HERE Drive and 8.1

[BaritoneGuy]

I read yesterday, that the soon to be out 8.1 GDR1 will feature a few Bluetooth enhancements including some related to things like this. Hopefully it will resolve the issues.

 

[Tiaxx]

Uhhh another tweet addressed to @here, @HereMaps does not seem to be an active account

 

[haikus]

Hi guys, this is Pino from HERE.
First of all,you may wanna wait for the final release of Windows Phone 8.1, instead of using the developer preview.
Having said that, please consider that different cars and accessories behave astonishingly differently with the bluetooth module of Windows Phone. In our tests we found out that what works in one car model, doesn't necessarily work as well in another. This explains why some of you have issues, while others don't.
A workaround that seems to alleviate some of your problems is to stream music from your Windows Phone while driving. That keeps the bluetooth channel continuously open and allows the HERE Drive instructions to come in time through the car speakers and without interruption.
I hope this helps.

 

[Tiaxx]

Hi guys, this is Pino from HERE.
First of all,you may wanna wait for the final release of Windows Phone 8.1, instead of using the developer preview.
Having said that, please consider that different cars and accessories behave astonishingly differently with the bluetooth module of Windows Phone. In our tests we found out that what works in one car model, doesn't necessarily work as well in another. This explains why some of you have issues, while others don't.
A workaround that seems to alleviate some of your problems is to stream music from your Windows Phone while driving. That keeps the bluetooth channel continuously open and allows the HERE Drive instructions to come in time through the car speakers and without interruption.
I hope this helps.

Thanks for the quick response!

I'm not on the developer preview, it's the stock version of 8.1 that comes with the Lumia 630.

Sad to say, the problem occurs even when streaming music - driving instructions come in via an "emulated" voice call, i.e. it shows there's a call in progress in the display (auto accepts it, though - no need to do this), makes the annoucement and ends the call again.

On my Ascend W1 with WP 8.0 on it, I remember it used to lower the music volume and play it through the same channel.

 

[Matthew Sleno]

I also have a 2014 Jeep with Uconnect and am having these frustrating issues.

The other thing that it does now, that it didn't in 8.0 which worked flawlessly, is that it doesn't download my recent calls off of the phone and because it is "dialing" to communicate, it means the redial is left with my own phone number making me have to hunt through my address book while driving.
Nokia/Microsoft, this was working flawlessly, this needs to be fixed or I need to be able to roll back to the old firmware till you get your crap together or I just bail out after 3 years of this nonsense and get an Android device

 

[astondg]

Hi Pino, thanks for the reply.

I personally am on the dev preview but the same issues are experienced by people on the official 8.1 & Cyan release so I think it's worthwhile looking in to.

My car audio system is an Alpine CDE-153EBT and it didn't have this problem in WP8. The are others in this thread that have also confirmed that the problems only started after upgrading to WP8.1.

I would also like to note that there are at least 2 issues here, 1. Is when the navigation directions come in as a voice call and are cut off or not heard in full & 2. Is when the navigation directions come in over the BT streaming channel, the streaming music fades out but then there is just silence, no directions play.

 

[astondg]

Also, just to check we're all on the same page. Those who have the directions coming in over a call, can you confirm that you have been in to the WP Bluetooth advanced settings and ensured the checkbox for 'Use an alternate Bluetooth audio connection for speech ' is unchecked? Maybe even try navigation with & without this checked.

 

[Tiaxx]

Also, just to check we're all on the same page. Those who have the directions coming in over a call, can you confirm that you have been in to the WP Bluetooth advanced settings and ensured the checkbox for 'Use an alternate Bluetooth audio connection for speech ' is unchecked? Maybe even try navigation with & without this checked.

Well yes, the checkbox is what makes the connection come in as a call. Thing is: there's no point doing that as you're not doing any speech input - it's output only...

 

[astondg]

Well yes, the checkbox is what makes the connection come in as a call. Thing is: there's no point doing that as you're not doing any speech input - it's output only...

That setting is about speech output as well and as you said, that's what makes navigation directions come in as a call. Isn't that part of the problem for some people? They don't want it coming in as a call? For those that do there's also the issue of the speech being cut off and playing a 'call ended' type message at the end.

