I purchased my 2018 X152 as optioned by someone else or I would have chosen to have voice recognition. However, since the car only lacked two options I would have preferred (voice and switchable exhaust), it was close enough and there were two upsides: I got what I thought was a good deal, and the dealer was willing to take my 2015 Ghibli in trade for the price I wanted. Also, orders for 2018 models were no longer being taken according to my dealer, and orders for 2019 were not yet been accepted.
I'm wondering if adding voice recognition is possible; does anyone know?

 

Did voice become an option in 2018?

 

@Fujicouple.
I have a 2019MY P300 -EU-, as far as I know [maybe different in the US] , there is NO voice recognition. Also NO WiFi-Hotspot, both normally come with 'in touch control pro' infotainment,
which is standard in the EU models.

I am struggling with JLR to have it activated as WiFi is a factory option on F-Pace with 'in touch control pro'. Be ware of two other facts : the CD/DVD player has gone from the cubby too.
And I can not work out if I can upload music to the SSD. Nothing in the manual.

They also dropped the bolsters, but for €250 I had manual inflatable bolsters fitted to the drivers side chair.

 

I have voice recognition in my LR3 and had it in my XFR. Never used it. That may be why it was dropped from the F-Type (at least here in the US). You generally have to remember an exact syntax and word order or no bueno. Don't expect and Alexa or Google Assistant experience in the noise of the cabin. You're probably better off sticking with Siri or her Android cousin...

 

I also have it in my LR3. But its so rudementary that it drives you mad. When JC tested it, he concluded : "..forget it..".

Its now a 'lightyear' on, so I guess it would have improved..

 

Well dang, unhingd, I just assumed (my bad) that it was an option as I was viewing the how-to videos on the JagUSA site and the touch-free phone video showed a pic of the steering wheel controls with the little voice button right there between the phone receiver icon and the mode button. Upon reviewing the video just now it does not make any mention of hands free use, however.
Are you saying that Jag doesn't offer voice recognition and hands free phone capability, as Dan_NL seems to confirm?

 

Certainly supports Bluetooth calls via the touchscreen, if that counts as 'hands-free'.

 

No voice activation, but cell phone will sync via BT to the sound system to make it completely handsfree. We did have a crude form of voice activation through the inDrive app until Jag quite supporting it.

 

The phone is no problem, you can activate the phone 'page' with a switch on the left of the steeringwheel. The rest you do from the touchscreen.

 

It definitely offers hands-free phone through BT since I've used it in my '14. Voice recognition isn't even something I thought about as an option because as mentioned above, with all the noise it might be difficult (plus mine is a 'vert and the top is down as much as I can) and I know that even though I don't think I have much of a southern accent anymore, anything with voice recognition doesn't understand me, so I usually find that kind of thing useless. So I'm no help with that part of it.

 

As Unhingd mentioned, Jaguar took a stab at it with the JustDrive InControl app which became known as the JustDont before it was declared unsupported at the end of March this year I think.

The JustDrive developers ran into problems with their back end voice gateway being IPV6 compliant (none of the processing was done locally in the car) and even when it was working on WiFi, the most common word it used was "Sorry ?'

Indeed.

 

Every gizmo in your car and home has downsides. Voice recognition, by necessity, has a device listen to all of your conversations. Since security is an afterthought, and designers of in-car systems are not proficient in information security, such systems end up being easy to compromise.

In this case, less is almost always better.

 

I would agree with this. I personally don't want any of those devices in my home (even though they don't understand me anyway), but I'm old and while I wouldn't say paranoid, maybe I am.

I was joking with someone at work the other day about computers and cars and communication, etc. He said he used to work with someone who had a Tesla and one morning he woke up and when he got in his car, the software had updated overnight and it suddenly had the ability to autopilot. I mentioned Cyberdyne Systems and that's how things will start. I don't really need more automation in my life I don't think.

 

Well, bless my heart ya'll, I would have never thunk that a car of this caliber would not have been provided with voice recognition as standard equipment. Even my technologically challenged 2015 Ghibli came with it, and it worked fairly well (one of the few things). No matter and certainly nothing that would have queered the deal for me, and as it turns out the phone works just fine hands free.
I've still not delved into the world of InControl, but just perusing the comments at the local Android Play Store it doesn't look like a very productive endeavor to undertake at this juncture. What say ye one or all?
BTW, a big Thank You for your comments.

 

I think the perceived wisdom is that people don't buy this car for the infotainment toys. If you want that the door marked Tesla is over yonder.

The problem with InControl is that I think Jaguar outsources the application development so it tends to get broken by upgrades from Apple or Android. Sorry, I don't think Android updates anything so maybe that doesn't count ;-)

When the Spotify app doesn't work in InControl, I turn the radio off now and press the Active Exhaust button. I've learnt from some of the folks around here.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, if you're overly concerned about your infotainment toys, you're driving it wrong...

 

I've been able to walk and chew gum for several weeks now, stmcknig; I don't see that these things are mutually exclusive. Sounds like you should buy yourself a Maserati and join those who make their excuses along the "well, it's a driver's car" line--not to be disagreeable, but....

 

I don't see where anyone implied anything like that. EVERY car has things that people wish were better about them. I just think what's been implied here is that most of us have decided that the things we do like far outweigh the things we might wish were different. Sure, my audio system could sound better, but I personally don't care because I do enjoy the sound of my exhaust and the sound from the system is fine for my needs (after warranty runs out, maybe I'll be at the point where I want to fiddle with things a bit there, maybe not). Do I wish I had a more advanced infotainment system? Sure, it would be nice, but I didn't buy the car for that - I bought it for the style, engine and some of the other bells and whistles that were important to me. I also didn't really hear any excuses, just that many of us focus on the stuff we love or that we can change rather than the things that could be a bit better. But I'm still new around here, so maybe I'm wrong or I haven't been reading closely enough because I am also trying to get work done before the holiday weekend.

 

Um Maserati ? Um no. Not sure why they have such a following here. Like a Gremlin, you don’t want to get them wet....

I have no idea how you misinterpreted me. Would I like CarPlay in the Jag ? Sure. Was it a deal breaker, no. Am I going to bitch about it because I don’t have it but a $20K Kia does, again, no.

When I went car shopping, bleeding edge infotainment was not top of my list. How I feel when I drive it was. That wouldn’t change if the radio blew up tomorrow.