Voice quality

[efusco]

Ive been incapacitated for the past week, so my wife has been driving the Tesla. Previously she had complained about the sound quality of calls from the car through my iPhone 5. Well, she's called me several times from the car via her Droid and the sound quality is terrible, even at low speed, windows up. I have also had a lot of issues with voice commands and wonder if it is a BT issue or a microphone issue.

 

[bob_p]

Interesting that it's happening with both your iPhone 5 and Droid. I've tested it with two different Galaxy S3's - and it's bad with both of those.

I have times when the voice recognition doesn't work very well in the car - so it's possible it's the voice quality of the microphone - which could be a problem with the microphone - or with how the voice input is being digitized.

My previous car had a diagnostics menu in which you could adjust the microphone volume - and that improved the voice quality in that car.

I'm going to do the following. My Comcast home phone records voice mails and e-mails them to me. I'm going to place a call from my Galaxy S3 (outside of the car, using the phone's built-in microphone) and leave a voice message on Comcast. Then I'll place a second call from my car, while it is standing still - and a third call while the car is moving. I'll be able to compare the voice quality of the different recordings - and if the quality is significantly poorer from the car (either standing still or in motion), I'll send the recording to Tesla Ownership with a complaint on the voice quality.

If enough people do this - hopefully they'll get it fixed...

 

[steve841]

Curious to know if anyone has had a microphone replaced or if the SC evaluated the issue yet?

I too have lots of complaints about noise from other parties.... My end sounds fine.

 

[aaron.s]

Curious to know if anyone has had a microphone replaced or if the SC evaluated the issue yet?

I too have lots of complaints about noise from other parties.... My end sounds fine.

I just had my car in for service this past week and in addition to fixing the pano roof creaking, they replaced my microphone for the same poor quality reasons you guys are experiencing.... One person has told me it definitely sounds better, but still not as good as my previous car (but with the same iPhone5).

Will be doing some tests myself this weekend...

Aaron

 

[cinergi]

I just had my car in for service this past week and in addition to fixing the pano roof creaking, they replaced my microphone for the same poor quality reasons you guys are experiencing.... One person has told me it definitely sounds better, but still not as good as my previous car (but with the same iPhone5).

Will be doing some tests myself this weekend...

Aaron

Was it you I was having trouble hearing a while back? It sounded like really really bad digital compression ... and calling back fixed it. This happened at least twice.

 

[Oside2lv]

Experienced this problem with my MS and I deleted my iPhone and reconnected it and BAM voice quality was excellent

 

[aaron.s]

Was it you I was having trouble hearing a while back? It sounded like really really bad digital compression ... and calling back fixed it. This happened at least twice.

cinergi

Possibly!

- - - Updated - - -

Experienced this problem with my MS and I deleted my iPhone and reconnected it and BAM voice quality was excellent

Oside2lv

That was going to be my next step!

Aaron

 

[steve841]

I've done both (re-paired phone and re-initiated a call) and neither solves the problem for me.

Next trip to SC and that's going to be on the list.

 

[bob_p]

steve841 - if there's any way that you can create a .wav recording of your voice quality - you can e-mail it to Owner Assistance - and they can forward it to the development team. If enough of us with problems provide them examples - maybe that will help them identify and correct any problems (either in the microphone or the software).

 

[nrcooled]

I have a Galaxy S3 - which worked fine in my previous car - and works fine when I pair it to a BT headset. The only audio problem comes while I'm in the car - using the car's built-in microphone.

For those who are claiming audio quality for their phones is "excellent", have you recorded voice mail - so that you can hear what you sound like while the car is moving? Is the voice quality natural sounding? Are you hearing any background noise or static?

I'm trying to isolate this issue - if it's a problem with my specific car (since my phone worked fine in my previous car) or with my cell phone - so I can work on a solution.

For those posting results - thanks! Hopefully this will help me get this fixed...

As a data point, I recently got an S3 and I have had the same complaints about background noise. I never got those complaints with my previous iPhone 4S.

Side note: I'm curious if the S3 and the car are both pulling audio which would give the echo and background noise issue that my far end has been referring to.

