Voice Control Erratic

[NxJohn]

My voice control works in that it's possible to activate most functions, but my issue is the voice control's recognition is appalling.  For example, I can say very slowly and clearly "Station, BBC Radio Two" on DAB and it will open Radio Wales on FM.  Most get the response "Station not found" even with favourite stations.  Entering destinations in navigation is also really sketchy.

I also don't see the option for voice training and no SW updates are available.

As it is, it's really not worth having, is there anything I can do?

Corolla Trek, 2021MY

[Don Mac]

The cheeky reply would be suggesting you connect your phone and use Android Auto or Apple Carplay instead...

Are you giving the whole command at once? (e.g. "Hey Toyota, Station, BBC Radio Two") I have found that using the wake words, then waiting for the "listening" indication gives better results (for both the Toyota system and AA). Presumably because it pauses the stereo, thus reducing the background noise. Using the steering wheel button to wake it up is another option.

[Corollanutter]

I found the Toyota voice recognition system to be terrible, particularly with navigation. Since swapping to Apple Car Play I very rarely have a problem. However, sadly, that doesn't help with controlling the Toyota audio! 

[Jiff]

I agree it's pretty poor. I use the steering button to activate it and if I ask for a particular album after starting the car it'll say "No media device selected" even though it's playing music from my selected device. Perhaps that's like "Station not found"  John is reporting? I know if I wait a few minutes after starting it'll then react.

It then sometimes plays for example, something by Schubert instead of the Cranberries. I guess they must have similar titles 🤔🤣.

To be fair it often gets it right, though I've found recently it sometimes doesn't give a list of albums if I only ask for "artist" even though I know there's more than one on my microsd card. It's a pain having to say "Everyone else is doing it so why can't we"🤣😂🤣

I'd also like an up to date commands list, if they ever were updated 🤔. I'd like a simple "Pause" or "Stop" command to be followed by Audio or Navigation or ... whatever. That would be as useful starting things especially the Nav which takes multiple key presses to pause / stop, difficult whilst driving.

[Paul john]

Toyota is not alone with this. 
i don't think i have ever read a positive review about any car manufacturers voice system. 
Certainly it has often been a source of merriment on a certain car review program.  
Other voice recognition systems (siri cortana alexa) have had more development in recent years, so are more mature. 
siri can even be programmed with custom voice input, tailored to the person recording the command.

i am not saying these systems are perfect but they are a hell of a lot better than any native car system.

[Cyker]

Yeah it's not great; I've had maybe a 20% success rate with it so far - Mainly with calling phone contacts. Success rate with media has been a solid 0% so far  

Even when I'm trying to get it to play a particular song, it will literally find the song (After repeated attempts), display it on the screen for confirmation, then say it can't find it when I confirm it. If my experience is anything to go by, Toyota could have saved themselves the money by not including it and nobody would have noticed or cared.

To be fair, it's never going to be as good as e.g. Apple or Google's - The car has to do all the voice processing, whereas with Apple and Google it sends your voice to a massive array of cloud servers to process, which can learn from everyone else's voice too - The poor little stand-alone ECU in the car is never going to match that.

[Swanthecat]

Pardon?
 

that’s all I ever get out of mine

[Obsidian Estate]

I've had it in a few cars. I tried it once in my rcz.

It was cack, I've never tried it since.