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By "training", I presume that you ment training you. The system (at least in my 2004 Accord) can't be trained.
I believe that the problems that you described are due to the strong probability that you were not the only person speaking at the time. When there is anyone else in the vehicle you must be sure that they aren't speaking when you press the voice commmand button to speak your command. Otherwise, the background voices just create a jumble that is unintelligable to the system.
Incidentally, you should be able to select either a male or female response voice. You don't have to speak slowly. However speaking clearly, and towards the ceiling-console-mounted microphone, would be a good idea.
You will love the navigation system. Your only difficulty will be using it with wife and kids talking.
I get nit-picky too sometimes; no sweat.
It is a mess of wires due to needing this antenna in view of the sky. The dealer install is expensive because they have to tear the car apart to install the XM radio and their antenna installation still turns out ugly.
Installing XM at the factory is cheap and the installation is clean and neat. Should cost less than $50 per vehicle (maybe a lot less) to mass produce it as standard equipment vs each person spending $400-$600 for the dealer to do a nasty-looking dealer install.
They are stupid to make it an dealer-installed option on an EX. Maybe optional on just the LX and LX-P for people trying to save an extra $25 off the MSRP of a $21K car.
The same applies to making factory bluetooth available only on an EX-L and not any EX-L, but only an EX-L with factory nav.
You can get bluetooth dealer installed for about $500, but it is a different system that isn't connected to the stereo system.
$500 for something that's included even in many of the cheap cell phones carriers give away with a contract nowadays.
You can get bluetooth dealer installed for about $500, but it is a different system that isn't connected to the stereo system.
$500 for something that's included even in many of the cheap cell phones carriers give away with a contract nowadays.
I haven't verified it, but that's a bad move if they did. All Camry XLE's come with bluetooth whether they have Nav or not. This throws a damper on their "everything is standard" pitch.
I don't want factory nav. Stand alone navs are improving so quickly (e.g. speech recognition) that the built in will be obsolete quickly.
It's true, bluetooth only on the nav models. Here's the link so you can see it on the spec list:
http://www.hondanews.com/categories/812/releases/4103
What's really ridiculous is that Honda is supposedly a big stock holder in XM and has been for many years. You'd think they'd make it easy for people to get XM and they'd have it in pretty much all of their trims except perhaps the most econominc ones.
The headlights go up like the BMW, but otherwise, the car looks awfully similar to the Hyundai!
I think that's a good thing btw...
Speech recognition? Please identify whichever standalone navigation system (by brand and model name/number) that you might know of that recognizes your voice. I have never come across one.
Also, I wouldn't mind getting the EX, The EX looks like its got some nice cloth, plus your getting most of the goods too.
No, I don't think it looks like a Sonata at all. On the other hand, compare the 2008 Accord to the Saturn L300 - now there's a familiarity, especially when viewed from the side.
Telenav has voice recognition that works via a blue tooth connection to your phone. You call a number and it connects you to a service where you speak the address you want and it sends the address to your device over your cellular data connection. The voice recognition is done remotely.
However, I don't really even like factory voice recognition built into cars. By the time you activate voice recognition and say "temperature 72 degrees," or tell the radio what station to tune to, you could have changed these twice via the steering wheel controls and then it still misunderstands you quite often so you have to repeat, wasting even more time.
It's more of a novelty even for the factory nav systems. I have seen plenty of posts where the car owners who say it was fun to use the voice recognition when they first got the car and to show off and impress passengers, but they quit later because it wasn't worth the effort in the long run.
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Well, I don't really need a Nav that much. But the Nav is worth it to me, because the display is 100 times cleaner then the very dated LED display in the Non Nav model.
Honda posted some really good screen shots of the nav on their web-site last night.
http://automobiles.honda.com/images/2008/accord-sedan/interior-gallery/gal_lg10.- jpg
http://automobiles.honda.com/images/2008/accord-coupe/interior-gallery/gal_lg4.j- pg
I want to see the XM tracks displayed nicely and not scrolling by on some cheap display, etc.
Non-nav EX display:
http://vtec.net/articles/article-image?image=702301/08accord_pr-005.jpg
If they'd improve their display on the non-nav system to a high resolution, color, LCD, I could skip the nav altogether. But I doubt they'll do that anytime soon, because they make money from people who upgrade like me.
TomTom sells the 920 in Europe with speech recognition. It apparently has this feature disable in the U.S. because it hasn't yet mastered the variety of dialects. Here's a commercial for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z01zyfB0CrA
I would be surprised if this wasn't a commonly available feature by this time next year. In terms of quickly improving, I was referring to my experience with my Samsung pdaphone. It came with some pretty lame voice recognition software that required training and the still didn't work but about 20% of the time. (I am a notorious mumbler.) I got MS Voice Command last year and it works 90% of the time without training and I haven't taken any speech classes.
I haven't yet done in-depth research on nav's, but several of the TomTom's come with bluetooth speakerphone capabilities and some double as mp3 players. I saw one with bluetooth in Fry's about a month ago. Had never seen the interface before, but had it dialing out in about 5 minutes. It offered to transfer my phonebook, but I declined since I didn't know if I could erase it from the demo unit. Pretty slick.
