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iPhone iOS 13.5 Siri will not open apps while driving

J

jpiszcz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 28, 2010
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Anyone also having this issue as reported on the Apple Forums?

"After updating to iOS 13.5, Siri will no longer open apps while connected to my car's bluetooth. A car icon appears on the screen, like it's in do not disturb mode, and Siri says that she can't open that app (Waze, Spotifiy) while driving. I've verified that do not disturb while driving is set to manual. Anyone have any suggestions?"
 
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I have this issue as well. It makes our phones dangerous because you can't use hands free anymore. It is not the car firmware it happens in every car I am in. It is not ATT I checked with them. I hate that Apple makes choices we should be FREE to make. Anyone have a solution. On the apply forum they say they can't get calls back and that Apple denies the problem. Yet there are over 1k stating they have the issue.
 
I do have the same problem. Contacted Apple support, they keep saying it must be my car audio set and that I should look for a firmware update. This was working fine before upgrading to iOS13.5, I am sure it's a buggy iOS version but why the heck to they deny that.
 
fbernaus said:
I do have the same problem. Contacted Apple support, they keep saying it must be my car audio set and that I should look for a firmware update. This was working fine before upgrading to iOS13.5, I am sure it's a buggy iOS version but why the heck to they deny that.
Click to expand...

A bug? Nah, Shirley not!

You say 13.5 - you on that or 13.5.1?
 
fbernaus said:
Now on 13.5.1 and still the same.
Someone tried public beta 13.5.2 and the bug is still there.
Click to expand...

Well that just plain sucks. Has anyone on iOS 14 had any feedback on the issue?

I've hardly driven these past 6 months (was sick all January and barely got much of February in before all heck broke loose) so I've not experienced this issue myself.
 
I’m on 14 and it’s the same, with no way to turn off. It’s a stupid “feature” that is actually unsafe
 
Can confirm with 13.6 and it's extremely annoying.

The issue seems to be bringing things into the foreground, because I am able to make Spotify play music (I just tried it earlier, "Hey Siri play [artist] with Spotify" worked) but getting directions with anything that's not Apple Maps just fails. Before 13.5, I often said "Hey Siri, directions to [wherever] using Waze" and it worked perfectly.

The only case where the car image would show up on 13.4 was when I used the car stereo's button to open Siri, rather than calling it up with voice. I haven't tried using the side button but I doubt it makes much of a difference.

I reported this to Apple's Feedback Assistant site as soon as 13.5 came out, but my ticket's been rotting there for over a month now, open and unread.

This *must* be a bug, because there's a setting for DND to be enabled "when connected to car stereo" and we all have it on "manual". It makes no sense to only apply DND to Siri when the device itself doesn't have it on. Moreover, I may not be the one driving, so why should the phone decide what I can or can't do?
 
jpiszcz said:
Click to expand...

The thread has reached 11 pages, but the problem is still not solved. I even got myself moderated on there earlier today, as I suggested that maybe we should get MacRumors to write about it, or get someone famous on Twitter to bring it up, to catch Apple's attention.

It's really frustrating that the whole idea behind Siri is to do things without watching or touching the phone, and this bug prevents us from, say, using Siri to control 3rd party navigation apps, forcing us to look away from the road and interact with it.
 
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Spotify was failing to interact with Siri just as it happens with Waze while driving. Now Spotify is working. So although it is clear that iOS13.5 brought in some new features so that it knows when we are driving or not, my guess is that the apps must be updated to allow it or not. Spotify fixed it but not for Waze. That's my guess.

Also, Apple could have used the accelerometer to guess if we are driving or not but took the wrong decision by only checking if it's connected to a car radio set via bluetooth. So it makes it unusable if parked. But that's another story.
 
Now Waze is working too. This is to confirm my suspicions that it was both an iOS new ‘feature’ and the need to have developers deal with it
 
@Inkkling referred me from the https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251379252 forum at Apple's community forums.

