonathon Ive?

Actually Siri officially supports US, British, and Australian English. (Bottom of Apple - Siri - Frequently Asked Questions )

 

[ddenboer]

Wow this thread has gone way out there in terms of what is being offered here.
It still requires an iOS device that can use Siri. It still requires pairing that with your vehicle.
What the car maker needs to do is integrate with it, similar to how car companies did with iPod (but a little more).

 

[Lyon]

Well lets be fair here:

Google makes all of its money from ADS! Google uses software to help display its ads.
Apple makes its money from SONGS and HARDWARE! Apple uses software to help sell songs, and hardware.

Neither company is in the software business. That is Microsoft!

I don't really want to start a whole big thing about this but I don't agree. IMHO folk don't buy iPhones by the millions because of the hardware, they buy them because of the marriage between that hardware and the software on the phone. Same thing goes for Apple computers. Apple makes gobs of money by packaging and brilliantly marketing a combination of hardware and software.

A lot of smartphones on the market today have better tech specs and are cheaper than the iPhone but they can't seem to make the user experience as good. That's a result of the software.

I guess if your only metric is how much revenue can be attributed to software by itself than you're right, however if you ask yourself why people buy Apple's products you cannot escape the fact that it's because people prefer the software that comes on it.

 

[WhiteKnight]

(1) With a simple software update to the Tesla OS, they should be able to add a Siri button to the 17" touchscreen that summons Siri. With a little more work they should be able to configure the dual scroll wheels on the steering wheel so that if you do something extra-ordinary (like hold them both down at the same time) that it summons Siri.

This is as far as any other automaker could and would go. As part of the demo, Apple highlighted the fact that the iPhone screen stays dark and does not show the driver anything.

Elon Musk has stated that if the Model S does not have the best iPhone integration of any car on the road then something is wrong.

No other automaker is talking about using Apple maps. Google maps are available in the browser. Are Apple maps going to be available in the browser? If so then that's simple and requires no integration.

The ability to display the iPhone screen on the Model S touchscreen and presumably the touch input from the Model S get passed back to the iPhone would be very cool, probably very difficult (I'm not sure iOS 6 - or earlier - supports touch input from a device other than the phone screen), and also a BIG distraction for the driver (staring at a 17" iPhone screen).

 

[Incredulocious]

It may be worth mentioning that Siri is already pretty accessible through existing, widely available Bluetooth hands-free support. Both with my Nissan LEAF's stock system and my RAV4's Pioneer aftermarket system, I can reach over and hold down the home button on my iPhone to initiate voice interaction with Siri though the car's microphone and speakers (as opposed to the phone's). The a/v system mutes the current audio and Siri chirps and I can make vocal requests for info, send a message or whatever and the answers come back through the car speakers. That's just Bluetooth support. So it's reasonable to expect at least this level of "integration" with the Model S. Though of course how well that works in the presence of noise is largely dependent on your car's microphone and noise cancellation. The LEAF's works great, Pioneer's... not so great — regardless of whether it's Siri or a person trying to hear me on the other end.

Part of what's coming with iOS 6 though is "eyes free" support to improve the interaction and keep the phone's screen entirely dark during all this — in an effort to avoid visual distractions while driving.

 

[woof]

So no way for Tesla to make it possible to plug my iphone into an adapter, run siri and the maps app on the ios on my phone, and have some portion of the touchscreen in the car simply acting as a "second screen" to my iphone?

Yes way. It's called AirPlay, and needs only WiFi from the phone to to the display. Can be done today with any existing HDMI Display and an Apple TV "puck". Can be done tomorrow on Tesla's console display with some existing Linux based open source software that handles the AirPlay protocol. Can be done in a bit more time if they actually license the AirPlay protocol from Apple and make the Model S an official AirPlay device.

Apple - iPad - Stream movies and music wirelessly with AirPlay.

 

[78Lion]

I think Tesla needs to focus on building great cars, not become a software company. They can't home-grow something to compete with Google Maps and at the same time home-grow a car company to compete with GM and Honda.

When software is available that meets the need, they should use it, not reinvent the wheel. That way their available resources can be used for designing and building things that don't exist.

Bingo. The screen could just as easily be blank save the inherent car features they have decided to put on screen instead of buttons/knobs (air, suspension, volumn, etc.). Work with both Google and Apple to provide integration of feature sets to allow audio communication with the car features and leave the rest up to these software companies. Allow the consumer to choose Google or Iphone integration as options.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Yes way. It's called AirPlay, and needs only WiFi from the phone to to the display. Can be done today with any existing HDMI Display and an Apple TV "puck". Can be done tomorrow on Tesla's console display with some existing Linux based open source software that handles the AirPlay protocol. Can be done in a bit more time if they actually license the AirPlay protocol from Apple and make the Model S an official AirPlay device.

Apple - iPad - Stream movies and music wirelessly with AirPlay.

Now, where's that HDMI input to the touchscreen?! I want to tote my Apple TV puck around in my Model S!

Beyond AirPlay, there's mirroring if using an iPad 2 or later. That'd be even better as you can then indeed use Apple Maps or any other app and see it on the 17" screen. But, no, there'd be no touch interaction with the 17-incher...

 

[SByer]

There is a BlueTooth terminal protocol, just that nobody that I know has implemented it yet. That's what you really want, so you could choose an Android (no walled gardens for me!) or an iPhone, have it essentially 'take over' the display or part of it while still being in your pocket, and be happy.

(BTW, I'm under no delusions, I'm paid by an advertising company to contribute to an open-source software project.)

 

[favo]

I would think any screen remoting should take place in a window on the Model S screen and not take over the whole screen. That way you could have it take up half or whole screen, just like the other apps. Also, if there is a powerful enough SDK in the future, you could implement remote desktop (RDP) or X-Windows and connect to your office/home computer. Just add Bluetooth keyboard. Talk about distractions! :scared:

As far as Apple creating Siri, they didn't. They bought it from a startup that had lots of DARPA funding and university input. Siri, Inc. originally had plans for Android and Blackberry versions. Apple was smart enough to see its usefulness and marketability, and added some polish to make it their own.

On Apple vs. Google maps, I wouldn't assume Google will stop improving their stuff. In fact, I guarantee you they are already planning how to one up Apple. Competition is good.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

A pessimistic view of in-car Siri integration: Apple fans, don't expect a Siri button in your car anytime soon | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

 

[stopcrazypp]

A pessimistic view of in-car Siri integration: Apple fans, don't expect a Siri button in your car anytime soon | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

Exactly what I was saying. Seems like a bit of investigative journalism confirmed it. Automakers want more control/customization than Apple would provide. It'll likely end up similar to bluetooth (much less integrated in the car and you need an iOS device to have the functionality). It's not the "Siri button" envisioned in the presentation.

 

[spatterso911]

My SUV activates Siri via the talk button, long press.