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User profile for user: David Shanahan
David Shanahan Author
User level: Level 4
1,003 points

Siri No Longer Responds While Driving, Even With Driving Focus Off

iOS 16.3.1 (though this started back on 15.x), Bluetooth connection to car. Irrespective of whether Driving Focus is on or off Siri now only seems to respond to a very limited set of commands.


While driving I can ask Siri to call someone in my contacts and that works, I can ask Siri to add something to my shopping list and that, usually, works (though Siri does not respond verbally anymore despite Responses>Prefer Spoken Responses being enabled), I can ask Siri to navigate me to some location and that works, but every other request to Siri that I've tried produces a few seconds of the Siri activity globe and then nothing happens and the activity globe disappears. Particularly irritating is that Siri will no longer read aloud recent messages. There is no message, no explanation, it just fails to process the request.


I'm not sure if this is intended behaviour or not (surely not when Driving Focus is disabled), but I can find no documentation saying Siri's behaviour has changed. If this isn't a bug, is there a list somewhere of what Siri can or cannot do while driving nowadays?

iPhone 14

Posted on Mar 12, 2023 4:52 AM

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User profile for user: David Shanahan
David Shanahan Author
User level: Level 4
1,003 points

Posted on Mar 17, 2023 3:50 AM

Unfortunately my previous post turned out to be incorrect, the problem Siri while driving is not resolved. The first test I did was flawed as I didn't actually drive the car, I just started the engine, connected the phone to the car's Bluetooth, checked that Driving Focus was enabled and gave it some Siri commands. Then it worked fine.


The next day when actually driving the car I found that nothing had changed and Siri would still only obey a limited set of commands, mostly navigation and phone call type commands. It didn't matter if Driving Focus was enabled or not, it just wouldn't work while I was driving. I was stumped, what was the difference between these two tests? And then I realised, when I was driving I had turn by turn navigation active! When I stopped it navigating Siri regained all its super powers, even with Driving Focus enabled.


The trigger isn't being connected to the car's bluetooth, it isn't the Driving Focus setting, it's caused by having turn by turn navigation active. Then Siri loses half its IQ.


The question is then, is this expected behaviour or is it a bug? I know that prior to iOS 15.x Siri did not behave like this, it would happily respond to non-phone, non-navigation commands while navigating me somewhere, but that behaviour seems to have changed and there seems to be no documentation relating to this that I can find.

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User profile for user: David Shanahan
David Shanahan Author
User level: Level 4
1,003 points

Mar 17, 2023 3:50 AM in response to David Shanahan

Unfortunately my previous post turned out to be incorrect, the problem Siri while driving is not resolved. The first test I did was flawed as I didn't actually drive the car, I just started the engine, connected the phone to the car's Bluetooth, checked that Driving Focus was enabled and gave it some Siri commands. Then it worked fine.


The next day when actually driving the car I found that nothing had changed and Siri would still only obey a limited set of commands, mostly navigation and phone call type commands. It didn't matter if Driving Focus was enabled or not, it just wouldn't work while I was driving. I was stumped, what was the difference between these two tests? And then I realised, when I was driving I had turn by turn navigation active! When I stopped it navigating Siri regained all its super powers, even with Driving Focus enabled.


The trigger isn't being connected to the car's bluetooth, it isn't the Driving Focus setting, it's caused by having turn by turn navigation active. Then Siri loses half its IQ.


The question is then, is this expected behaviour or is it a bug? I know that prior to iOS 15.x Siri did not behave like this, it would happily respond to non-phone, non-navigation commands while navigating me somewhere, but that behaviour seems to have changed and there seems to be no documentation relating to this that I can find.

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User profile for user: ASTRO24
ASTRO24
User level: Community Specialist

Mar 14, 2023 9:16 AM in response to David Shanahan

Hi David Shanahan,


Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities.


With the behavior of Siri not verbally responding and performing tasks as requested, to address the behavior, start by restarting your iPhone if you haven't already. Disable "Hey Siri" in Settings > Siri & Search. Restart your iPhone and enable the feature again. You will need to set it up again.


If Siri stops responding
1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap Siri & Search.
3. Tap Siri Responses. 
4. Tap Prefer Spoken Responses to hear Siri speak responses, even when Silent mode is turned on.

If "Hey Siri" isn't working on your iPhone - Apple Support



Regards.


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Siri No Longer Responds While Driving, Even With Driving Focus Off

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