Intermittent behaviour on new 2021 RX450h: voice recognition and haptic feedback (and other things...)

[PDM]

3 hours ago, Rob62 said:

Thanks Paul.

I found this previously where it doesn't work for a week or so and then suddenly it works fine. Once it works it just continues working.

I will update you in a week or two!

The other issue I have (it is a known issue and there is nothing that can be done at the moment), I have had to rename all the songs with their number in the name. Something like "001 - The Beatles - Something". This is the only way that they play in the order they should. However because of this one cannot use voice recognition to play a specific song, unless you know the whole name including numbers!

If the songs are left with their own names then they all play alphabetically. I never had this issue in my 2013 GS.

ROB

Hi Rob,

Resolutely .  It should not take a week to index a memory stick.  It should take 2mins. This is a clear defect.  I, and several other on here have reported it.  For me, sometimes it never indexes it at all. Seems to vary from stick to stick.  At present I feel the issue of eventually indexing, or never indexing, is related to the depth of the folder hierarchy on the disk.  (Although I am always within the limits specified in the manual.

Thanks for also raising the ordering issue for playback. I have also reported the track ordering decent and the impact this has on the voice commands for songs to Lexus.  I recommend you report that too.  It admonishes me that anyone ever thought it was sensible to play albums in track order.  Also, you may find that you cannnot have multiple artists on the same album - otherwise they appear as different albums!  (Compilation albums, anyone!)

I have it on good authority from Customer relations that the more reports they get the more they likely they will issue a software fix so if you do have a moment to drop a quick email to cr@lexus.co.uk you are adding to the case number and increasing the chances of a fix.  They are very friendly!

Thanks very much.  Sorry if I sound grumpy, just coming round from a general anaesthetic!

Cheers,

Paul

[PDM]

Just now, PDM said:

Hi Rob,

Resolutely .  It should not take a week to index a memory stick.  It should take 2mins. This is a clear defect.  I, and several other on here have reported it.  For me, sometimes it never indexes it at all. Seems to vary from stick to stick.  At present I feel the issue of eventually indexing, or never indexing, is related to the depth of the folder hierarchy on the disk.  (Although I am always within the limits specified in the manual.

Thanks for also raising the ordering issue for playback. I have also reported the track ordering decent and the impact this has on the voice commands for songs to Lexus.  I recommend you report that too.  It admonishes me that anyone ever thought it was sensible to play albums in track order.  Also, you may find that you cannnot have multiple artists on the same album - otherwise they appear as different albums!  (Compilation albums, anyone!)

I have it on good authority from Customer relations that the more reports they get the more they likely they will issue a software fix so if you do have a moment to drop a quick email to cr@lexus.co.uk you are adding to the case number and increasing the chances of a fix.  They are very friendly!

Thanks very much.  Sorry if I sound grumpy, just coming round from a general anaesthetic!

Cheers,

Paul

Sorry for spelling mistakes and typos.  Still groggy.

[Rob62]

15 hours ago, PDM said:

Sorry for spelling mistakes and typos.  Still groggy.

Hi Paul,

I wish you well and speedy recovery.

I have reported the issue to Lexus a few weeks ago and got a very nice reply saying that they are aware of the situation and are trying to work on a software update but that I shouldn't hold my breath!

I am also aware of the issue with Compilation albums so I do not have any compilation albums on the USB but I created an MP3 DVD which can hold lots of compilation albums (depending on how many tracks are on each) and play them that way. No issues with track names, numbers or order of play but no voice control.

I may try a different USB stick as a final attempt before resigning myself to giving up on voice control alltogether.

ROB

[PDM]

10 minutes ago, Rob62 said:

Hi Paul,

I wish you well and speedy recovery.

I have reported the issue to Lexus a few weeks ago and got a very nice reply saying that they are aware of the situation and are trying to work on a software update but that I shouldn't hold my breath!

I am also aware of the issue with Compilation albums so I do not have any compilation albums on the USB but I created an MP3 DVD which can hold lots of compilation albums (depending on how many tracks are on each) and play them that way. No issues with track names, numbers or order of play but no voice control.

I may try a different USB stick as a final attempt before resigning myself to giving up on voice control alltogether.

