I bought my 2.0TDC Ghia in late Nov 07. I love the car and the voice activated controls are great. However, coming home tonight the voice activated control has failed again. This is the 2nd time. The first time it went back to the dealer. It came back fixed with no explanation other than " you get these teething faults on new models". I'll be phoning them again on monday, But as it's happened again, I'm wondering if this is a fault others are experiencing?
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Dirk , sorry to learn of your problem and I'm also sorry that I don't have a serious answer to your question.
I hope you don't mind my butting into your thread but being partially deaf myself as a result of being a wee bit near to an explosion many years ago, the notion of a car with hearing difficulties made me chuckle.
I am a Mondeo fan and it is more than possible that I could find myself with one of the new ones at some time. I just had a vision of the unfortunate potential "conversation" between me and it if it was fitted with sat nav as well !
" Y'what ?.....eh ? I said.......no I said......! Excuse me ? What ? Turn left ? No I said I wanted the lights on !" ;-)
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You don't need to have hearing problems for that effect to occur. Last Honda I drove with voice control was clearly asked about arrival time and responded by shutting down the air conditioning, never to be revived.
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>a vision of the unfortunate potential "conversation" between me and it if it was fitted with sat nav as well !
Brilliant shoespy!
You should sell that script to a good standup.
Kevin...
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I must admit, it is a novelty, going all these years without any help from the cyber lady living in the car somewhere, to turn the heat up, demist on/off etc etc, but the most useful thing is the phone. Now I've had a taster of not taking the hands off the wheel to warm my tootsies up I miss it now it's gone.
In all seriousness, it's a feature of the car and they add £££ to the price for it, so it should work....! I only use it for the phone, and it's nice to push a button and say " dial indian takeaway" on the way home from work without incurring 3 points on the licence. So come on Ford, are there issues with this feature??
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 06/01/2008 at 00:04
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I've got VC on my S-Max and I'm sure that it must be the same unit. Agreed that using it for the heater, demister, etc is a bit OTT but it's great for the phone as in 'Dial Name', Dial Number', etc.
I haven't heard of any issues with the VC on any S-Max on the S-Max owners club so it could just be a one off duff unit.
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Do you all use Voice Control on your PCs? I don't.
I doesn't matter whether the failure rate is 1:10, 1:1,000 or 1:1,000,000 - if it's not reliable enough to get rid of hand-operated controls, then it's an expensive extra gimmick.
I'd rather manufacturers made engine management systems totally reliable.
Shoespy's scenario makes me smile, I enjoy my selective deafness !!
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Do you all use Voice Control on your PCs? I don't.
Nope, but stepping back from the screen to get something else done and taking your hands off the keyboard is only mildly likely to result in a crash :)
I had an opportunity to play Rainbow Six: Las Vegas on the Xbox 360 the other day, and found that the voice controls for the squad did make focusing on the immediate task at hand a lot easier. Admittedly I'm not likely to need to order a room clearance whilst sitting at 70 on the M1, but the principle is sound :)
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I have voice control in the C5. Thought it was a great gimmick at first (I like gimmicks), but the most irritating thing about it, which amuzes the family greatly, is when it doesn't fully understand what you've said, so it just says "NO!" like a spoiled teenager.
Conversation - me in car, with SWMBO, driving kid and his mate somewhere.
Kid, to mate - "hey you can talk to this car and tell it what to do. Go on - tell it to do something."
Me - (fearing embarrassment) - "Oh - I can't be bothered."
SWMBO - (sensing a good laugh) - "oh go on - miserable sod."
Me - Oh, go on then. (Press Button on Stalk) - "CD Changer - Track Number 6"
Car - "NO!"
I've stopped using it.
Edited by Mile-Muncher on 08/01/2008 at 00:04
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>> Car - "NO!"
Perhaps it doesn't like your taste in music?
;-)
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Sorted now. They said it was a fault with the radio. Thats the 2nd time. I hope they'll replace the unit if it goes again.
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I have it on my Blackberry. Every time I say 'Ring Home' it says 'Do you mean Police'.... (I don't say please!).
Maybe this should have gone on the 'Letting SWMBO drive' thread.
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