I'm in the UK too and, moving closer to the topic of this thread (Siri), as a smart speaker enthusiast one thing I can't resist mentioning is just how bad Alexa is in terms of knowing what is around it even in a relatively big (in terms of GDP) country like the UK.
I currently have both Google and Amazon smart speakers in quite a few rooms in my home. I use Alexa because it hears me better when speaking softly or when there is background noise and I use Alexa because for most stuff beyond turning devices on and off Google gives noticeably better answers.
As an example of Alexa's failings a new branch of Lidl opened about 100 metres from where I live. Google detected the new branch within about 24 hours and when I asked "What time does Lidl close today?" it would answer "Lidl at <the correct address> closes at <whenever>" whereas for 6 months after the new branch opened Alexa would continue to say "Lidl at <a branch about 3 km away> closes at <whenever>". It took Alexa a full 6 months before it finally realised that my closest Lidl was about 100 metres away.
I use my smart speakers quite a lot for distances, walking times, public transport timetables and opening/closing hours. That's why I'm somewhat obsessed with the quality of the ground truth in the various mapping apps because for my use cases it's quite a big part of how satisfactory my experiences are with my smart speakers.
I would dearly love to consolidate everything to just HomePods but I need to be convinced that (a) they will hear me and respond (and not false-respond) to the wake word as well as Echo devices do and also that Siri, presumably with the aid of Apple Maps ground truth, is at least as good as Google Assistant when it comes to local UK knowledge.
Since I was whittering on about Amazon and Google's responses to shop opening hours, ignoring the issues with Alexa's local knowledge there's another little thing that, when added to lots of other little things, really makes a difference to how good the responses from a smart assistant feel.
If you ask Alexa "When does Lidl close?" it's actual response is "Lidl at <address> is open from <opening-time> to <closing-time> today" whereas if you ask Google Assistant (in a Nest smart speaker) that exact same question it answers "Lidl at <address> closes at <closing-time> today" or, if that closing time is within an hour of the current time, it replies "Lidl at <address> closes in <x> minutes". It's such a nice extra touch that makes me feel that Google Assistant actually took the time to fully understand what I was asking and give me the direct answer vs Alexa doing something closer to a keyword search and quick lookup without actually trying to fully tailor the answer to the question. That query is one of the first things that I'll be giving to the new hopefully improved Siri to see how it does.
That behaviour has nothing to do with LLMs by the way. I've been impressed with Google Assistant doing stuff like that since I bought my first Google smart speaker in 2018.
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