 

[nrcooled]

steve841 - if there's any way that you can create a .wav recording of your voice quality - you can e-mail it to Owner Assistance - and they can forward it to the development team. If enough of us with problems provide them examples - maybe that will help them identify and correct any problems (either in the microphone or the software).

bob_p - I just did the following tests:

1. Call directly from my phone while in car not moving (Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300 International Version)
2. Call connected via bluetooth to the Model S using GS3 not moving (HVAC off)
3. Call connected via bluetooth to Model S @ 25mph (HVAC off)
4. Call connected via bluetooth to Model S @ 55 mph (HVAC off)
5. Call connected via bluetooth to Model S @ 55 mph (HVAC on)

I called my home voice mail and left separate messages. Oddly enough the one that sounded the worst was test 2 (not moving). There was some voice dropping in an out and it seemed as though my voice was being adjusted while on the call. The best clarity was test 1 (directly from my phone). Next best was the call @ 25mph. All of the calls placed from the bluetooth in the car had substantial background noise compared to the call directly from my phone. The background noise was equivalent to wind noise and road noise.

The only way to really compare is to do a test at 25 and 55 mph directly from my phone to get a feel for background noise. I was doing these tests while alone in the car and I am completely against non-hands free use of phones while in the car so when I can get a chanse to get my wife to drive I will try using the phone in the car w/o BT connectivity to get a direct apples to apples.

FYI - I have all of these in .wav files so if anyone is interested I can email them to you.

 

[steve841]

bob_p - I just did the following tests:

All of the calls placed from the bluetooth in the car had substantial background noise compared to the call directly from my phone. The background noise was equivalent to wind noise and road noise.
.

This is the exact complaint every person has made....worse yet, wind noise is the exact example. Even though ... Windows up

 

[bob_p]

The S3 microphone is disabled while Bluetooth is active - that's why you can't use the Google voice commands on the phone while it is connected to the car.

I suspect it is a combination of background noise plus poor sampling of the audio (given the audio as slightly "robotic" sound).

 

[steve841]

Anyone have any updates on this subject?

Microphone swap end up solving / improving the issue?

 

[ITSELE]

I've found that if I keep my phone in my pocket, I get iffy quality with the calls and the bluetooth audio.

Put the phone a few inches closer, on the shelf under the screen, and its the best quality I've ever had. So it seems to me that the bluetooth range is very short from around the screen. If my sons try to use my phone from the backseat to play youtube audio through the system, they have to hold the phone forward through the seat gap to get the sound to not chop.

Anyone else experience this?

It's a major complaint for me as well. Playing music with a bluetooth connected iPhone 4S and 5 requires the phone to be in the front middle of the car. Even resting it on the armrest causes dropouts. I wish it had better range or better bluetooth antenna placement. I'm missing out on a lot of fun with my daughters picking out music and playing from their bluetooth connected phones.

 

[SteveW25561]

I've had iphone disconnects after the call ends and still working on seeing if its reproducible, but I've actually quite good results for BT audio. In fact, one new thing we've done in the Tesla that doesn't work so well in my 2012 Explorer is to let the kids in the backseat play DJ and they pick songs from Spotify to play via Bluetooth in the Tesla from my own iphone 5.

It works quite well and the audio quality is pretty decent with few dropouts from the back seats (my Vin is recent P16225).

For phone quality, generally my wife says its OK but in areas with poor cell reception my voice breaks up. I'm still monitoring the trend as the car is just 2 weeks old!

 

[texex91]

It's a major complaint for me as well. Playing music with a bluetooth connected iPhone 4S and 5 requires the phone to be in the front middle of the car. Even resting it on the armrest causes dropouts. I wish it had better range or better bluetooth antenna placement. I'm missing out on a lot of fun with my daughters picking out music and playing from their bluetooth connected phones.

That's terrible. Are you serious that the BT is that poor?

 

[Schmo]

I also had Bluetooth issues and service replaced the antenna. Works fine ever since.

 

[steve841]

I just dropped mine off for several TSBs and some minor issues.... They are replacing the entire center screen with an updated unit that specifically fixes the BT issue.....

 

[steve841]

UPDATE:

The SC replaced my 17" MCU and applied the latest firmware applicable to Bluetooth...

After a week or so of testing, end result: FAIL

Tesla has got to identify the issue ... at this point, I'd have to say it is the microphone. It's becoming a running joke now for people I talk to who automatically reply ... "You must be in your Tesla" .... not good!