Voice command fail for phone call/message

[Bigriver]

I am having trouble using voice commands to initiate phone calls and messages. It transcribes perfectly what I am saying, but then after a few moments, the words float off the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Here are some specific aspects that add to the puzzle:

• The problem happens in my 2017 Model X with infotainment upgrade, but it works perfectly in my model 3.
• It works ok if there are multiple phone numbers or multiple people in my contacts that it needs me to pick between. The problem only happens if there is a single phone number and only one possible name match.
• It currently is a problem on 2021.4.11, it was working ok (at least briefly) on 2021.4.10.1 and I think I first noticed it as a problem on 2020.48.35.5.

I have worked around it by adding a second dummy phone number for the people I need to reach most often, or to initiate from the screen. But both are annoying. Wondering if others are having this issue and if anyone has a real fix. I have, of course, rebooted.

 

[scottf200]

I am having trouble using voice commands to initiate phone calls and messages. It transcribes perfectly what I am saying, but then after a few moments, the words float off the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Here are some specific aspects that add to the puzzle:

• The problem happens in my 2017 Model X with infotainment upgrade, but it works perfectly in my model 3.
• It works ok if there are multiple phone numbers or multiple people in my contacts that it needs me to pick between. The problem only happens if there is a single phone number and only one possible name match.
• It currently is a problem on 2021.4.11, it was working ok (at least briefly) on 2021.4.10.1 and I think I first noticed it as a problem on 2020.48.35.5.

I have worked around it by adding a second dummy phone number for the people I need to reach most often, or to initiate from the screen. But both are annoying. Wondering if others are having this issue and if anyone has a real fix. I have, of course, rebooted.

I had success with a new entry I just created. My vehicle.

• 2017 Model X with infotainment upgrade
• on 2021.4.11

Note that I was in my garage on WiFi so I don't know if the voice command translator works differently vs being on AT&T cell Tesla connection.

Telephone Time — Naval Oceanography Portal

 

[scottf200]

BTW, this also worked when I was away from my garage and was just using my cars AT&T connection.

 

[KentuckyX]

I was recently bragging to someone about how well voice commands were working, across the board, in my X. Then along comes 2021.4.11. Now my vehicle is suddenly hard of hearing. Many repeats before it actually hears me correctly. I also discovered something odd yesterday - I was on the road and trying to text my brother. I said, “Send a message to Mark” and the command appeared and then disappeared from the screen without letting me see anything. I did it a couple of times and the same thing happened. A couple of minutes later, my brother texted me and asked, “Why are you texting ‘dammit’ to me?” Turns out, each time the command was disappearing without seemingly letting me input a message, I said, “dammit”. I learned that if I said, “Send a message to Mark” followed by the actual message, it would send it, but not show me on the screen what it sent. Weird behavior.

 

[scottf200]

I was recently bragging to someone about how well voice commands were working, across the board, in my X. Then along comes 2021.4.11. Now my vehicle is suddenly hard of hearing. Many repeats before it actually hears me correctly. I also discovered something odd yesterday - I was on the road and trying to text my brother. I said, “Send a message to Mark” and the command appeared and then disappeared from the screen without letting me see anything. I did it a couple of times and the same thing happened. A couple of minutes later, my brother texted me and asked, “Why are you texting ‘dammit’ to me?” Turns out, each time the command was disappearing without seemingly letting me input a message, I said, “dammit”. I learned that if I said, “Send a message to Mark” followed by the actual message, it would send it, but not show me on the screen what it sent. Weird behavior.

I'm happy to try some voice commands that are giving you trouble for comparison. More than text sends I'm assuming? ("hard of hearing")
I don't know if I've ever sent a text from the car but I have received them (and had them read).
The variety of voice commands: V10.2 Tesla Voice Commands

 

[scottf200]

I am having trouble using voice commands to initiate phone calls and messages.
It currently is a problem on 2021.4.11, it was working ok (at least briefly) on 2021.4.10.1 and I think I first noticed it as a problem on 2020.48.35.5.

@Bigriver Are you still having a problem? I did a couple of test for you as we seem to have the 'same' setup.
Perhaps your phone brand/type/age/etc? I'm using a Pixel XL2

 

[Bigriver]

the command appeared and then disappeared from the screen without letting me see anything.

