Voice recognition now consumers’ No. 1 complaint

By Bill Griffith

July 2, 2012

4 minutes to read

New cars and trucks are being built more reliably than ever.

It’s something consumers and journalists have noticed on a dayto- day basis over the past decade, and it’s a trend that’s reflected in annual ratings by folks such as Consumer Reports.

That trend was reinforced again by the annual J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study that was released on June 20.The study shows that quality across the board is better than ever, with an industry-wide 12 percent improvement (or should we say reduction?) in complaints.

The study, now in its 26th year, always makes for some interesting reading, and this year was no different.

It substantiates another feeling we’ve noticed in this new century; notably, that electronics and technology have become both a main area of industry competition as well as a major source of consumer complaints.

The Power study also shows that connectivity complaints (audionavigation- infotainment) for the first time have surpassed problems with engines and transmissions as consumer’s No. 1 issue.

And the biggest problem of all is voice recognition. What’s the problem? Is it that we don’t understand the system or that the system doesn’t understand us?

“Voice recognition works,’’says Power’s vice president David Sargent, “but it can be difficult sometimes.’’

It also seems that many motorists aren’t interested in enduring the learning curve.

Not only that, but from personal experience and talks with representatives of many manufacturers, it’s clear that consumers will give up on a feature if it doesn’t work after three or four attempts.

We also know that consumers for the most part don’t study their owner’s manuals and the excitement and rush of taking delivery of a new vehicle isn’t an effective learning environment. That’s not a good combination for adding new technology to one’s daily life.

I’ve seen a Ford engineer put the company’s MyFordTouch system through its paces in an auditorium setting. For her, it was simple to have the Nav system set destinations via voice commands. She also changed the climate system settings and switched audio inputs from AM radio to XM radio to iPod. Changing stations? No problem either.

The same was true for making and answering phone calls.

A short time later, trying to duplicate those results in a test vehicle with a different Ford engineer beside me, wasn’t so successful except for pairing my iPhone.

I always seem to be able to quickly pair my iPhone in any vehicle and make and receive calls. It’s easy to play music stored in the phone or to use the phone to play Pandora’s music through the vehicle’s sound system.

But the other voice recognition functions don’t seem to work so well. Part of the problem is my lack of knowledge of the proper command terminology and the sequence of using them. Another part seems to be my notmade- for-radio voice.

Ford’s results in the Power studies reflect the MyFordTouch user difficulties as the automaker fell from the top of the rankings in 2010 to No. 23 in 2011 and to No. 27 (of 34 brands) in 2012.

Does it mean that Ford is making lousy cars? Hardly. They’re still outstanding buys in every other category.

And the company redesigned the MyFord Touch system last year, a move that came too late to be reflected in this year’s study results.

“In a sense, Ford took one for the industry,’’ says Power’s Sargent.“It went (to market) early. Others saw it and said,‘We were going to do that, but nowwe’ll go slower.’ ’’

For the record, other emerging industry technologies, such as parking assist, rearview cameras, and cross-traffic alerts, and blind spot and lane-departure warnings work well and are intuitive.

Newer features, such as night-vision and heads-up visual systems that project images in the driver’s field of vision, also seem to be effective and accepted.

But they all fall more into the passive category. Voice recognition requires active participation.

My advice, which likely is worth less than the cost of this newspaper, is to take this year’s Power survey with a grain of salt.

However, as part of your test drives, double or triple the time you’re allowing for a test drive and take time to see if you can work out a verbal relationship with the car’s voice controls because you could be living with them for years and want to have a friendly relationship instead of living in companionable silence or distrust.

In a few years, voice recognition likely will work as well as your smart phone’s voice commands. For some of us, that’s good news; for others, it’s another source of irritation. Right, Siri? Oh, you’re not understanding me today, either.