ROB

Thanks, Rob.

Feeling somewhat better this morning!  Hopefully this message will have fewer typos and odd words!

My vehicle is going in to the dealer on friday for them to swap the head unit over. This is not because they think there is a hardware fault with my unit - it is because they want to do a deep diagnosis on the logs on my unit to try to resolve the issue.  (Odd they cannot be downloaded onto a usb but apparently they need the unit).

This keeps me somewhat hopeful that they will work on a fix.

Thanks for reporting it - strength in numbers!

Ill keep you informed of progress.

Paul

[PDM]

Just to update anyone who has an interest in this thread.

My dealer swapped over my head unit last week.  As shipped, the replacement unit had audio software release 1007 loaded on it.  (The old unit that has now gone back to Lexus had the latest public release which is audio 1138).

After a discussion with the dealer, we decided to leave the s/w on 1007 so that I could test that.  (Note that software on these units can only be upgraded, not downgraded).

I can confirm that 1007 has working voice commands for playing mp3s from a memory stick.  Therefore, there has been a regression at some point between 1007 and 1138.  

I have no further news at this time but will update as and when I get some.

Cheers,

Paul

[PDM]

And... it seems I spoke too soon.

After about 20 starts of the car where voice command have worked perfectly on audio release 1007, they failed this afternoon.

This is a shame.  I thought we had a known good reference version at least, but alas we do not.

Paul

[Rob62]

On 8/11/2021 at 12:13 PM, Rob62 said:

Hi Paul,

I wish you well and speedy recovery.

I have reported the issue to Lexus a few weeks ago and got a very nice reply saying that they are aware of the situation and are trying to work on a software update but that I shouldn't hold my breath!

I am also aware of the issue with Compilation albums so I do not have any compilation albums on the USB but I created an MP3 DVD which can hold lots of compilation albums (depending on how many tracks are on each) and play them that way. No issues with track names, numbers or order of play but no voice control.

I may try a different USB stick as a final attempt before resigning myself to giving up on voice control alltogether.

ROB

Hi Paul,

A different USB made absolutely no difference.

That said and 13 days after the USB was connected, voice control has returned. Not perfect by any means but it seems to be semi working. How long for, I know not.

ROB

[PDM]

2 hours ago, Rob62 said:

Hi Paul,

A different USB made absolutely no difference.

That said and 13 days after the USB was connected, voice control has returned. Not perfect by any means but it seems to be semi working. How long for, I know not.

ROB

Thanks, Rob.  Interesting.  I wonder if the 13 days thing is consistent across this problem.  It could be the time take for the voice command cache to be marked as dirty and the disk needing re-indexing.  

Mine failed on Saturday with a new stick inserted.  Let me see if it wakes up again a week on Friday!

Thanks,

Paul

[Rob62]

Hi Paul,

I was just wondering if voice control has come back for you and whether the 13 day thing is standard!

Best

ROBERT

[PDM]

Hi Rob,

It has come back...!! but it was when I put in a different memory stick with more music.  (I have 2 sticks which are being progressively updated with more music as I rip it all from CD and occasionally get swapped between computer and car).  I did the swap on about day 15 I think.... for some reason the old stick did not want to come to life.  Hmmm.... it's quirky, isn't it?

I have actually just heard from customer relations today and they are next going to swap over another component on my vehicle (the head unit it in two parts... they previously took one and now want the other) as part of their debug process.

Paul

[PDM]

Hi Everyone,

Just a brief update.  As  I mentioned in my last post, Lexus had previously replaced part of the head unit.  This week just gone they replaced the other part of the unit.

All of the old infotainment system hardware is now with, or on its way to, Lexus UK for them to diagnose things based on the log files on that hardware.

I will let you know the more I find out, but at least this continue to move forward.

Cheers,

Paul

[PDM]

Just to let everyone know that a new version of the MM19 audio software has been released on Lexus Tech. Unfortunately it does not list voice commands in the bug fixes.... In fact there is only one thing listed as fixed in this release, which seems an edge use case to me compared to other items that are broken:

• DCU Software release version 1171:
• • When listening to the radio via Bluetooth, it is not possible to cancel traffic announcements.