iOS 13.5 Siri will not open apps while driving

(Whoever marked this as solved back in July should remove that tag - a workaround doesn't equate to a fix/solution. If you don't know the difference, one of us can gladly explain that to you offline. It's a disservice to all of us who have left countless feedback points and takes the issue off of Apple Support's radar.)

There has definitely been a change made on the backend by Apple without an apparent iOS update, and below, please note the details...

Same iPhone

Same iOS 13.7 (no carrier updates either)

Same car

Same "Hello Siri" steps as many of us have reported before

Behavior:

Before: When asked to open an app like Waze via "Hey Siri, use Waze to go home," the response was "I cannot do that while you're in the car."

Now: When asked to open an app like Waze via "Hey Siri, use Waze to go home,"

a) If the phone is locked, the response is "You'll need to unlock your iPhone first, but I don't recommend that while you're driving." -> this is same behavior if your phone is locked but not driving and message is "You'll need to unlock your iPhone first."

b) If the phone is unlocked, it'll proceed to open Waze and take it from there.

My solution is to turn off bluetooth from settings and use the wired connection into my 2016 CRV EX. When does anyone think iOS 13.5.1 will appear?

I have this same problem. I have a 2017 BMW and have always hated the CarPlay implementation on my car for several reasons not pertinent here. So I have always had CarPlay turned off on my iPhone and connect to my car using bluetooth only.

I recently rented a car that had no built in navigation (new Kia Cube) so had no option but to turn on CarPlay in order to get navigation via Waze or Apple Maps. (I actually like the way Kia implements CarPlay so it's not just a CarPlay thing)

I updated my phone to the latest iOS 13.5.x while traveling and using the rental car. After getting back home, I did not turn off CarPlay before jumping back in my BMW on the way to work this morning and found that no individual apps would open via Siri, but Siri shortcuts would open normally while driving. (I have a Siri shortcut that opens several travel related apps and my Ring security app last so I don't forget to arm the house as I drive off).

Later I asked Siri try to open another app and found the "CarPlay Siri background" instead of the normal Siri background.

I thought it might be related to being in motion, but just confirmed that even parked in the driveway "Siri Open xx" will not work, but Siri will open shortcuts.

I've insured that CarPlay is off and tried deleting the phone from the car and bluetooth re-pairing, but no change. It seems that Apple has forced this change whether in error or on purpose on us. The handsfree function of Siri doesn't work when one actually needs a handsfree service.

I reached out Apple Support. After several settings review they told me to look for any firmware update for my car audio set. So it looks to me they claim there is no bug with Siri or iOS. For me, it is clear something was udpate in iOS that altered the bluetooth behavior. It looks to me iOS now believes I have Apple Car in my car, which I don't.

I was on a support call for three hours. My case was sent up the chain for review. With do not disturb while driving being a feature you can either set automatically or manually, there is no need to force it on us. Apple evidently does make changes when they get a lot of negative feedback. If you google Apple feedback you can select your device and leave them a note about this. I am supposed to get information about whether this is something that is overriding DND or if it is now a new feature of the update forced on us. BTW the folks say the update was just for security but there were 3 features added as well. Exposure tracing which you can opt in or out, face masks face id and another that escapes me at the moment.

Siri don't work while in vehicle when in drive it showes a gray screen with a car icon and cannot display anything like it used to. Put the car in park and it will work like before. Called apple they said to make sure my setting was on manual in do not distribute and it was. I called GM I have a 2018 Terrain they said they would not send an update to the vehicle like that he had me try car play and that seems to work but I don't use car play I plug in to the accessories out let and it won't work like it did before. I noticed this at first after an update from apple. Has anyone found out about what happened and are they going to fix it.

Thanks for reading .

FWIW I think this problem has something to do with the combination of the iOS and specific vehicle systems as Siri works on both my iPhone 5SE and my iPhone 10 in both my 2014 Subaru Outback and my 2017 Ford Expedition (neither of which has a heads up display or a guidance system). My PT has an iPhone 11 and a 2109 Ford truck and has no issue. Thus rather than ranting and raving at and assuming that Apple has either purposely removed functionality or made a programming mistake they don’t care about maybe it would help if people would somehow get a list to Apple of exactly which vehicles have problems and which don’t, allowing Apple to figure out the commonalities in vehicle programming that are messing with their programming. JMHO

Another confirmation that the problem persists with 13.6. I use a Sony DSX-A410BT car stereo and this started with 13.5.

The issue seems to be bringing things into the foreground, because I am able to make Spotify play music (I just tried it earlier, "Hey Siri play [artist] with Spotify" worked; I don't use Spotify much so I never tried just "opening" it) but getting directions with anything that's not Apple Maps just fails. Before 13.5, I often said something like "Hey Siri, directions to [wherever] using Waze" and it worked perfectly.

Bringing up Siri by pressing the side button makes no difference.

The only case where the car image would show up on 13.4 was when I used the car stereo's button to open Siri, rather than calling it up with voice.

