James May makes an observation about his Tesla on Twitter/X!
Posted by FlipStig1@reddit | thegrandtour | View on Reddit | 121 comments
James May read the YouTube comments on his Tesla video and shared his reaction on Twitter/X. This post triggered the wrath of the bots and Tesla enthusiasts on there, but he handled them as only he could… 😅
Alone-Analyst9629@reddit
Yeah, 100% agree. Talking to a machine makes my skin crawl.
GorillaonWheels@reddit
I may be a bit of a Luddite, but I have zero desire to use voice control anything. Not my phone, not some home assistant, definitely not my car. Just another thing that can break or nowadays just be turned off over the air that I can't use anymore.
JamesMackenzie1234@reddit
Not a Luddite, I agree. When it comes to my phone or computer, why would I ask it to do something for me when I can do it myself just as fast if not faster and their isn't like a 40% of getting it wrong unlike with a voice assistant.
And for cars its similar, maybe for sending text messages to people, typing for you while you drive but otherwise calling, music or climate controls I can do my self.
Suspicious-Truck9828@reddit
Just makes me like James even more
Remarkable_Diet_69@reddit
This is evidence that social media is a mistake. Someone cant just share their thoughts without hordes of passers-by dorks trying to dunk on you or "well ackshualy" you.
sun_icecream97@reddit
honestly, who cares what james may thinks about a car? lol
MikeC80@reddit
Xitter is a cesspit
H_K-R@reddit
TwiXster
ConsequenceNo2571@reddit
The voice assistant button is the most ignored button on every car
gregsting@reddit
VW wanted 50€ for voice control of my navigation system in 2016. They were surprised when I said no thanks. Still had the stupid button
Teestow21@reddit
Okay.
gregsting@reddit
All right then
HenWou@reddit
Anyway
H_K-R@reddit
Now, the Mercedes SLS…
ProfessionalSea6268@reddit
In some cars it’s the only useful way to safely control many functions. Need to change the air con settings in mine then it’s either take my eyes off the road and faff with a touch screen or ask the car to do it (which it does well). Answer or reply to a text message, use my voice. Need to make a call, voice. And so on.
jackinsomniac@reddit
Invent the problem, sell the solution
ProfessionalSea6268@reddit
But no one is selling it. Voice control is built into most modern cars.
I agree that we should have physical buttons and not need it but we are where we are.
jackinsomniac@reddit
They've been trying to sell me on "voice control" gadgets for the past 20 years. Every time people tell me, "yeah, but this time they've finally got it figured out, it actually works now!" Then I try it, and it still doesn't work for me.
I really hate the idea of a future where I have to talk to my car for everything. "Jarvis, turn the volume down! Jarvis, change the radio station! Jarvis, turn the volume back up! Oh shit it's a commercial, Jarvis, volume down and change the station again! Oh shit we're here already, Jarvis, unlock the doors!" I'd rather buy older cars just to keep one with buttons & knobs for radio, aircon controls, door locks, etc.
havok0159@reddit
90% of the time I use it it leads to a blood pressure increase and leaves me ranting to myself for a few minutes about how goddamn stupid it is.
I am by no means an old fart like James, tech has always been in my life. Voice recognition systems are just so goddamned awful, nevermind the fact that it takes far more cognitive involvement than pressing buttons.
Leather-Shoulder-674@reddit
Are you Scottish perchance?
VariousPreference0@reddit
ELEVEN…..ELEVENNNNNN
havok0159@reddit
No. In fact my speech is a combination of General American and Received Pronunciation that sometimes veers off into Southern American and Eastern European (usually as a result of an increase in volume).
No-Kiwi-1868@reddit
"PaiRRRRRRRR"
PaIRRRRRRRR 🗣️🗣️🗣️🔥
kapjain@reddit
Works amazingly well in a tesla. Heck it even worked well in my 10 year old tesla. But on other 2 brands I had (Lexus and Infiniti) it was hilariously bad. In those two, it was exactly as you said - led to increased blood pressure. I don't know how many people saw me screaming around in the car. What's even worse, neither of those cars allowed typing in a destination while the car was moving.
Suspicious-Whippet@reddit
It’s not. It’s the blinker lights on BMWs.
outofmelatonin92@reddit
I can never get it to work.
btoxic@reddit
I use my steering whe wheel voice button on my Subaru, android auto then does the thing I ask (sometimes), then tells me in future I can press the button on my steering wheel. It doesn't know the difference.
dovvv@reddit
What? It's extremely useful for calling contacts or inputting a destination without taking your eyes off the road...
biggsteve81@reddit
In my Tacoma I have to press and hold the button for a full second to get the Google assistant. If I just tap the button I get the Toyota "assistant" which can't do anything useful.
