ExGMan

Rudy - Thanks for the constructive idea. I will try that. Clearly Voice Command is not the most important thing in the world. Maybe we can get it to work. A side-by-side comparison is probably the answer.

dcavanaugh

I have a Blackberry 8703e (Verizon) paired with my 2008 528i. In my brief experience, I have found no connection between voice command and the BB phone book, even after I-drive downloads it. Some people seem to think the system can match a voice to the text names in the phone book. Not true. In my experience, all the voice command is capable of is matching spoken names to stored audio samples and sending numbers via Bluetooth for the BB to dial. It would work the same way even if the BB phonebook was empty.

At the voice prompt, you have to use SAVE NAME, follow the dialog, providing a name and number to dial, and then you have to say SAVE. Even then, when you want the number recalled, you have to get a pretty close match to the inflection used when making the original sound. Another important point to remember is that each of your phonebook entries should sound distinct from the others. If there are only subtle variations in the sound, expect misdirected lookups. Use the READ PHONEBOOK command to get an idea of what the system wants to hear for the various names you have stored. I made my voice phonebook entries with the climate control off, so I turn down the fan when I use the system. Road noise can also be an issue (although the E60 is a really quiet car anyway).

I am very new to BMW ownership, but I have the phone in question and I am successfully using voice command. My one wish is that I could change the voice. For what this car costs, I want it to speak with a sultry female voice. It should be just enough to make passengers smile (or for my wife to complain). Attention BMW: Check out http://www.theivrvoice.com THAT is the voice I want for voice command.

Rudy

Welcome to the forum and to BMW ownership! I think you'll soon learn that BMW ownership can be complex. To start you off on your journey of learning these complexities, let me simply say that you must not have navigation on your car.

On the E60, there's a huge difference between navigation cars and non-navigation cars. There is entirely different hardware running the iDrive system (nav cars use the CCC system and non-nav cars use the M-ASK system.)

On CCC based cars, the phone does, in fact, translate the speech to the text in the phonebook. There is no "save name" command and there's no "teaching" the system any entries. The M-ASK system is a bit more primitive and does require the teaching of names, etc. as you describe above.

Enjoy your car and enjoy the forums!

(Oh yeah, and one more thing.... Go Steelers! )

dcavanaugh

Thanks for the info -- I had no idea that the nav system cars had speech-to-text matching. As a software guy, I can understand why it would be problematic. A car is a tough place to be doing any kind of speech recognition, even before trying to add text interpretation. I have seen some speech-to-text demonstrations in a controlled environment -- even then it's a hit and miss proposition at best. No wonder people are having trouble with it.

Rudy

I agree that speech-to-text can be less than perfect but I'm actually surpised at how well it works in the car...

scottsalisbury

In my experience the voice commands are stored within the TCU seperate from the address book of the paired phone. An example of this is that my 2004 530i pairs with both my wife's phone and my Blackberry. Even when we are both in the car and the car is paired with her phone, the voice commands I saved still work with my voice. The voice commands she "saved" to the TCU work with her voice when my Blackberry is paired. The full address book of my BB appears when paired, and the limited phone book my wife has on her phone is listed when her phone is paired.

Scott