iOS 13.5 Siri will not open apps while driving

We have a 2018 Ford explore never had this problem until the new 13.5.1

we both have iPhone 7’s tried everything but when in the vehicle and connected to Bluetooth you cannot get Siri to bring up anything. As soon as you press the home button for Siri a vehicle icon comes up and you can’t search for anything anymore.

I found if we disconnected her phone from Bluetooth she can search.

she is always the passenger and her phone is the primary in the truck.

this update is no good and needs to be fixed.

AGAIN:

only fix while in the vehicle is if you disconnect from Bluetooth for that phone.

Something weird happened. Since iOS 13.5 both Spotify and Waze (among others) were failing to get orders using Siri when driving but now Spotify is working again. Not for Waze. Anyone realized?

So this is my thought: Apple decided to turn on some kind of switch that let the apps know if the user is driving (just by means of detecting a bluetooth connection to a car stereo). By default, this switch may mean that the user can not use the app with Siri, unless the app sets this flag off. My belief is that Spotify made an update on this but not Waze.

Otherwise, why is Spotify working now with Siri when I am driving?

they’re the apps, not only iOS. Spotify works for me since some weeks ago but not Waze, it stopped working with iOS 13.5 and my conclusion is it is Google that needs to do something to make it work, just as Spotify did

Someone else responded that it's not actually Do Not Disturb. It's a "feature" that is not advertised and gets very little attention called "Siri Eyes Free". It's something the vehicle/head unit manufacturer implements that works with iPhones and seems to be impossible to get around. Yes, it came down in an iOS update but it doesn't happen for me on all vehicles. I have an after-market Alpine head unit that works like normal. What we really need is a Setting to disable this. No amount of resetting, or calls to Customer Service is going to get you a fix.

I'm the one who mentioned Siri Eyes Free (recently anyway, not sure if anyone also mentioned it in other posts), but that's something that the car or car stereo offers; essentially, Siri Eyes Free acts the same as "DND while driving" except it doesn't block incoming notifications.

Until 13.4 I would get the "grey car" interface *only* if I used the button on my car stereo to trigger Siri, but Siri would work just fine if I used "Hey Siri" or long-pressed the side button.

Starting with 13.5, that interface comes up every time Siri is summoned, regardless of how.

Considering that this has begun happening to everyone with 13.5 without any of us changing anything on the car side, this is definitely a change that Apple deliberately added, and that they could reverse if they wanted to.

Macfinger, I'm 101% with you on this; all you said makes perfect sense and it's a perfect recap of the problem.

Since we're on the topic of devices, I'll gladly list my hardware again.

I have a Sony DSX-A410BT I bought in December 2019, which I updated to the latest firmware on day one. The firmware was released in February 2019; I guess my unit had been sitting on a shelf for a while before I got it. It does support Siri Eyes Free, but this is where it gets odd: until iOS 13.4, Siri Eyes Free was only triggered by the stereo itself, i.e. if I long-pressed the knob. If I called up Siri with my voice, it would work as normal, showing my speech as I spoke and doing everything.

(I distinctly recall it being that way, because I have Siri in Italian and it consistently misunderstands anything not in Italian. Peeking at the screen allowed me to get an idea of whether it had understood me or not before having to wait for the spoken reply.)

After 13.5, the Siri Eyes Free interface shows up at all times, even if I call Siri up with my voice. I am still able to play music — misunderstandings aside — as I have an iTunes Match subscription so I use the default Music app. However, my personal pet peeve is that I use Waze for navigation because Apple Maps is mediocre at best in my area, and Waze's own UI and speech recognition are arguably pretty bad. Before, I could say "Hey Siri, directions to Whatever Road using Waze" and it would work. Now I get the dreaded "can't do it while you're driving" message. Coupled with (again) Waze's bad UI and speech recognition, it makes setting a destination on the go a complicated ordeal. Either I pull over and do it, or do it while driving. One's inconvenient, the other's literally dangerous.

Note that, following someone's suggestion here (I can't recall whose, I apologize), this did start working for me for a while. I disabled and re-enabled Bluetooth from the Settings, and for a while it worked. Note that I did not unpair and re-pair the car stereo, I just disabled BT and enabled it again, then reconnected the phone to the car stereo. It worked that time, but it's been spotty ever since and I honestly don't have the patience to do this dance every single time I get in the car. Even if I remember to, it's just a waste of time for something that's clearly a bug and should be addressed by Apple. I don't know if it helped because in that case it was the phone looking for the stereo rather than vice versa, as it normally does.

