GT Premi

So I'm playing around with iDrive throwing undocumented voice commands at it when I say "Engine Off." Then it responds with "Automatic Programs, Intensive" and displays "intense" on the status bar at the bottom of the screen. What does this mean? My car isn't going to freak out on me one day, is it??

sixcard

GTP, that's a HOOT!

By "undocumented" do you mean illegal?

If it freaks out, you probably deserve it. Why not try it again? I will stay tuned.

JSpira

So it showed you the ventilation - please don?t get freak out.

GT Premi

No. It didn't show ventilation at all and nothing happened with the ventilation system. But thanks for jogging my memory that the ventilation system has "Automatic Programs" and "Intense" is one of the options. Whew!!

Rudy

But it probably did adjust the automatic climate program to the intensive setting...did you check it out?

EBMCS03

Intense MELTDOWN!!!!!

Richard in NC

I have just about concluded that voice commands on '08 models are useless. It seems it works less now than on my '02 M5 or my '06 650i.

It seems every command I know that works, can only work while on the darn screen for the function. EG, I used to be able to say "Restaurants at Current Location". Now you have to say "Navigation" to get to the nav menu and "information on location" to get to that menu and manually select the rest. Ditto with enabling the programmable ventilation. You have to be on the programmable ventilation screen to do so.

Worse, if you say a command it DOESN"T understand, it WILL go to some strange screen and do something totally unexpected.

I tried showing it off the other day. With any background noise, all I got was "Sorry, I didn't understand, please repeat" and a chorus of laughter from the back seat which made it impossible to retry the command.

PS: I'm still trying to find a command to switch to the iPod. I've tried "audio aux" and "iPod", both of which are claimed to work.

kearflex

I literally sat in my driveway for over an hour yesterday testing voice commands. I too was riddled with laughter when I tried to use the voice commands in front of an audience. Still new to the car, I was trying commands that either did not exist or the computer could not recognize.

It really can be annoying trying to enter a nav input via "speech" and Sirius radio pops on

I did get a pretty good grasp on the commands which worked for me properly...

I am sure there are many more which I have not tried...

Is there a full list of commands somewhere on this site? I do like this feature... I just don't think "the voice" likes my accent

GT Premi

Did you try just saying "aux" or "auxillary?" Probably auxillary would be the word. I've found that saying the abbreviations they have listed in the OM don't work. Not for me, anyway. When I say "sat" for satellite radio, it'll do anything but. I have to say satellite. (And it stinks that you can't tell it a satellite channel to tune to.)

And your impromptu comedy show is precisely why I don't use voice commands when I have "guests."

Oh, and BTW, back to my original post. It did change the vent settings to intensive, but "intensive" sure is low. That's probably why I didn't notice a change. And on the subject of the ventilation, why does it blow air as soon as you start the car on cold mornings? My 300M's auto climate control wouldn't kick the fans on until the engine had warmed up enough to produce warm air. Get with the program (literally), BMW!!

(edit)
Richard in NC, were you at Hendrick BMW the Monday/Tuesday before Thanksgiving? I think I saw your car there parked next to the delivery paddock. I was there to order some mudflaps and was parked behind a white, previous-gen 525(?)i.

Rudy

Are you sure you're set to Auto? On your car, that means pressing the button inside the center circle (the button inside the fan speed dial). From your two complaints above, it sounds like you have overridden the automatic setting with the fan speed dial...