Alexa voice commands that work for me (updated with official full list)

[W1SE]

We know there is plenty to add still but there are some things that work better than I thought!

here are some of my commands I use. hat are other commands that work for you?

“Alexa…
Open trunk” (front trunk opens)
Close trunk”
Open tailgate”
Turn on lights” (cabin lights)
Turn off lights”
Volume ##” (puts volume at level)
Turn on front defrost”
Turn on rear defrost”
Turn on seat heat”
Turn up seat heat”
Turn on seat vent”
Turn on outlets” (is for vents NOT 110v)

Edit: removed mention of navigation, we know it’s not perfect and it wasn’t the point of my thread.


Admin: added list of voice commands --

Sponsored

 

[OverZealous]

Navigation has never worked for me. She just complains that she doesn't have my exact location. If I provide a city, she tells me it's 4000 miles away or something equally stupid.

Alexa is one of the top 3 worst things about the vehicle. She's slow, incorrect, annoying, and if you want half the functionality, you have to sign into provide tracking to Amazon. No thanks.

 

[Zorg]

O ise Alexa for amazon music, since the tune in is so weak

 

[AaronTV]

"any navigation command generally works" - lol, I wish. Alexa is an embarrassment. I can't believe anyone actually uses it if they have a choice. I ask it to navigate to a contact, no idea what I'm talking about. I ask it to navigate to the address by spelling the whole thing out, doesn't understand what I'm saying, repeats back the wrong address. I'm visiting Milwaukee and ask it to navigate to the nearest <name your store> and it thinks I'm back home two hours away. It's been so utterly useless that I've honestly been astounded. Yesterday, I asked it to turn on the heated steering wheel, figuring that's a simple enough command. Nope, no idea what I'm asking for. What a joke.

 

[rodhx]

“Decrease/increase fan speed” will make a one increment change.

 

[W1SE]

Navigation has never worked for me. She just complains that she doesn't have my exact location. If I provide a city, she tells me it's 4000 miles away or something equally stupid.

Alexa is one of the top 3 worst things about the vehicle. She's slow, incorrect, annoying, and if you want half the functionality, you have to sign into provide tracking to Amazon. No thanks.

"any navigation command generally works" - lol, I wish. Alexa is an embarrassment. I can't believe anyone actually uses it if they have a choice. I ask it to navigate to a contact, no idea what I'm talking about. I ask it to navigate to the address by spelling the whole thing out, doesn't understand what I'm saying, repeats back the wrong address. I'm visiting Milwaukee and ask it to navigate to the nearest <name your store> and it thinks I'm back home two hours away. It's been so utterly useless that I've honestly been astounded. Yesterday, I asked it to turn on the heated steering wheel, figuring that's a simple enough command. Nope, no idea what I'm asking for. What a joke.

Have you set up Alexa? Let it learn your voice? Then try vehicle commands (ie “open trunk?)

 

[OverZealous]

Have you set up Alexa? Let it learn your voice? Then try vehicle commands (ie “open trunk?)

No, because I shouldn’t have to let a 3rd-party company listen to and track my activity just to do something as simple as enter a destination. I don’t have to do this in any other vehicle—my 2015 Tesla handles audio prompts fine, because they use an in-house solution.

Alexa was always something that concerned me before I bought the truck. The fact that I could disable the wake word is the only reason I could overlook it.

I don’t have any of that spyware-in-a-box garbage in my house, either. Technically it’s on my phone (Apple), but I don’t use it much and the wake word is disabled there, too.

I’m not paranoid, I’ve just been around and in this industry long enough to know better than to give up privacy that I can never get back.

 

[Rtpdeacon]

We know there is plenty to add still but there are some things that work better than I thought!

here are some of my commands I use. hat are other commands that work for you?

“Alexa…
Open trunk” (front trunk opens)
Close trunk”
Open tailgate”
Turn on lights” (cabin lights)
Turn off lights”
Volume ##” (puts volume at level)
Turn on front defrost”
Turn on rear defrost”
Turn on seat heat”
Turn up seat heat”
Turn on seat vent”
Turn on outlets” (is for vents NOT 110v)

also:
-Any Spotify/music command generally works
-any navigation command generally works

Does the command work for Alexa to play/stream SiriusXM?

 

[AaronTV]

Have you set up Alexa? Let it learn your voice? Then try vehicle commands (ie “open trunk?)

I connected it to my Amazon account and installed the Alexa app on my phone so I could tell it where I live. I have no idea what else I'm supposed to do, if anything. If there is then that's another knock on it because there is no direction in the vehicle about how to make the stupid thing actually work.

I'm used to using Google Assistant and it wouldn't have trouble with any of my navigation complaints. It's so far ahead of Alexa in capability that I maintain Alexa is an embarrassment.

 

[AaronTV]

Oh and, regardless of setting up Alexa, why doesn't it know where the truck is when I ask for directions? Isn't GPS awareness like the most basic feature a system like this should possess? Truly bizarre. When I first got the truck (brand new) Alexa seemed to think I was in California. I'd ask for directions to a local place to me and it'd give me a route that started like 3000 miles away lol. So stupid.

 

[photontorque]

There's a parallel thread about amazon's slashing jobs related to Alexa:
https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...vor-at-amazon-and-on-pace-for-10b-loss.10331/

I know some people report good experiences with Alexa in terms of home use, I'm in the Alexa-gives-me-the-heeby-jeebies camp, so will not utter those syllables in the Rivian (whenever I actually get the vehicle).

As noted in that other thread, perhaps this will provide some inertia to the already loud cries for Rivian to support CarPlay and AndroidAuto.

 

[W1SE]

I guess I got excited when I realized I could open the front trunk by saying “Alexa, open trunk” instead everyone is all pissed about it not know where they were in the world in navigation. We all know it’s not great. But when it is good at something can we think it’s kinda neat? Even a little?

 

[AaronTV]

I guess I got excited when I realized I could open the front trunk by saying “Alexa, open trunk” instead everyone is all pissed about it not know where they were in the world in navigation. We all know it’s not great. But when it is good at something can we think it’s kinda neat? Even a little?

I think those things are cool. But it's not really that important for it to be able to do things like open the trunk (in my opinion of course!). Whereas basic stuff like navigating is super important, especially with no Android Auto or Carplay support. I was actually hoping someone might see my rant and tell me what I'm doing wrong lol. But I consider myself to be a pretty tech savvy dude and this in-car Alexa just seems like a fail.

 

[popoga]

It's frustrating because my much, much cheaper Subaru from the 2010s has perfectly fine voice integration through Android auto, and you can just push a button on the steering wheel to engage the voice assistant or naturally respond to texts and such without having to debase yourself by speaking the name of yet another corporate overlord's pet mascot trademark.

Lack of (native, non-amazon owned) voice interaction is one of the biggest flaws of the truck, and it's one that is so easily remedied by just using the tried and true Android auto solutions (or Apple play if that's your ecosystem of choice). I understand rivian being too cool for school and not wanting to use 3rd party nav and stuff... But then they just went and did exactly that for the voice interaction with a substantial step down in quality and - imo - prestige.

Maybe some of this resistance is because I worked for amazon for years and knew some of the schlubs over in Alexa.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I use it to set times and reminders. Alexa in the truck basically works just like Alexa in the home, extra skills and all.

Sponsored