I was trying to cover off the response from haikus, he suggested we try streaming BT music and then have the navigation directions come in over that same channel, which would require the checkbox I mentioned to be unchecked. In this state I just get silence when there should be directions, but that may not be the case for everyone (and this used to work pre-WP8.1 for me too).

 

[Tiaxx]

That setting is about speech output as well and as you said, that's what makes navigation directions come in as a call. Isn't that part of the problem for some people? They don't want it coming in as a call? For those that do there's also the issue of the speech being cut off and playing a 'call ended' type message at the end.

For me it says "Select the checkbox above only if your Bluetooth device has problems with speech recognition" - so that should have nothing to do with any audio output :wink:

This is also exactly the case with my car's stereo: I have no way to trigger speech recognition in the car. Yet when I hold search button for Cortana, it shows something like "Speak voice command" in the stereo's display - I assume it's somewhere in the car's software to be used for other models, just no way to normally trigger it in mine. Nothing happens whatsoever after that - the prompt stays until dismissed via ESC, no voice recognition seems to happen.

With the checkbox on, it initiates a call instead, which technically works, the recognition quality seems a lot lower though. I can rarely get it to understand me correctly, which I've seen reported a lot on the forums.

In this state I just get silence when there should be directions, but that may not be the case for everyone (and this used to work pre-WP8.1 for me too).

I'll try it next time in the car with the option off and music streaming active. Pretty sure it was just silence, too, when I last tried, just like you observed.

 

[astondg]

For me it says "Select the checkbox above only if your Bluetooth device has problems with speech recognition" - so that should have nothing to do with any audio output :wink:

Ah, I see mine says that too BUT if I check that box then speech output comes through a call and if I uncheck it then it doesn't (i.e. it just comes through the same BT audio channel as music). So I think it has an effect on both output and input for all speech related stuff.

I have no way to trigger speech recognition in the car.

Well that sucks. Even with the checkbox unchecked I can still hold the call button on my head unit and it launches Cortana and lets me speak to it so I got lucky there.

Ignore me then, sounds like you have everything set up exactly how you need. Hopefully haiku comes back and gives us some more help.

 

[Tiaxx]

Well that sucks. Even with the checkbox unchecked I can still hold the call button on my head unit and it launches Cortana and lets me speak to it so I got lucky there.

Reportedly, in WP 8.1 GDR1 Cortana will have a phonebook entry, so at least that way I could trigger it!

 

[Joe920]

Reportedly, in WP 8.1 GDR1 Cortana will have a phonebook entry, so at least that way I could trigger it!

Hey, is that true? Do you have a link for that rumor? I have been lobbying for that but I didn't see anything to suggest that this was in the works.

 

[Tiaxx]

Hey, is that true? Do you have a link for that rumor? I have been lobbying for that but I didn't see anything to suggest that this was in the works.

Interactive phone covers, new resolutions coming to Windows Phone 8.1 Update GDR1 | Windows Phone Central

Cortana – Add a phone book entry for Cortana to allow users to initiate speech from a car that doesn't have support for activating speech on the phone that is connected over Bluetooth.

 

[peter14f]

So it's been confirmed that "Cyan + 8.1" did not fix this. What about "Cyan + 8.1 GDR1"?

 

[kurtd]

I installed 8.1 gdr1. I no longer have my car starting and ending a call. Instead my music pauses and I just hear silence. So it still seems broke but in a different way.

 

[astondg]

No further info from the Here team so I guess they don't really care. Disappointing.

 

[JSax1]

Well, Update 1 fixed the issues between my Lumia 1020 and 2012 Honda Civic. HERE and even Cortana go over music instead of voice when I'm on the Bluetooth channel, as was the norm in 8.0. Cortana's new phonebook integration is icing on the cake.

 

[flyinion]

I installed 8.1 gdr1. I no longer have my car starting and ending a call. Instead my music pauses and I just hear silence. So it still seems broke but in a different way.

Yep just updated yesterday myself and found the same thing. Oh well, Waze still works, though still without muting the streaming music.

 

[senthil gnanasekhar]

I have Lumia 1520 with cyan update and my car is cx5 and I have the same issue w where when Here drive it's about to announce the route it tries to call my own number and hangs up automatically. Is there a solution for this. Does Here team at least acknowledge this issue.I have stopped using Her drive and moved to waze now