Voice/speech recognition sensitivity and accuracy

[jbherman]

Mods, please merge if there's already a thread addressing this. I was unable to find one via search.

My Model S voice recognition is becoming increasingly less accurate and sensitive. I typically use the "call," "listen to," and "navigate to" commands. More than 75% of the time now, I'm getting an "unknown command" error (and, yes, I am holding down the button throughout my command, as I'm supposed to do). I have used speech recognition extensively at work for many years, so I'm familiar with most of the quirks. Sometimes it actually seems to work better when I speak a bit more quietly. It's definitely worse when I'm on the highway. Articulation/enunciation has little effect. Has anyone else had a similar problem? My old car had voice commands that worked extremely well (Audi).

Does anyone know where the microphone is hidden?

It's becoming extremely frustrating. I was expecting much more robust speech functionality. Hopefully this will be greatly expanded in a future software release (sooner than later).

Edit: I'm on the latest 4.4 firmware release.

 

[AnOutsider]

Wow, glad you made this thread. Over the last 3 days I've had to repeat my commands numerous times and eventually just type them in (in the case of nav) in one instance. I thought I was bugging, but even my wife mentioned that it seemed to "get" everything before and now I'm fighting with it. A change in 4.4 or Google's servers?

 

[jomo25]

A similar thread. NOt necessarily about any recent issues, but does address questions of voice quality and mic position, I think.

Voice quality

 

[efusco]

Yea, I am very frustrated with the voice commands and also suspect the microphone b/c the audio on phone calls from the car is nearly inaudible, while the sound in the car from the outside line is always nice and clear.

 

[jbherman]

A similar thread. NOt necessarily about any recent issues, but does address questions of voice quality and mic position, I think.

Voice quality

Thanks...I think the issues are likely related to the microphone (I actually posted under that thread 6 weeks ago and totally forgot!), however, I find it odd that performance is declining. With relative decreased ambient noise in an EV, I would expect the microphone to function better than those in ICE cars. Perhaps it's the quality of the mic and where TM has chosen to place it. Or, it could be inferior voice recognition software (which could be improved with a software upgrade). I wonder what platform they use? I'm getting sick of yelling at my car! She doesn't deserve it...

Aside from the quality issues, a broader range of commands (e.g. "play Slacker channel classic rock," "open sunroof to 80%," "cancel navigation," etc.) and supplemental commands (e.g. "call wife"..."select mobile") would be desirable.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

Hmm... I don't use the voice stuff so much, but I do have the impression that it's less accurate at recognition now than it was before. Take that with a grain of salt, but it does feel that way.

 

[bob_p]

I did a microphone check over the weekend - leaving myself voicemails using my phone connected via Bluetooth to the car in different situations (standing still, driving at higher speeds, A/C on/off, ...) and noticed that the audio from inside the Model S is not as clear as the audio with the phone running away from the car - more of a "digitized" sound. And when the car is driving, there's noticeable background noise being picked up by the microphone.

My home voice mail is with Comcast - and they can e-mail the voice mail - so I sent those into Tesla Ownership with a note on the problem.

If you have some way to run a similar test - suggest that you make several recordings, note how each recording was made - and send that to Ownership. If they get enough users complaining about this problem - with audio evidence, maybe that will help them get it fixed.

 

[riceuguy]

Phew...thought it was just me! "Damnit...I said, "navigate to Starbucks!"

 

[shady]

I've also noticed the degradation recently. I drove a bunch of people from work to see Iron Man 3 today (everyone wanted to come with me!) and the demo of the voice was a complete disaster.

When the car was new (almost 2 months ago) I would get a 70% success rate. Now It's about 10%

 

[AnOutsider]

I've also noticed the degradation recently. I drove a bunch of people from work to see Iron Man 3 today (everyone wanted to come with me!) and the demo of the voice was a complete disaster.

When the car was new (almost 2 months ago) I would get a 70% success rate. Now It's about 10%

That's funny. We were going to the premiere tonight as well, and I tried thrice to say "navigate to" and got unknown command each time, sheepishly typed it in.

 

[JerryNycom]

I have the car since Mar 22, and same thing....First 3 weeks was 70-80% accurate, now I get "unknown command". Hate typing!

 

[efusco]

My service tech is coming for a ranger visit in 1-2 weeks and says he'll replace the microphone at that time.

 

[NigelM]

That's funny. We were going to the premiere tonight as well, and I tried thrice to say "navigate to" and got unknown command each time, sheepishly typed it in.

"Thrice" thou sayeth? I fear thine horseless-carriage hath misunderstood thee.

 

[jbherman]

My service tech is coming for a ranger visit in 1-2 weeks and says he'll replace the microphone at that time.

Please update regarding performance after the mic replacement. I'm interested to know if it's the mic, voice recognition software, or both.

 

[AnOutsider]

I can't see our mics all failing at the same time. I'm thinking it's either a change in the MS or Google software.

 

[efusco]

I can't see our mics all failing at the same time. I'm thinking it's either a change in the MS or Google software.

Perhaps, but it's odd that it's just a transmission, and not a reception issue.

 

[Doug_G]

I've been getting 90%+ reliability out of voice commands. Two tips:

1. Wait a full second after the bong sounds - it's still not ready
2. Speak slowly and clearly

For me, most of the time when it messes up, it's because the word is unusual.

If you like the musician deadmau5 then you better like listening to songs about dead mice, because that's what you're going to get.

 

[AnOutsider]

I've been getting 90%+ reliability out of voice commands. Two tips:

1. Wait a full second after the bong sounds - it's still not ready
2. Speak slowly and clearly

For me, most of the time when it messes up, it's because the word is unusual.

If you like the musician deadmau5 then you better like listening to songs about dead mice, because that's what you're going to get.

I think you're missing the point though that many here have posted that the accuracy has dropped recently. This would suggest folks that have previously gotten higher accuracy and probably know the intricacies of the system.

Speaking for myself, I've been a big advocate of the system as it's previously worked nearly flawlessly for me. No PICNIC error here.

 

[scriptacus]

It's almost certainly not the mics. You'll notice if you have no 3G the "listen to" and "navigate to" commands will fail almost instantly (I didn't test "call"). I'm fairly certain the system works like Apple's Siri; it sends the snippet of voice to a server where it is processed into a format the car can handle. If that's the case it's entirely possible that their servers are having issues, which explains why it affects so many owners.

 

[aaronw]

I haven't been all that impressed by the voice recognition. I will be glad when the navigation system allows me to mark various destinations since I can't even speak my home address into it (I have to use the on-screen keyboard or the history if it's there).