While it's true this is no longer a future vehicle, it is a brand new one (one day old now) that most of us haven't experienced yet. Some of the best discussions, of course, about these cars will occur over the next few months. I would hope it would stay a discrete thread and not be folded into a general Accord thread.
Thanks.
And yes, invalid commands may also be taken as a different command. But for most part, it does work flawlessly, and very useful when traffic is bad and requires greater attention.
No. If anything, Hyundai Sonata looks like a 1998 Accord (front) and 2003 Accord (rear). There is no confusing this Accord with either of those Accords (1998 or 2003).
I agree. To me touch screen feature is indispensable, but something that has been dispensed off in favor of other things (like reduced glare, or perhaps to help avoid finger prints). While driving, voice commands come in handy. I use NAV related voice commands more than any other. And it works really well. Except that I still have to punch in street name (block number can be entered via voice commands). For that, it is best to operate NAV when stopped.
Very few sales people seem to have a clue about NAV and like. Its a shame. Sometimes they don't have a clue even with some fundamentals. While test driving TSX and TL over a year ago, I noticed something different about TSX's wipers. I asked the sales person about it, and he was surprised to see that they were different indeed! Until I got my TL, I didn't know that there was such a thing as Dual Zone/Dual Mode climate control versus Dual Zone climate control. TL has the former while TSX and (old Accord) had the latter. Not sure if the new Accord has TL-like dual zone/dual mode system. In dual mode, vents can be operated independently on both sides. For example, passenger could select just floor, and driver could select dash and floor. And it too works very well with voice commands. No need to fiddle with buttons on the dash.
However, I got to see one in the "flesh" today, and it looks markedly better than in the pictures. It still looks large, but it looks substantial and stately as opposed to bloated. IMO, it has a handsomeness and quality look to it that the Saturn L300 does not.
In fact, I would say it looks like what a Lincoln and Buick should look like. That's not a bad thing as the Accord continues to move upwards.
It's more of a novelty even for the factory nav systems. I have seen plenty of posts where the car owners who say it was fun to use the voice recognition when they first got the car and to show off and impress passengers, but they quit later because it wasn't worth the effort in the long run."
That has not been my experience while using my voice controlled system many times a day since December 2003. I've found it to be very accurate and responsive. It is much easier and safer to change XM radio channels without taking your eyes off of the road or hands off of the steering wheel. I often jump around lots of XM channels and AM & FM stations. No "effort" at all. The HVAC and navigation voice commands are a bonus and they work extremely well.
If you are tracking it or finding it through the make/model search, that won't change. It will not be folded into the existing Accord discussion.
Some of us do not want XM, and it would be difficult to remove after the holes are in the roof. I like listening to my favorite "local" radio station, and see no reason to pay for radio. If you want XM in your car, I'm sure the dealer can install it for you.
I'm 6' tall with lots of my height in my trunk, and headroom has always been an issue. No problems here, even with the moonroof. And legroom in the back -- wow! In my current Accord, with the driver's seat back the way I like it, legroom behind me is limited. Same driving position with this '08, and the legroom in the back is very generous, almost more than you need. Impressive. Lots of that extra wheelbase has gone to rear passenger legroom. And headroom back there was also fine for me.
I didn't have time for a test drive. Am going back in a few days for that.
I'm curious about the VCM. Brochure I picked up explains how it works for highway cruising -- 3 cylinders for easy cruising, 4 for a little faster speed, and 6 for passing acceleration. But I can't find anything about how it operates around town, in that 30 mph to 50 mph driving on city streets and boulevards that makes up a lot of my driving. Is it constantly going through its 6-4-3 paces? Seems like a lot to ask, with changes by the second in speed, accelerating, braking, idling, etc.
There's also information about Active Noise Cancellation to cancel out 3 cylinder harmonics, and active engine mounts to suppress 4 cylinder engine vibration. Hmmm.
I hope those who buy a 6 cyl. will give us some feedback on how well this rather complex system is working out.
I dont know if they's a good thing or not, what if that [non-permissible content removed] breaks???
how much is that going to cost??!!!
I might do a test driver this weekend just to take a peak at it!!
word up!!
I thought they wouldn't cause when the new cr-v came out my friend took a look at it and they wouldn't touch on the msrp.
Just don't activate the subscription if you don't want to pay for XM service. Maybe the next buyer will use it when you sell.
Some people don't want cruise control or power windows, but I would want them to remove it and have the dealers charge 10 times the cost to install it compared to what it would have added to the price if it was standard from the factory.
$50 or less added cost if integrated with the standard factory radio vs $500-600 dealer installation.
It doesn't matter. This happens every time a new model comes out and there are desperate people who must buy one the first few cars that arrive on the dealer lots.
They will likely end up discounting it to a much lower price anyway when they are serious about selling it.
Sometimes they want to keep a car on their showroom as a display until more shipments come in and they mark it up to a ridiculous price to deter people from buying and at the same time build buzz about how desirable it is.
Could you tell us a little more about the Accord you ordered -- which model, engine, color, leather or cloth, etc.? What were the best attributes of the one you drove that caused you to order?
I would not want the little box on top of my roof, looking like a wart on my car. Especially when it's not doing anything. I was so glad my 03 didn't come with it.