Alexa - I believe I figured out why it bugs me

[Taco]

Got back home last night and was able to take the truck out, was going somewhere so out of habit I told the car where I wanted to go.

"Navigation to Mr. Ramen, Parker Colorado"
This is the same command i would say to my Tesla.

Alexa "I found a Mr Ramen at ....... Would you like directions?"

Me - "yes"

Alexa - "ok blah blah blah address AGAIN blah blah blah i talk too much like your wife". (said something like that, i stop listening a while ago)

Finally something pops up on screen and does mapping and away we go.

The whole trip there i was thinking to myself, why are you providing me such useless information, you found the location as there's only one, i told you to navigate to there... Just map it and go, i do not need the address 2 times or any other interaction.

So this morning i jumped into my Model X and did the same command, it just mapped it nothing else. So i asked myself how long did that take? Under 8 seconds, from button push to directions. With blabbing idiot Alexa, 19 seconds until i had directions, plus 2 interactions.

I'm thinking that they should drop the "i found blah blah, do you want directions" part. If you find the location, map it. If your find multiple locations, show on map and allow us to select.

Sometimes less information is more.

It'll take time but I think that's pretty annoying to be interacting with Alexa for so long, let's be honest, after about 2.3 seconds we're no longer listening to you.

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[trez63]

For some reason the Alexa in my R1T is no where near as capable as the alexa in my home. It rambles on for ever. The other day I asked it to play a song for the kids in the car:

Me: Alexa, play "going on a bear hunt"
Alexa (after 3 failed attempts): Playing "going on a bear hunt, by the kaboomers on amazon music. You can subscribe to amazon music premium for .... " went on for like 1 whole minute telling me about subscribing to amazon music premium and how to search for the song without letting me skip.

I have about a 10% chance of having it navigate to anything at all using Alexa. It basically says something like "I can't do that right now" or "I don't know how to do that ...".

mind you, I'm not asking it something strange. I'm basically saying: "Alexa, navigate to Disneyland..." or something to that effect.

I'm confident it will get better, but it sure as heck is annoying atm.

 

[bd5400]

My home Alexa units do something similar. I will frequently get a "by the way, you can do X" or "by the way, my weather data comes from X". I've seen a lot of complaints on Reddit about this kind of behavior and I've essentially stopped using Alexa for any informational tasks because its annoying.

 

[Taco]

Does anyone else have the "fun" where she basically tells you a 1/2 mile from every exit to stay to the left. Going east on C-470 today she told me to stay left and stay on C470 at every exit and 1/2 mile from every exit, until I got to I-25 south. Seems very un-needed for the 7 exits.

 

[boardthatpowder]

My home Alexa units do something similar. I will frequently get a "by the way, you can do X" or "by the way, my weather data comes from X". I've seen a lot of complaints on Reddit about this kind of behavior and I've essentially stopped using Alexa for any informational tasks because its annoying.

you can disable that feature. Using Alexa app on phone, go to settings, notifications, then things to try.

 

[bd5400]

you can disable that feature. Using Alexa app on phone, go to settings, notifications, then things to try.

Unfortunately that doesn’t help. That’s been turned off for a long time yet I still get random follow-ups. It could be limited to non-echo devices though, as I only recall it happening on my Sonos speakers.

 

[Brewbud]

My wife and I laugh at Alexa for the overly verbose response when asking to navigate somewhere. It gets worse when Alexa can't even find the place. They put in a new Costco Business Center in a town near me that already has a regular Costco. Now Alexa can't find the regular Costco anymore, even if I say the street name. I asked Google for the address and just had Alexa navigate to the address. Of course, I knew how to get there but sometimes the shortcut isn't the faster route to go.

 

[Taco]

My wife and I laugh at Alexa for the overly verbose response when asking to navigate somewhere. It gets worse when Alexa can't even find the place. They put in a new Costco Business Center in a town near me that already has a regular Costco. Now Alexa can't find the regular Costco anymore, even if I say the street name. I asked Google for the address and just had Alexa navigate to the address. Of course, I knew how to get there but sometimes the shortcut isn't the faster route to go.

Yeah - when you say "navigate / directions to ABC in XYZ town" and that's the ONLY response she just needs to start loading the directions, don't tell me about the address and if I want directions there, I already told you I WANTED directions there. Completely a waste of time.

Also if you say where's the closest ABC, please load it on the map and let me pick which one I want to go to, talking to me is pointless, I want to see it as I MIGHT be in a place I don't know and would like to stay by the highway or whatever.

All of these problems are software fixable so hopefully they continue work on that, sadly Alexa is dumb as a box of rocks and doubt that will ever change, I had Echo Dot's before, but then picked up a google home and quickly tossed out the Dot's and replaced them with google units.

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