That is exactly what happens. Minus the damnit part!! It just disappears. This made me go out and retest it, and about 1 out of 5 times, if I said something IMMEDIATELY after the name, it would send that. Had to be short. It briefly captured the words on screen: “Send a message to Victoria Smith hello, hello, hello” and although not following up with anything else on the IC display, the “hello, hello, hello” message was received by Victoria Smith. I was able to repeat those words and it worked every time, but only found a few simple phrases that went through.

Are you still having a problem? I did a couple of test for you as we seem to have the 'same' setup.
Perhaps your phone brand/type/age/etc? I'm using a Pixel XL2

Problem is still there. iPhone 11. Cricket wireless.

It fails on all the wording I could think of (e.g., send a message to..., send a text to...., message.....) and the problem is strictly linked to someone for whom I only have one phone number or if they are a unique name (call John gives me 6 options and everything works after I pick one).

Interestingly although my original post said it didn’t work for phone calls, the test I just did of “call Victoria Smith” worked perfectly. I didn’t test multiple times because it is more annoying for me to randomly be calling people just because I’m testing it out. So not sure if the phone part is truly working now or whether that was a fluke.

 

[scottf200]

Problem is still there. iPhone 11. Cricket wireless.

It fails on all the wording I could think of (e.g., send a message to..., send a text to...., message.....) and the problem is strictly linked to someone for whom I only have one phone number or if they are a unique name (call John gives me 6 options and everything works after I pick one).

Interestingly although my original post said it didn’t work for phone calls, the test I just did of “call Victoria Smith” worked perfectly. I didn’t test multiple times because it is more annoying for me to randomly be calling people just because I’m testing it out. So not sure if the phone part is truly working now or whether that was a fluke.

I have a Google voice number so I set that up in my contacts (Android Pixel 2) for Victoria Smith.
I could reproduce your problem. I'm happy to report this. Not sure the best way anymore. (I found chat option during the day here: Tesla SSO - Sign In)
See 3 below how I was able to text when there was 1 number.

1. Text: I was NOT able to do a voice command for texting her when it was 1 number
2. Call: I was _____ able to do a voice command for calling her when it was 1 number
3. Text: I was _____ able to do a voice command for texting her when it was 1 number *if* I picked it from the cars phone app and clicked the text icon
4. Call: I was _____ able to do a voice command for calling her when it was 2 numbers
5. Text: I was _____ able to do a voice command for texting her when it was 2 numbers

 

[Bigriver]

I could reproduce your problem.

Thank you for checking this out. Your 5 combinations do match my situation exactly. yeah, it’s not clear how to let Tesla know of these issues. I wonder whether or not they have it in their own known bug list. I have a fairly long list of nits before my car goes out of warranty. Have thought about including this one...

 

[scottf200]

Thank you for checking this out. Your 5 combinations do match my situation exactly. yeah, it’s not clear how to let Tesla know of these issues. I wonder whether or not they have it in their own known bug list. I have a fairly long list of nits before my car goes out of warranty. Have thought about including this one...

Try it again if you have 2021.4.12 --- worked for me with 1 contact.

 

[Bigriver]

Try it again if you have 2021.4.12 --- worked for me with 1 contact.

Sad to report it still isn’t working for me on 2021.4.12. Same old problem that is getting old.

 

[mxnym]

I am having trouble using voice commands to initiate phone calls and messages. It transcribes perfectly what I am saying, but then after a few moments, the words float off the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Here are some specific aspects that add to the puzzle:

• The problem happens in my 2017 Model X with infotainment upgrade, but it works perfectly in my model 3.
• It works ok if there are multiple phone numbers or multiple people in my contacts that it needs me to pick between. The problem only happens if there is a single phone number and only one possible name match.
• It currently is a problem on 2021.4.11, it was working ok (at least briefly) on 2021.4.10.1 and I think I first noticed it as a problem on 2020.48.35.5.

I have worked around it by adding a second dummy phone number for the people I need to reach most often, or to initiate from the screen. But both are annoying. Wondering if others are having this issue and if anyone has a real fix. I have, of course, rebooted.

I think I've had this problem ever since having the MCU2+HW3 upgrade done. That isn't to say I didn't have the problem with MCU1 as well, but my MCU1 was so worn out I would never try (it would tell me to turn about two intersections too late with GPS and voice commands were right out). I didn't notice the problem immediately because I don't call or text that many people, but I did notice I couldn't call a certain company using the voice command even though it would display my command perfectly. I never dug deeper, but it definitely sounds exactly like this.

