[RoverYacht]

Hey everyone. I just went to the dealer and was planning on buying a new 3 with idrive. But they didnt have any with the nav so i sat in a 545 with nav to play with it b.c its the same system right? Ok so the navigation was so much more confusing than i thought it would be. I mean I'm very tech savvy but i could not get the nav to do what i wanted. And then I tried several different commands with the voice activation for about 15 minutes and it didn't pick up anything. It did not recognize the commands in the user manual at all. Does anyone know if the voice activation works well in the new 3 with nav and with the bluetooth? I don't want to spend 2,000 for something that sucks. Thanks y'all.

[Broken1]

You must have a really bad accent...or you can't speak.
My voice activation, albeit for only the phone functions...hasn't missed a command yet. I can even try say it funny...and it still gets it!

I have also played extensively with the idrive...took me 2 seconds to get it right.

[scottz5]

Voice is good on the non I drive car.

[genghis]

don't have a problem. sometimes when there's exterior noise, but i just close my windows. i can say nah, nope, or yeah, yup for no and yes. and when you save names in the phonebook it asks twice in case you say the name differently. could be that the non idrive cars don't have issues, or that the 5-series you were sitting in was faulty. or it could be your drawl.

[johnfkitchen]

The 325i loaner I'm driving has the bluetooth phone connection, so I tried the voice commands to dial numbers, store names and dial by stored name.

The car is a USA spec car. My accent is Australian. It worked PERFECTLY. First time. I was amazed.

All I did was to press the little talking head button, and say "help". It told me what I could do, so I did it. Later, I read the manual.

[Imperial]

my car's voice command system tends to misunderstand me from time to time, too, but overall, it's pretty accurate.

[E90Fleet]

The ones I have tried worked VERY well

[tsoc88]

Have a 325i w/bluetooth. Picked up last week. Bluetooth works fine, EXCEPT, my Sony T616 is very slow in the car. (ie menu acquistion, scrolling, etc)

Voice command works fine, you just have to get use to a certain cadence.

[westcoaster]

my voice command gets messed up if i have the ac on.

[collinp]

My only long term experience is with the Bluetooth handsfree phone system on a non-iDrive car. Voice activation is pretty cutting edge technology. If you consider you are talking to a computer it works pretty well. You have to speak clearly and wait for the system to recognize you. It also doesn't handle background noise from other passengers or open windows very well. If you meet it half way it can be pretty handy.

- Collin

[Squawks]

Isn't there a little setup period where you are calibrating the voice command system with the repetition of some words given by the car to be repeated by you?

I know for example the Acura TL (which IMO kills all other rides in terms of tech savvy pleasures) has a calibrated setup. It was amazing being the woman demonstrating the voice activation had a THICK Japanese accent, yet the TL picked up her voice perfectly fine. She said, "find me the closest Chinese restaurant." The TL pulled out the closest one, gave the name, pulled out the directions and the distance/time to get there.

[NaTuReB0Y]

Acura TL's navigation system is the holy grail of all navi's........