I also tried all Bluetooth speakers I could get my hands on, just to see if I could reproduce the problem with them, but none seems to be affected. I'm not sure if car stereos identify themselves as such, but it makes sense that they do. My Sony does show extra settings in the "info" screen in the Bluetooth settings on the phone (whether to sync contacts or not), but disabling that makes no difference.

PROBLEM SOLVED - EASY RESOLUTION

1 - Goto Apple App Store

2 - Download and install Google Maps

3- Download and install Google Assistant

4- Setup your voice and problems solved. You can hit one button on CarPlay to launch and listen and do it all.

Enjoy the way Siri used to work.

Well, this is weird — it sort of works for me, more or less.

After restoring iOS 14 it wouldn't work again, so today I decided to try the trick that worked the other time.

1. Start the car, the car stereo powers up and connects to BT automatically
2. Go to the phone's BT settings, click on the "i" icon next to the car stereo line, tap Disconnect
3. Go back to the list of BT devices, tap on the car stereo line so it reconnects.

After that, "Hey Siri open Waze" returned the same message, but "Hey Siri, directions to [random place] using Waze" DID work.

The Only criteria is an iPhone on iOS 13.5+ connected to the car’s Bluetooth. You do not even need to be in motion, simply being connected to your vehicle’s Bluetooth causes Siri to act this way.

I tested what the OP described as ones that would not work. I don't use Spotify, so Waze was all I could test. I don't use the Facebook app either, so i cannot test it. I wasn't being defensive, I was just saying that how can you be so sure it is an iOS issue, when I did not find the issue, and a couple of people here did. Plus there is no mention of this image or issue since iOS 11 beta? I'm just providing information here, to help compare the issue, and to say there certainly has not been a flood of other people reporting in this thread. But you can report this to Apple using their feedback link, Feedback - iPhone - Apple and report this as a bug, or you can also contact Apple Support and see if anyone there can duplicate the issue or provide any additional troubleshooting about the issue.

Hi, I was feeling the same pain with a Sony headunit. Adding the shortcut worked for me. It doesn’t fix everything but it did get Siri to open Spotify instead of just saying can’t do that in the car. Just try the instructions in this thread on adding a shortcut, should work for other things besides Spotify. It’s ******** that we have to do this when it worked the way it was but they don’t seem to be changing IOS any time soon.

GROUP LETTER TO APPLE

Thanks, everyone, especially crix17 for opening this thread, and to all for posting their experiences and problems with the bug or the intentional "feature" implemented in 13.5 and forward. Thanks, also, for the majority here who feel, as I do, that the implementation has caused significant problems and risk to the driver and to others and that it has created a safety concern needing to be addressed quickly.

We've hashed this out here and described in granular detail, but we are the choir listening. Apple needs to be in the building, as it is they who appear to be responsible and who can resolve this for us.

Therefore, let us prepare shared online correspondence, as a "me too" addressed to Apple that we can sign. We can post it on Dropbox or third party where we have control of it.

crix17? Can you get the ball rolling on this? You very eloquently described the problem, as have several of you here.

Thanks

So I didn’t go through every page of responses to see if this was mentioned, but the car you’re connecting to does seem to have some impact. When I connect to the bluetooth in my personal vehicle (2011 Hyundai Santa Fe), everything works perfectly. Siri even shows me web results etc... but on my work truck (2018 ford f150) I get the dreaded car icon and her telling me she can’t show me results. I agree that this is kinda stupid and for the most part has required me to turn off bluetooth and not be able to listen to my own music... But our company has a new policy where I’m not allowed any cell phone use while driving (even if it’s handsfree). So for now I guess I’ll live with it; but I’m starting to car shop for a new car and definitely going to make sure everything works before I buy something new!!!

Well, everything worked 100% on my F150 when I purchased it new, and now the iPhone fails as everyone has been discussing here. That screen is causing dangerous conditions for us. It's with an OS update on the phone, so it comes down to Apple, not the vehicle manufacturer. Case in point: iOS 13.5 did it, but not earlier. Case in point: The Android phone I just purchased from Microsoft works perfectly.

Case in point: As mentioned as a workaround in this forum, you can write scripts to circumvent Siri's refusal to open the apps.

It is an issue with iOS.

Sure, my car stereo supports Siri Hands Free, but that should come in when I trigger Siri from the car stereo (and it did before 13.5). At the very least, there should be a setting to disable Hands Free. I may be connected to the car stereo via Bluetooth but not driving, so why should I be limited?

Moreover, apps have no way to exempt themselves from being limited. I've spoken with the Waze guys and looked through the APIs myself, and there's no such thing.

How many here have reported the issue via https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/? If so, was your ticket read? I opened one on June 9 but it was never looked at. It says "Recent Similar Reports: None" and "Resolution: Open". Has anyone had better luck?