_Nefarium@reddit
Absolutely, my 2014 Skoda has basic voice commands mostly regarding the radio/phone "call mum" "play bbc4" "fuck off"
But it only works if you make a point to be loud and sound vaguely German.
The navigation lady is like being told what to do by a rather strict primary school teacher who's frustrated that she isn't allowed to cane you.
midnightbandit-@reddit
Yeah I just say hey Google
malphasalex@reddit
I have one in my car. Every single time I actived it was by accident.
Impossible_Fact_5069@reddit
For those wondering (Americans), the term ‘berk’ is rhyme and slang - it’s short for ‘Berkshire Hunt’ which rhymes with c***. Atleast that’s what I was told by an Englishman.
Inside_Assumption157@reddit
I’m 30 but I agree with him. There’s too many screens and voice assistants in cars now. Just give me a physical knob for AC controls
AlucardVTep3s@reddit
The physical knob is now located on the drivers seat!
Xenc@reddit
Very good
Bake2727@reddit
Because it’s way cheaper to have everything on the screen than have physical buttons.
Neri_X_Tan@reddit
I dont even understand how much would a bunch of plastic knobs and buttons cost that companies resort to an ugly ipad
Bake2727@reddit
When you have to put them in million cars, the numbers add up, companies are always trying to squeeze maximum profits.
Neri_X_Tan@reddit
Anything to make whats probs 0.01% of their profits eh? Thank god the ue started forcing knobs again
Teestow21@reddit
The car industry is worth 3T. If the whole industry was to maximise 0.01% of their revenue, that's 30 BILLION DOLLARS.
Neri_X_Tan@reddit
I just said a random number,didnt wanna bothet calculating
Tigerbattle@reddit
It’s partially the actual material costs as LCD have come drastically down in price but another major factor is the design process. For dials and buttons you had to actually think of the layout, shape, texture, size and then design things to specs potentially for every individual model. Now they can just slap the same iPad in every car and not have to give a shit.
thatissomeBS@reddit
Well, and the LCD is basically required anyways, since backup cameras are mandated. And since you're already putting the screen on, it's easier and cheaper to run stuff to that. I think some companies are finding a pretty good balance where the most basic HVAC options and stuff like heated seats and steering wheels are either physical or at least always present on the bottom of the screen (I prefer physical buttons, then on the screen, then capacitive touch buttons, in that order). And also the knobs that are really just connected to the screen but they work the same as a physical knob, usually for volume/tuning and HVAC controls, those work well as a compromise.
LegendCZ@reddit
Then why it is so much more costly to repair? Unless you are missing /s
TheWarehamster@reddit
It's cheaper to do it in a screen because it's one programmer vs having someone design the button, someone figure out how to make the button, someone that actually makes the button, and someone that actually installs the button.
To fix a button you need the part. Usually. To fix a programming issue you need a programmer. That's why it's so expensive comparatively.
somander@reddit
Well I messed up and missed your reply. We make the same point. Hardware is so much more tricky and expensive than people think.
LegendCZ@reddit
That makes sense. Still though many designs are reused and i talked more about physical breaks not software ones.
Those programmers still usually do updates and fielxes anyway. You do not create program onve and be done with it.
somander@reddit
Nah, it was just a desperate move of legacy producers to match the ‘futuristic’ screens from Tesla and the Chinese (who ironically just couldn’t do quality switchgear at a good price). We’re moving back to switches, check some reviews of the new electric Renaults and Kias.
agentorange65@reddit
Lighter too
Bake2727@reddit
Ohh yes the buttons adding 10gm of weight to a 1.5ton car! Amazing weight savings
Nojopar@reddit
Yeah, most of us ain't buying F1 cars where ever gram matters.
darnclem@reddit
/r/confidentlyincorrect
Nojopar@reddit
It's not 'way cheaper' though. The individual part might be way cheaper, but it's miniscule in comparison to the cost of the vehicle. The button-less version might be 70% cheaper than the button version but the total reduction in price is like $100 max. The average sale price of a new vehicle is like $49,000. The lowest quartile is like $18,000 to $25,000. All of $100 one way or the other likely won't even be noticed in either of those two price bands.
Exivus@reddit
I really used to think like this until I bought and used a Tesla for about two days. Now, I honestly see why it works in a Tesla, but I don’t think I’d ever trust another car manufacturer to do it like Tesla does.
midnightbandit-@reddit
It is safer to use voice controls
kopp9988@reddit
The AC is probably the easiest thing to control in a Tesla btw. It’s no harder or easier than a car with knobs. If anything the fact it remembers your preferences makes it slightly better than a traditional car when it is shared with your spouse.
isleofstone@reddit
Yeah but people like the tactile feel of having their hand on a knob
Brizar-is-Evolving@reddit
Oooh errrr matron!
