Was Alexa a Bad Choice

[Mouthpiece]

I am trying to get used to Alexa but so far don't like it as well as Tesla's system. I've had problems getting navigation directions from Alexa when giving Siri the say commands worked well. After reading this article (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...failure-on-pace-to-lose-10-billion-this-year/) I wonder if Lucid deciding to use Alexa was perhaps not the best decision.

 

[Bobby]

Agree.

 

[Slam08]

Is there a better alternative?

Voice commands hove potential. Polestar’s android auto voice commands are more intuitive. But why do you need a voice assistant in the car when everything is at your fingertips?

 

[Crazybrit]

Alexa does not seem to be well integrated with the car, it’s as though there are two disparate systems trying their best to work together.

 

[Tailc]

I've always had challenges with vehicle voice control options. I don't think anyone has really perfected it yet.

Alexa, Siri, and Google are all network dependent (for the most part) so if You don't have a good network connection, they will all have challenges.

So other than asking for the weather, I have given up voice assistance

 

[joec]

I'm wondering if the addition of CarPlay / Android Auto will make things better or worse, given that the "main" voice assistant will still be Alexa. But your phone will take over commands that apply to your phone apps. Might cause even more confusion.

 

[Tailc]

I'm wondering if the addition of CarPlay / Android Auto will make things better or worse, given that the "main" voice assistant will still be Alexa. But your phone will take over commands that apply to your phone apps. Might cause even more confusion.

It shouldn't, like you mentioned your phone takes over. At least this has been the case in every vehicle I've been in with CarPlay / Android Auto.

 

[Crazybrit]

It shouldn't, like you mentioned your phone takes over. At least this has been the case in every vehicle I've been in with CarPlay / Android Auto.

Well at least “Alexa” and “Hey Siri” are unique wake-up calls, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

 

[Ned]

Is there a better alternative?

CarPlay.

 

[Mouthpiece]

I kinda look at CarPlay as a fix for a bad system - at least as far as navigation goes. Why can't the car's system itself to do what Apple/Google maps does? Perhaps it is because I got used to it but Tesla's navigation worked well for me - once I learned the voice commands. Always used Waze on road trips but that was for the additional info Waze provides (i.e., police reports) not for navigation. Having said that, I would not go back to Tesla but would like to see Lucid improve their navigation system.

 

[joec]

I kinda look at CarPlay as a fix for a bad system - at least as far as navigation goes. Why can't the car's system itself to do what Apple/Google maps does? Perhaps it is because I got used to it but Tesla's navigation worked well for me - once I learned the voice commands. Always used Waze on road trips but that was for the additional info Waze provides (i.e., police reports) not for navigation. Having said that, I would not go back to Tesla but would like to see Lucid improve their navigation system.

Spinning up your own maps is a lot harder than it looks. Took Apple several years to get their maps anywhere near Google’s. I prefer Apple now, but it definitely wasn’t a quick ramp up.

I suspect Lucid will continue to improve the built-in system over time.

 

[DeaneG]

Google Assistant is consistently ranked as considerably more accurate than Alexa or Siri. Why do you want Google in your car? So that you can ask it for the hours or rating of the busy restaurant you just noticed driving by, or any other random question you had about physics or politics or persimmons while driving. The internet's knowledge is at its digital fingertips.

I agree with others that I'd have no wish for Car Play or Android Auto if the Air had Google Maps/Nav and Google Assistant rather than HERE and Alexa. We have this in our Volvo EV and greatly prefer it to the Air. I had to try four different phrasings of asking Alexa to navigate to a restaurant last night. Most of the time Alexa's response was completely unrelated to my question.

Tesla's navigation and voice assistant works passably well and with the usual collection of streaming audio choices. Tesla is avoiding integrating CarPlay by adding Apple Music to its dash in an upcoming software release.

 

[DeaneG]

We all have our own perspectives. Last night I realized that my Air would not be a long-term car for us purely because of Alexa and HERE. They turn what could be a great road trip car into something you have to deal with. Next time we'll stick with Google.

 

[idiot900]

We all have our own perspectives. Last night I realized that my Air would not be a long-term car for us purely because of Alexa and HERE. They turn what could be a great road trip car into something you have to deal with. Next time we'll stick with Google.

I wonder if your perspective will change once CarPlay/Android Auto are enabled?

 

[gunick06]

I use Google maps through CarPlay. I’ve never used a native navigation app, including Apple’s

 

[joec]

Google Assistant is consistently ranked as considerably more accurate than Alexa or Siri. Why do you want Google in your car? So that you can ask it for the hours or rating of the busy restaurant you just noticed driving by, or any other random question you had about physics or politics or persimmons while driving. The internet's knowledge is at its digital fingertips.

I agree with others that I'd have no wish for Car Play or Android Auto if the Air had Google Maps/Nav and Google Assistant rather than HERE and Alexa. We have this in our Volvo EV and greatly prefer it to the Air. I had to try four different phrasings of asking Alexa to navigate to a restaurant last night. Most of the time Alexa's response was completely unrelated to my question.

Tesla's navigation and voice assistant works passably well and with the usual collection of streaming audio choices. Tesla is avoiding integrating CarPlay by adding Apple Music to its dash in an upcoming software release.

To play devil's advocate: Why do you NOT want Google in your car? Because you don't want Google tracking everywhere you drive and everything you say while you drive.

A lot of people are paranoid about data collection with voice assistants. Now, I don't trust Amazon any more than I do Google. But with Apple, at least, I am relatively secure knowing Apple doesn't make money by tracking my every move. But Google is definitely not a company that I particularly trust with my data. I use Duck Duck Go for web searching, even.

Having said all that, I agree that if you are going to have a voice assistant (that isn't your own homespun thing, like Tesla did, I believe) it is odd to choose Alexa over Google. I have no trust in either company to not be harvesting my data. Might as well pick the one that's generally better at being an assistant.

Not that any of these assistants meet my criteria for "good". I think voice control is still mostly overrated and underdeveloped. But some are definitely a bit better than others.

 

[HariK]

News today is Amazon lost $10B in Alexa. WIll they support it going forward. I used Google Home and voice commands and it kind of works but it suddenly answers a question I did not ask. Imagine the havoc these assistants can create in a car. I understand that Siri is even worse. IBM pulled the plug on Watson.

 

[Bobby]

I like CarPlay because it is exactly the same between my various cars.

 

[MoniputerLM]

News today is Amazon lost $10B in Alexa. WIll they support it going forward. I used Google Home and voice commands and it kind of works but it suddenly answers a question I did not ask. Imagine the havoc these assistants can create in a car. I understand that Siri is even worse. IBM pulled the plug on Watson.

"Mercedes Me" works well. Alexa in the Lucid does some things well, now, but still has issues that can be fixed. There is no reason any voice assistant would cause serious issues in a car unless they are programmed to control systems that they shouldn't.

 

[joec]

My guess is the choice to go with Alexa boiled down to money and/or terms of the deal. We have to remember that Lucid is a very young company with almost no negotiating power. Particularly when they made this call, which would have been years ago.

It's not a big deal to me, as I almost never use voice, even when driving. But for some I could see how it would be not ideal.

It'll be interesting to see where Lucid goes with this deal long term. Do they eventually write their own assistant, and rely on your phone for all phone-related stuff? Wouldn't be super hard to just have a basic assistant that can turn on wipers, lights, set navigation destinations etc. And then let Android Auto / CarPlay handle the rest.