Issues using Alexa?

[Taco]

Alexa IS the problem, if Alexa was a race horse they would have put her down years ago. Bixby would be a better "assistant" not by much but still better.

I've given up trying to use, just pull over and get the address and type it in. I did try to get directions to Perry's Pizza last night which is about 3 miles from me, she tried to send me to somewhere in Kansas some 500 miles away.

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[idiocyafoot]

No one dislikes the Alexa Car experience more than me…with that said she/it seems to have gotten a little better with this latest OTA(27.02).

Before that (and after the last OTA) Alexa struggled with just about anything and everything (especially the Spotify requests with the whole ‘you need to install or upgrade the app’ or whatever thing).

Since 27.02 I have at least been able to request songs albums playlists via Spotify again and have it actually happen.

I still don’t like Alexa overall (and would give cash money for some CarPlay) but will give credit where credit is due in that something got marginally better. I don’t imagine that just happened by itself. Maybe it magically did.

Otherwise…”Here’s to you unknown (not mentioned in the release notes) Mr/Ms Rivian employee/Spotify api developer hero. Keep it up.”

 

[Taco]

No one dislikes the Alexa Car experience more than me…with that said she/it seems to have gotten a little better with this latest OTA(27.02).

Before that (and after the last OTA) Alexa struggled with just about anything and everything (especially the Spotify requests with the whole ‘you need to install or upgrade the app’ or whatever thing).

Since 27.02 I have at least been able to request songs albums playlists via Spotify again and have it actually happen.

I still don’t like Alexa overall (and would give cash money for some CarPlay) but will give credit where credit is due in that something got marginally better. I don’t imagine that just happened by itself. Maybe it magically did.

Otherwise…”Here’s to you unknown (not mentioned in the release notes) Mr/Ms Rivian employee/Spotify api developer hero. Keep it up.”

I'll fight you on that dislike comment! My Spotify has decided that it should keep randomly defaulting to Shania Twain Greatest Hits album that my wife wanted to listen to when i wasn't in the truck. I LOATHE Shania Twain with ever fiber of my being.

Also F Alexa, if Alexa was a person I would cross the street to attempt a fly kick to it's face. Give me an Alexa, burlap bag and a river and I'll sleep like a baby that night. Just saying I am not a fan.

 

[Gabe1aron]

Alexa is an embarrassment for such a high tech vehicle. Even my wifes Subaru does voice cognition better than my Rivian and the Subaru’s infotainment system is pretty weak. What a joke. It won’t navigate and wont call on command. 90% of the time it says it’s not connected to the web, or it can’t execute my command.

My Tesla recognizes voice commands and excutes them flawlessly even when my pronunciation is bad 95% of the time. It rarely fails. That’s Google

Come on Rivian! Everthing else about the truck is fantastic. If you’re going to outsource voice commands then outsource it to a competent party like Google or Siri with Carplay.
Otherwise, Alexa needs to go

 

[Emmett Stone]

No one dislikes the Alexa Car experience more than me…with that said she/it seems to have gotten a little better with this latest OTA(27.02).

Before that (and after the last OTA) Alexa struggled with just about anything and everything (especially the Spotify requests with the whole ‘you need to install or upgrade the app’ or whatever thing).

Since 27.02 I have at least been able to request songs albums playlists via Spotify again and have it actually happen.

I still don’t like Alexa overall (and would give cash money for some CarPlay) but will give credit where credit is due in that something got marginally better. I don’t imagine that just happened by itself. Maybe it magically did.

Otherwise…”Here’s to you unknown (not mentioned in the release notes) Mr/Ms Rivian employee/Spotify api developer hero. Keep it up.”

How it it that CarPlay would replace Alexa voice commands?

 

[idiocyafoot]

How it it that CarPlay would replace Alexa voice commands?

Siri.

I don’t love voice commands from any of them (Siri, Alexa, google) but they are getting better and I do feel like Alexa in the R1T has been a lot better since latest update.

For me the CarPlay upsides are more about nav, waze, music, other/better third party apps/integration, etc. Siri would just be there for voice assist on top.

I do have to say that I did get a kick out of telling Alexa to turn various lights in the house on and off on my way home a week or so back. Wife is onto me these days though. Ever since the sunroof in the Tesla would vent and close ‘by itself’ when she was driving it when we first got it. “I know you’re doing that. What are you doing? Stop.”

 

[sevengroove]

Reviving this thread because I'm on the latest OTA update (2022.35.03) and this issue is unfortunately alive and well. Can barely hear Alexa / navigation prompts because of the huge mismatch between bluetooth audio and native audio levels. Did anyone figure out a solution? Are we just supposed to turn down the volume directly on our bluetooth devices?

 

[hungrycaterpillar]

I have Android Auto in my minivan, Tesla/Google in my Model 3, and then this Alexa garbage.

I am constantly amazed by how bad Alexa is. The only way I've succeeded in making a phone call is by reading out the number.

"Call Jane Smith"...did you mean "Diane Smith?" "No" "I'm sorry, who did you mean?" "JANE SMITH" "I'm sorry, I don't have a Jane Smith."

This last time I pulled up the contacts list so I made sure I was reading the name exactly as written. Nope, Alexa still couldn't find my contact. It's ridiculous.

What about texting? I've never been able to send a text and I saw mention here or on reddit that it just straight up can't do it?

 

[cbuckley]

Reviving this thread because I'm on the latest OTA update (2022.35.03) and this issue is unfortunately alive and well. Can barely hear Alexa / navigation prompts because of the huge mismatch between bluetooth audio and native audio levels. Did anyone figure out a solution? Are we just supposed to turn down the volume directly on our bluetooth devices?

You have to be quick, but try rolling the volume scroll wheel (left side of steering wheel) up/down while Alexa is speaking to independently adjust the volume of the prompts. This has seemingly worked for me and I have had to readjust it back to adequate volume after every OTA update.

 

[Taco]

I think they need to have two separate controllable volumes. Over for music one for this idiot Alexa that lives in my truck.

I normally have the volume around 7 and you can't hear her even on the loudest setting.

 

[sevengroove]

You have to be quick, but try rolling the volume scroll wheel (left side of steering wheel) up/down while Alexa is speaking to independently adjust the volume of the prompts. This has seemingly worked for me and I have had to readjust it back to adequate volume after every OTA update.

This was the first thing I thought to try but it didn’t work for me - it also adjusted my music level up by the same amount so the discrepancy stays. Maybe there’s a difference if the source is native vs Bluetooth so I’ll try again. I agree that we need some more nuanced volume controls.

 

[Prime]

I wonder if Alexa is the root of all the vampire drain issues since its "always" listening..

 

[bsaik]

Alexa on the R1T has been so useless for me I don’t even bother. Thankfullly the truck has been awesome in most other respects.

 

[AleCS]

Bringing this up again. Anyone having issues turning off Alexa? I turn it off every day to see it on again by itself the next day. This wasn’t happening before the latest update.

 

[WalnutFarmer]

Alexa works about 20% of the time for me. I think that this is part of a much larger problem with connectivity in general. Where I live my 2014 tesla gets decent reception for spotify, tune-in, Alexa, etc. (oh yeah, it has XM radio too) My Rivian gets reception only parked under a cell tower it seems. Works about 60% of the time, even around town. Forget about heading into the mountains or even off of any major road. Rivian sells this vehicle as an adventure vehicle, with photos of the truck in deserts, mountains, forests... well, don't plan to use any of the fancy technology in those places. I've come to the realization that this is a total city truck. Truck is great, infotainment system sucks. Don't take it out of the city limits.

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