I reported this to Apple's Feedback Assistant site as soon as 13.5 came out, but my ticket's been rotting there for over a month now, open and unread by anyone.

This *must* be a bug, because there's a setting for DND to be enabled "when connected to car stereo" and I have it on "manual". It makes no sense to only apply "DND While Driving" to Siri when the rest of the DND features are disabled. I still see incoming notifications, and preventing me from using voice commands certainly isn't safer.

Moreover, I may be connected to the Bluetooth but not be driving, so why should the phone decide what I can or can't do via Siri, without giving me a chance to override it?

I really hope Apple comes around with this, at least in iOS 14, because it's extremely frustrating *and* dangerous. It literally contradicts the whole idea of "DND while driving".

Just to add onto what someone else said, I have this problem on my iPhone XS in a 2017 Toyota Highlander with factory radio, but I DO NOT have this problem with the same phone in a 2017 Jeep Wrangler with an Alpine ILX-W650 after-market radio. This makes me think it's something the head unit is doing to put my phone into DnD mode.

In my humble opinion the accelerometer wouldn't work that well either, because you could be connected to the car stereo and not be the one driving. I used to do that all the time with my father's car before I got my own. In that case the issue is not as bad because you're free to use your fingers, but you may still want to use Siri for some reason.

The deeper issue is that this is a limitation that 1) doesn't make sense, 2) wasn't there before, and 3) can't seem to be removed in any way.

It's a bit like the inability to trigger a shortcut automation when connecting to Bluetooth unless you manually tap "run" in the notification that appears. I understand that it may be for security reasons (even though it could use the bluetooth address to ensure that it's indeed the correct device and not something else impersonating it), but give me the option to override it if I so choose.

The difference is that, while the bluetooth thing is "just" extremely annoying, this Siri issue may actually get people hurt if they take their eyes off the road. I sure hope someone at Apple reads this and realizes that if we set "DND while driving" to off, that should also apply to Siri. That's really all we're asking for.

Absolutely agreed (and glad to see I'm not the only one on this planet who said "Hey Siri, navigate to Xyz using Waze").

I think the problem sort of became more apparent as the thread developed — I originally thought it was an issue with Waze alone, go figure — and shortcuts do seem to solve the mere opening of apps for some people. By the time we all realised that this is worse than that, the thread already been marked as solved by the author.

My take on it is that DND management got messed up at some point, because it's not even fully stuck on — I can get incoming notifications just fine, both the sound and the banner on top, as I'm driving with Waze in the foreground. It seems to only be stuck on with Siri, which is even more frustrating. The fact that iOS reportedly exhibits the same behaviour isn't exactly encouraging.

Not for me. At some point, Spotify started working again while driving. Not for Waze, but now I can interact with Spotify when driving, so it must have been a combination of some new feature in iOS (a feature that by default disables app interaction with Siri when driving unless the app overrides it) and the app Spotify being updated accordingly. I suspect that we have to wait for Waze to allow interaction while driving, after thinking about all these now it makes sense to me it is a combination of both.

But if this was the case, it is too bad Apple did not let us know. I might be wrong.

Same issue here. I've tried a lot of things - including deleting the BT connection with the car - deleting from the iPhone and car and then re-connecting. The only thing I have not tried is to reset network settings. It's not that much trouble to re-establish your connections - maybe it will clear something. Or, I may just have a chat with an Apple rep and see what they think.

I use Siri while driving without touching the iPhone - and now that I can't I have to fiddle with the screen before I can get it to open an App - very bad.

Fri 4 Sep 2020

iPhone 11 connecting via Bluetooth to a 'basic' Pioneer car stereo, model: DEH-S4150BT and Siri still won't f••k**g work when I'm in the car or driving. It's such a HUGE pain in the ••• ...

We are now up to iOS 13.7 with numerous incremental updates in between, and STILL no fix. I'm starting to get very disillusioned. I can neither afford to buy a new car stereo or another model iPhone (it's only 8 months old) - after iOS 13.5 back in May, my phone automatically connects in 'Do Not Disturb while Driving' mode rendering Siri useless for the Apps I use in my car.

I've sent Apple numerous feedbacks (heard nothing back), reset my phone back to default factory settings, reset my car stereo back to default factory settings, upgraded the car stereo to the latest firmware from Pioneer. Wasted countless hours. Nothing works to get it back to how Siri worked, opening and querying anything I asked it to. I shouldn't have to use a cable to connect to my BLUETOOTH AUDIO car stereo to get Siri to work HANDS FREE !!

My expensive smartphone is useless and VERY VERY DANGEROUS when driving !!

Definitely one of the most annoying iOS bugs ever.

Thank you - excellent explanation.

My 2010 Toyota works fine.

My 2018 Toyota does not - since 3.5. There have been no SW/FW changes to the audio system.

It is very UNSAFE.

I now use the iPhone via the speaker mounted on the dash - NOT connected to the car. Hopefully temporary workaround.