Siri?

[AtlantaX]

RivianTrackr lists “Siri and Google Assistant” as coming soon features in both Gen 1 and Gen 2.
And, I found this screenshot today. So, are we finally getting some kind of text support by allowing us to control our phone through Siri or Google Asst but the car controls will still be Alexa? If I’m reading this correctly, you’ll click the left steering wheel button to engage with your phone for Hopefully texting and calling? And just say Alexa for all the in car stuff?

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[LivingInKaos]

It's merely activating the assistant on your device thru the vehicle.

 

[racekarl]

It's merely activating the assistant on your device thru the vehicle.

Even if that's all it is, that's a nice little feature. I had a GMC Acadia with "Siri EyesFree" which was a sort of audio-only precursor to CarPlay and it was pretty handy.

 

[AtlantaX]

It's merely activating the assistant on your device thru the vehicle.

Right, if it "merely activates" the assistant, then is the how Rivian is going to get us Text Messaging support?

 

[racekarl]

Right, if it "merely activates" the assistant, then is the how Rivian is going to get us Text Messaging support?

It will get you outgoing texts pretty well, at least. The way it worked in Siri EyesFree, and how I imagine this will work is:
- press the steering wheel button, wait for the audio prompt (e.g. Siri's "waiting" ding) over the car's speakers, while whatever was playing is paused or muted.
- Say "Text my wife, blah blah blah" or something similar to the car's microphone. You can also say something like "Text Mike" and wait for Siri to respond with something like "What do you want to say to Mike?" or "Which Mike do you mean?" etc.
- You get an audio confirmation that the outgoing message has been sent and your music or whatever was playing resumes.

People will say "you could do this already with 'Hey Siri'" but this has a couple of advantages:
- Alleviates privacy concerns around always-listening Hey Siri, which can be disabled.
- More reliable wake activation. If your phone is in your pocket, or a bag in the back seat, or anything like that, activating Hey Siri can be hit-or-miss. Plus the button press can also pre-emptively pause or mute your other audio and switch to bluetooth if it's not the active source, making the response time much better than waiting for Hey Siri to connect to the truck's audio.

Incoming messages are little less elegant if there is no notification support in the truck. You can have Siri announce your messages, but that can be pretty disruptive, or you could use the wake button and ask Siri to read your new messages if you notice a notification from your phone.

 

[SwampNut]

Even if that's all it is, that's a nice little feature. I had a GMC Acadia with "Siri EyesFree" which was a sort of audio-only precursor to CarPlay and it was pretty handy.

I have this on my motorcycle headset and it's really damn good. I'd say 90% happy with it, occasionally CarPlay would be nicer, but not a big deal.

Right, if it "merely activates" the assistant, then is the how Rivian is going to get us Text Messaging support?

They don't need to, you simply interact with Siri like you would when wearing headphones.

 

[GRC]

looking forward to this and thankful that they are doing siri(apple) and google assistant (android) at the same time ...

 

[AtlantaX]

I have this on my motorcycle headset and it's really damn good. I'd say 90% happy with it, occasionally CarPlay would be nicer, but not a big deal.



They don't need to, you simply interact with Siri like you would when wearing headphones.

That’s not the same. First, it relies on the phone speaker and mic. When the phone is on the charger, the mic is blocked by the armrest. Second, even if the phone is not in a position on the charger to block the mic, the radio interferes with Siri hearing me. It hears “Alexa” and lowers the radio. For Siri, even if it replies, I have to manually lower the radio volume to interact with Siri. Third, sometimes, I have the ringer down/off on phone because I was at work or some other quiet place. When it’s integrated to the car, I would see the text come in. As it is now, I just miss it.

It’s not even remotely the same. It needs to be integrated to the infotainment system so you can seamlessly talk to and interact with your phone without a lot of extra work around. This isn’t an unreasonable ask for a $100,000 vehicle considerable text has been supported in cars for 20 years.

 

[SwampNut]

First, it relies on the phone speaker and mic.

Siri Eyes Free does not depend on the phone devices, that's the point. Do you think it would work on a motorcycle otherwise?

Meanwhile, I use streaming only and not radio, since it's 2024, and the built in mic works decently enough. It should be better but it does work with little effort, and does attenuate the music/podcasts.

 

[racekarl]

That’s not the same. First, it relies on the phone speaker and mic. When the phone is on the charger, the mic is blocked by the armrest. Second, even if the phone is not in a position on the charger to block the mic, the radio interferes with Siri hearing me. It hears “Alexa” and lowers the radio. For Siri, even if it replies, I have to manually lower the radio volume to interact with Siri. Third, sometimes, I have the ringer down/off on phone because I was at work or some other quiet place. When it’s integrated to the car, I would see the text come in. As it is now, I just miss it.

It’s not even remotely the same. It needs to be integrated to the infotainment system so you can seamlessly talk to and interact with your phone without a lot of extra work around. This isn’t an unreasonable ask for a $100,000 vehicle considerable text has been supported in cars for 20 years.

Did you even read any of the replies to your post? It is NOT like "Hey Siri" which is what you are describing.

 

[AtlantaX]

I did read the replies, thank you for checking. And the experience was described as “a little less elegant” on the inbound side. So, ok, if it’s truly the Siri Eyesfree experience as spec’d by apple, then this is good. It if this is some further kluge to fake giving us text support, then I’m not ok. It’s still stupid that you have to use one assistant for some functions and another assistant for other functions. No one else designs it this way.

 

[SSpearsAU]

Are there any updates as to when Siri will be available? I know it can be used now with the verbal "Hey Siri" command, but that is very inconsistent as to whether Siri is picking it up.

Ideally, there would be a button that can be held to trigger Siri, and a command could be made. I was thinking that was coming with the Connect+ update, but I have not figured that out yet.

 

[AtlantaX]

We’re supposed to be getting this via a choice of assistant (Siri or google) and a triggering button on the steering wheel. Like Siri Eyesfree in other cars. Like everything with Rivian, “it’s on the roadmap”

 

[SSpearsAU]

Bummer they could not have figured that out when they were working with Apple on the Apple Music. I guess we shall continue to wait.

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