Thank you for checking this out. Your 5 combinations do match my situation exactly. yeah, it’s not clear how to let Tesla know of these issues. I wonder whether or not they have it in their own known bug list. I have a fairly long list of nits before my car goes out of warranty. Have thought about including this one...

I'd recommend it. Back when you could submit support requests through the website, mine always got forwarded to the service center no matter how obviously software they were.

 

[Bigriver]

I think I've had this problem ever since having the MCU2+HW3 upgrade done. That isn't to say I didn't have the problem with MCU1 as well, but my MCU1 was so worn out I would never try (it would tell me to turn about two intersections too late with GPS and voice commands were right out).

Ha... exactly. With MCU1 I gave up ever trying anything. With MCU2 I am pleasantly surprised that most voice commands work. This part, tho, is flaky. For awhile, I know it worked again... I even went through and deleted my dummy extra phone numbers. Wish I could remember more of my history on when I did what.

I went on a couple of hour drive this morning and spent a lot of time testing it on every single phone number/name I could think of in my contacts. There are some people that it never works for. Some people it worked when I duplicated their number in my contact list twice. (Set same number for home and mobile, for example.) I found a few that it worked like 1 out of 5 times for. Getting different results from doing the exact same thing is perhaps what bothers me the most.

 

[scottf200]

Sad to report it still isn’t working for me on 2021.4.12. Same old problem that is getting old.

I was out running an errand and did some more testing. I was getting inconsistent results as well. I was able to send a test to a 'Tom Jones' with a single contact number but could only do it once. On subsequent tries, it failed.

 

[CeliaZora]

Similar issues with texting/calling via voice command. Briefly, the Tesla screen flashed a message about IOS update. My phone did update recently and voice/text hasn’t worked with the Tesla since then.

 

[LandaJ]

I am having trouble using voice commands to initiate phone calls and messages. It transcribes perfectly what I am saying, but then after a few moments, the words float off the right side of the screen and nothing happens. Here are some specific aspects that add to the puzzle:

• The problem happens in my 2017 Model X with infotainment upgrade, but it works perfectly in my model 3.
• It works ok if there are multiple phone numbers or multiple people in my contacts that it needs me to pick between. The problem only happens if there is a single phone number and only one possible name match.
• It currently is a problem on 2021.4.11, it was working ok (at least briefly) on 2021.4.10.1 and I think I first noticed it as a problem on 2020.48.35.5.

I have worked around it by adding a second dummy phone number for the people I need to reach most often, or to initiate from the screen. But both are annoying. Wondering if others are having this issue and if anyone has a real fix. I have, of course, rebooted.

 

[Bigriver]

A 7 month later update, currently on 2021.32.25 (FSD Beta 10.2)….Using voice command for text messaging is still spotty for those who I have only one phone number and no similar name to pick among. But it does work sometimes, and I’ve found the best success with the simple command “text Victoria.” Had a service appointment today (no resolution but I didn’t expect an immediate fix) and hoping to get this issue pushed up to the appropriate software engineer.

 

[RedXowner]

Something is up with my voice commands lately as well. After initially working, about the second or third time I try to use a voice command, my driver's panel responds with "Microphone temporarily unavailable" and at that point, I get that every attempt until I end the trip and start a new trip. Then it will work again initially, and then...etc. Got an appointment set up for Oct 26 to fix that and many other small glitches that have popped up.

 

[scottf200]

Something is up with my voice commands lately as well. After initially working, about the second or third time I try to use a voice command, my driver's panel responds with "Microphone temporarily unavailable" and at that point, I get that every attempt until I end the trip and start a new trip. Then it will work again initially, and then...etc. Got an appointment set up for Oct 26 to fix that and many other small glitches that have popped up.

More details.
Do you have the MCU1 or did you do MCU2 upgrade?
Did rebooting (two finger) help at all? (works initially for 1 trip)

 

[RedXowner]

More details.
Do you have the MCU1 or did you do MCU2 upgrade?
Did rebooting (two finger) help at all? (works initially for 1 trip)

I still have MCU1. Internet and map refresh very, very slow.
Rebooting will fix the problem, yes, but not willing to stop driving to spend 5 minutes rebooting just to get the microphone to work. For texting and making calls, I still have "Hey Siri" available all the time, regardless of the Tesla's inability to make it's voice commands work in my vehicle. We'll see what the service folks are able to diagnose and repair next week.