I thought I'd join the choir here as well. This problem is such a great nuisance and danger, it would be great if everyone here would go to that forum and click the Me Too button at the top of that thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251379252 . Strength in numbers, and an indication that Apple knew of the problem. It simply chose not to inform its support staff and to tell its customers when and if we can expect a resolution.
 
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I had managed to make this work by (oddly enough) disconnecting Bluetooth and reconnecting it, but since I was hit by the infamous GPS bug of iOS 14, I was forced to do a full restore. Now the Siri issue is back.
Note that this is not something that any app can change: it's Siri that decides if an app can be used while driving or not. Waze can't exempt itself, and there are no public APIs to do that anyway.
 
Hi,


FWIW, I do not think this is related to any changes on the car stereo. Effectively all this started after an iOS update (13.5 if I recall). Most people have the same stereo in the same car that has undergone absolutely no changes in years. The sheer volume of different vehicles and stereos all suddenly experiencing the same issue points squarly at Apple. Further, I suspect that this is something being manipulated on the back end of Siri's performance by Apple, simply because there are so many people that experience cycles of normal and abnormal Siri behavior between iOS updates.



For example, I have a Ford Kuga ("Escape" in other markets) - it has had precisely 2 software updates since new in 2015, both years ago. I have used numerous iPhones with the car stereo, all of which worked perfectly - until the iOS 13.5 update on my 11 Pro Max.



We all know what car manufacturers are like (Tesla being the rare exception) - effectively the equipment you get in the car stays pretty much the same for the life of the car. Certainly, I would find it unbelievably coincidental that a multitude of different cars from different years and manufacturers, all containing stereos with similar diversity, all start misbehaving with Siri at the same time and in the same way.



Statistically, there are going to be some folks in this thread that have issues that may not be related to the Siri / iOS update, but I think the vast majority simply noticed a problem start at a point in time with the only common theme being an iOS update.



Cheers,



Mark.
 
I sent sent Apple a number of BT blogs from the BT profile they installed on the phone. I also sent a screen recording to demonstrate the issue. I left a message for the advisor(s) to call me - likely I'll hear back early next week. AllI want to know is when they will issue a fix.

One car (2010) works fine. The other (2018) has the issue. The 2018 (Toyota RAV4) has "Siri Eyes Free". Had been working well before 13.5.

I'm curious if everyone else that has the issue also has Siri Eyes Free - or maybe CarPlay.

I was on the original firmware version for the car audio system. Our RAV4 was in for routine maintenance this past Friday - I asked them to update to the newest firmware (CU.22.47) -- they did - same issue.
 
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robnbill said:
I sent sent Apple a number of BT blogs from the BT profile they installed on the phone. I also sent a screen recording to demonstrate the issue. I left a message for the advisor(s) to call me - likely I'll hear back early next week. AllI want to know is when they will issue a fix.

One car (2010) works fine. The other (2018) has the issue. The 2018 (Toyota RAV4) has "Siri Eyes Free". Had been working well before 13.5.

I'm curious if everyone else that has the issue also has Siri Eyes Free - or maybe CarPlay.

I was on the original firmware version for the car audio system. Our RAV4 was in for routing maintenance this past Friday - I asked them to update to the newest firmware (CU.22.47) -- they did - same issue.
Click to expand...

Yes the vehicle I drive also has Siri eyes free but not CarPlay.
 
robnbill said:
I'm curious if everyone else that has the issue also has Siri Eyes Free - or maybe CarPlay.
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a Sony DSX-A410BT and it supports Siri Eyes Free. However, before iOS 13.5 the "eyes free" interface (which showed a grey car outline before iOS 14) was triggered only when I called up Siri using the car stereo; after 13.5 it popped up regardless of how Siri is called up.
With iOS 14 there's no grey car, as Siri is smaller, which makes it even more infuriating: it's not even "protecting" me from seeing what's on the screen, so why not just do what I ask it to? Especially if I'm requesting Siri to pass on a routing request to Waze and Waze is already open.
 
Try going to settings->Bluetooth then select "device type". Try changing it to something other than car stereo like "Speaker", "Other" or "Headphones". I haven't tested it yet but I'm guessing this will fix the issue.
 
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