Grolschisgood@reddit
I like the feeling of a hand on my knob
Il_Tene@reddit
It's not like the knob is phisically connected to something that makes impossible to have two different preferences for two different drivers.
Inside_Assumption157@reddit
That’s true and definitely convenient but I live in a country where temperatures range from 15-40 degrees through the day so AC temps for me vary a lot and I prefer having a dial or a button that helps me adjust without looking away from the road.
nikhkin@reddit
I don't have an issue with voice commands for controlling navigation or calling someone.
The biggest, and most dangerous, modern trend in cars is the screen controlled climate control. Something like that should have physical buttons.
I saw a review of a car recently that had 3 different screen presses before the menu was even open to change the climate settings.
Xenc@reddit
Those replies are 👌
68_namfloW@reddit
Imagine driving a Tesla and calling someone else a berk.
ninjadragon1119@reddit
There's something oddly warm about "I was talking to the viewers"
justseanv67@reddit
He’s become the old man yelling at clouds.
MellerTime@reddit
Well then the amount of time I spend in the car yelling at Siri for being stupid and worthless really says something bad about me, doesn’t it?
Axxxem@reddit
How are you gonna beef with james may when he's literally your profile pic
Boundish91@reddit
I'm team James here.
Voice control in cars was shit 25 years ago and it's still shit now.
Just give me a fucking button that takes me 1 sec to find and press.
Wrathlon@reddit
I have voice commands in my car with my Wolfbox dashcam and my aftermarket headunit. I BARELY use them because it feels stupid and honestly isnt any easier than just pressing the button.
igi-95@reddit
Imagine getting triggered by JAMES MAY of all people
grubas@reddit
And trying to "win" on the difference between a piece to camera vs "TESLA, LOWER AIR"
hhs2112@reddit
Tesla stans are an odd bunch...
retrospects@reddit
They really need to stop engaging with the knuckle draggers on twitter tbh.
Quaiche@reddit
A lot of upset Tesla owners, I see.
Nojopar@reddit
They tend to start in a state of upset. It doesn't take much to push them over.
tdrules@reddit
It’s X of course there are. Dying species though.
Lead_Penguin@reddit
It's always the same if you say anything negative about them. I've had a Model 3 for almost 3 years and while I like it there are definitely issues with it (like the idiotic glovebox), but if you dare to mention them online some tit always pops up to tell you why you're wrong.
jersey_11@reddit
Oh cock, he might be right!
slide_into_my_BM@reddit
1st of all, this is a master class in trolling.
2nd, who is the guy who’s had multiple teslas in only a 6 year period of time?
0dty0@reddit
My parents are the opposite. They seem to LOVE the concept of slowly giving commands to do something in about a minute that would've taken them like 5 secs to do.
"Call....X"
"Did you mean Y?"
"No"
"Give a new command. You can try saying "Call my house or my office". Please give a new command
"Call....X"
something outside made noise
"I didn't understand that. Please give a new command. You can try sayi--"
"Call....X"
"Do you want to call X on his cellphone or house number?"
"Cellphone"
"Calling X on his cellphone"
And meanwhile everyone must be in total silence, or the system will not work. God forbid you try and touch your screen like 3 times and achieve this in a fraction of the time. And god himself descend from heaven and help you if you want the system to look for a song.
old_irish87@reddit
Jeez the internet (world) is full of miserable people.
Dominus_Invictus@reddit
I agree that physical controls are better but being afraid of talking to your car even when alone is bizarre.
PlanetLandon@reddit
My favourite thing about May’s online presence is that he rarely calls anyone stupid. He just gives people room to reveal who stupid they sound all on their own.
matrixbrute@reddit
Genius on image 4 who assumes James MUST be talking to Alexa, Siri, etc. No, dimwit, some of us just don't want to speak to machines.
TopCheddar27@reddit
I love "no, the present is now"
frankfontaino@reddit
Made me chuckle
rocketwilco@reddit
anytime ive used voice commands i end up in an argument with the device and pissed off.
ThunderShott@reddit
God forbid you criticise a Tesla.
TLunchFTW@reddit
I hate talking to technology. Back in my day, people who talked to their toasters were considered insane and we were better off for it
Pixel91@reddit
Average Tesla cult reaction.
CaravanShaker83@reddit
I use mine all the time. I want to be like captain Picard. Computer. Engage front fog lights…..
