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2012 Volt voice commands

6K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  scottf200 
#1 · (Edited)
2012 Volt voice commands (or lack thereof)

I've been trying to learn my 2012 Volt's voice commands and want to confirm that certain commands are not available. In my previous car, I could say "Navigation" --> "Places" --> "Restaurant" and the navigation system would show me a list of restaurants close by (or on my route). I could also say "Navigation" --> "Places" --> "Others" --> "Chinese Food" and it would show me a list of all Chinese food restaurants nearby. In another car I test drove, recently, I could even say, "Destination" --> "Place" --> "Burger King" and it would show me a list of the nearest Burger King restaurants (i.e., I could search for POIs by name).

I know we have On*Star for things like that, but does the navigation system have any equivalent? Sometimes On*Star takes too long to pick up and I just want to be able to set a verbal destination to a local store, restaurant, post office, or bank. I'm finding the Infotainment System dangerously distracting since I'm constantly having to reach way over and take my eyes off the road just to bring up a screen or change a climate setting.

Also, I just want to confirm that I can't control the Infotainment System at all with my voice? For example, I can't say "Climate" and have the Climate display come up as if I hit the Climate Button, or say "Traffic" to have the Traffic information screen appear, or say "Radio Band" to have that screen come up.

Finally, on page 77 of the navigation manual, it shows a voice command "Route (used in conjunction with another command)" but doesn't give any further explanation that I can find. Does anyone know how to use this "Route" command? There's also "Next Waypoint" and "Add to Waypoint" with no additional explanations.

Thanks!
 
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#2 ·
I feel your pain! I have not totally given up on the voice command system yet... but I am way beyond frustrated! I have given it 3 gallant efforts and have been disappointed every time. I have printed off all the commands and have looked pretty foolish to my neighbors sitting in my Volt, in my driveway..apparently talking to myself, shuffling papers back and forth in front of the steering wheel! I don't dare try and show the system to anyone. It invariably screws up! ( YES I am blaming the car.. cuz it ain't me!)
Currently I have resorted to giving friends and family some pretty unique names so when i use the hands free calling feature it doesn't asker me.... "DID YOU MEAN _______"
 
#3 ·
I have to admit, I have defaulted to issuing the "Bluetooth"..."Voice" sequence and just connecting to my Blackberry's voice command system for phone calls. It takes a while since it , but I don't have any voice recognition issues with calling at that point. I haven't tried voice navigation yet...
 
#4 ·
I haven't used all the commands, but the ones I have used work well.

I especially use the Navigation commands -- "Navigation - Voice Guidance On" (or "Off"). "Navigation - Show Restaurants" (or "Hide").
I also frequently use the radio commands: "Radio - 91.5 FM" (you're supposed to include the word "select", but it doesn't seem to matter).

And the built in voice dialing seems to work well too, either using my bluetooth phone or the OnStar phone. ("Call Home") It always recognizes the names I have stored.
 
#5 ·
#6 ·
All those commands in that thread are in my owner's manual. The following don't make any sense, nor can I find any additional information on them:

Route (used in conjunction with another command)
Next waypoint (used in conjunction with another command)
Add to waypoint (used in conjunction with another command)
Replace destination (used in conjunction with another command)
Destination (used for Destination VR entry, available in English language only)

So in conjunction with what other command would I use "Route"? Where does the manual explain when and how to use "Next waypoint"? What about "Destination"? Can I say, "Destination --> Burger King"? Not in my car! And there's no further details if additional commands utilizing "Destination" are available.

I realize the Volt isn't a $70,000 luxury car, but considering how current the Chevrolet technology is in this car, I'd at least expect the voice commands to be as good as a 2008 Infiniti G35 or any Acura. Unfortunately, the Volt isn't even close.

Heck, even when I try using the commands, half the time it doesn't understand what I'm saying. My 2008 Infiniti G35 had a "voice training" program that acclimated the car to my voice, and once I did that, it never missed a single command. And that G had a lot of commands.
 
#7 ·
So in conjunction with what other command would I use "Route"? Where does the manual explain when and how to use "Next waypoint"? What about "Destination"? Can I say, "Destination --> Burger King"? Not in my car! And there's no further details if additional commands utilizing "Destination" are available.
I used Destination --> Bakers Square over the weekend. Actually I pressed the blue OnStar button, they answered and I told them what I was looking for. They found me a restaurant and sent it to the car's NAV. Hands free and easy. On the way home they told me how far the next rest stop was.

Some of those one or two word answer come into play when you use other commands and it tells you what your options are. For example, I just went to my car and set a destination (via state, city, road, house # prompts). I think hit the phone button on the steering wheel and said 'navigation delete'. It (she) prompted me for what sort of delete I wanted to do. ie. next waypoint, destination, etc. I replied "destination".

I fully agree several sample scenerios could be useful.

Another handy thing I did on the way home was pick a friend house when we were many miles away and there were many options on how to get home. They noticed the route close to their home was a bit off. You could just touch the screen and it would give you the little scope as the new center location to display. I picked a road close to his home that was more along the path he would take. I then picked go and it added it as a waypoint.
 
#10 ·
Yes, but showing and hiding icons for Chinese restaurants doesn't give me the ability to have the navigation take me to one of them using voice commands. And I'd rather not be staring at the nav map trying to locate a local Chinese restaurant when I should really be looking at the car in front of me I'm about to hit.

Same goes for waypoints; instead of manually pressing a location on the map, I should be able to verbally set a destination (while one is already in effect) and have the system ask me if I want to replace the current destination with the new one, or add the new destination as a waypoint on the current route. Again, that's a feature I had in my car almost four years ago.

BTW, I'm not ragging on you - I'm offering suggestions for Chevrolet to make improvements. I want the Volt (and ELR) to succeed, and making the tech as good as other cars in the price range would be a good start.
 
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