Sitting In Traffic, Yelling At My Car

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I recently purchased a new car, the first I've had in 14 years. My previous car had reached the end, and I had no choice but to buy a new one. While I didn't get anything too fancy -- I didn't get a luxury car, or a sports car, or anything like that -- the new car does have Microsoft Sync, which allows you to do a bunch of neat stuff like sync up your cell phone via Bluetooth so you can dial and talk hands free, and do other things via voice commands. The voice command stuff usually works pretty good, but not always, and yesterday, I ran into a definite glitch: it wasn't recognizing any voice commands.

At first, I was trying to use some of the stuff that I hadn't used before, but every time I issued a command, the Sync would sound the tone that means "I didn't understand that." Ironically, when it would offer suggestions on what I should say, I found it offering up the very same command I was trying to give it.

I decided to give up on trying the new stuff and just listen to music, which I can do via my phone and the Bluetooth connection. "Bluetooth Audio" I said. Sync replied with that very same "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?" tone again. Hmm. Perhaps I wasn't clear. "Bluetooth Audio" I said again. Same thing, that bad command tone. Sync told me I could say "Help" to get some help. Okay. "Help" I said. Followed by the bad command tone. At this point, I'm yelling, and repeating myself: "Bluetooth Audio! Bluetooth Audio! Bluetooth Audio!" Bad command tone.

When I was stopped at a light, I decided to try the tried-and-true Microsoft fix: reboot. Or, in this case, turn the car off and turn it back on again.

Worked like a charm.

As a side note, ironically, Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7 is not entirely compatible with Microsoft Sync. The Bluetooth stuff works fine, but the USB line does not. And when I went to the Sync website and had a completely unhelpful online chat with one of their customer service reps, I was told "Sync has not been tested with Windows Phone 7." Uh, dude, I'm telling you right now: I tested it, and it doesn't all work.

Comments

Ed said…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b67l_yxUc
January 11, 2011 at 3:53 PM
Alan said…
As soon as he got out of the car it reminded me of the Street Fighter "Beat Up The Car" bonus stage. :)
January 11, 2011 at 4:13 PM

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