Indifferent-Ohio69@reddit
I may be wrong but NCC-1701D didnt come with factory fitted fogs. Me LaForge had to buy some aftermarket ones on Ebay and retrofit them.
Trades46@reddit
Tesla fanboys are something else.
jeepfail@reddit
I’ve never messed with a Tesla but this sound a lot like talking to Siri on your phone and an old man feeling uncomfortable with modern technology and complaining about it.
ValveinPistonCat@reddit
Yep the only time I ever use it is when I accidentally hit the voice command button.
Turns out Android Auto understands "Fuck off."
TinDumbass@reddit
I've been using android auto for 8 years now and every week there's a new fuck up trying to use the voice commands. It I had to do anything other than my satnav and music with it is just chuck the whole centre console in the bin and replace it with a cd player
MrPastryisDead@reddit
My wife and I use a shorthand which we picked up in Singapore, where you can acknowledge something, agree with something, say you will do something, and many other things by using "can".
Android Auto on my Scooby flatly refuses to accept this as a response to a WhatsApp message, asking me again and again if I meant something else. FFS, I stopped bothering and do not respond to WhatsApp messages when driving any more and wait until I'm stationary.
I have never used the voice control on my TV either. When I visited my brother last year, he is hardwired into Alexa and we were discussing cars and I mentioned something about Proton, and sure enough, within minutes there were fucking adverts about Proton cars on his Alexa. Just fucking no, I do not want.
TinDumbass@reddit
Allowing Jeff Bezos to listen to all your life so he can advertise you is a mental illness. I'm sure.
I never bother replying to messages with it because it's vile. Even calling people it'll never use the local most called contacts or my favourites it just searches for random names. Useless piece of shit.
havok0159@reddit
I just avoid using voice commands due to it. Odds are you're still going to have to do it via the screen anyway because it started to dial 112 even though you asked it what the weather was like.
massivefishes@reddit
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO JAMESSSSS5T YGF6VTFVFYYV7
Curious-Art-6242@reddit
I think his first mistake was to use X...
midnightbandit-@reddit
I think a lot of people don't understand the purpose of voice assistance in cars. It's so you don't have to take your hands off the wheel and take your eye off the road if you want to text someone, for example.
ROADHOG_IS_MY_WAIFU@reddit
My brother had a Tesla with the auto-drive feature. Whenever you disengage the auto-drive it would stop your music and bring up a voice prompt for you to say why you disengaged auto-drive. Absolutely baffling to me.
At least when someone crashed into it there was video evidence to show no fault since the car is covered in cameras, a small upside to driving a Big Brothermobile.
M27TN@reddit
I’m the same. Have a Google car (Polestar) and never use voice commands, same with my phone, rarely use Siri.
FredagsTakos@reddit
The pnly thing I use voice activation for is shouting for my phone to put a timer on when I'm cooking, and even then I feel like an idiot. I also mistakenly activate some voice controls when I hear friends using it while gamin. If my buddy says some thing to google I'll shout "OK google, suck my dick" and then my phone gets mad at me.
inuraicarusandi@reddit
Golems love being rude to James. It's the weirdest thing.
kk8712@reddit
I somehow read all his answers in his voice in my head.
Haute_Horologist@reddit
I don’t really see the issue here, A man expresses him opinion, some people on the internet overreact, it would much weirder if they didn’t lose their shit over a mildly interesting opinion.
Haenkster@reddit
My last three cars (different makes and model years) had speech recognition. In all those years, I only used it *once*, just to try it out. It failed, on a simple command.
I removed all Alexa devices from my home, every single time, understanding even the easiest tasks failed. And we are speaking in accent-free German language (called "Hochdeutsch"). Time has just not come to widely implement speech recognition. (Funny enough, my 80yo mother-in-law does like her Alexa to play music. So there is at least one usage-case.)
Bladesleeper@reddit
The wordy answers is what I find irritating. My car even has a setting for that, but it basically goes from "wordy" to "have you ever heard the tragedy of Dark Plagueis the Wise".
Shadowrenderer@reddit
Imo talking to tech only really works in tv shows/movies and that’s because it makes it easier to explain stuff. IRL it’s just weird talking at stuff all the time.
Funtsy_Muntsy@reddit
Challenge : Impossible Mode -
Try to get James May to take the piss on twitter
Doc891@reddit
i still dont have or use Alexa or any of the other assistants for that reason. I can press buttons and do work by myself easy enough. Asking the air to do it just seems crazy.
eatingasspatties@reddit
The present is now
Spekingur@reddit
It’s okay James. There are cameras in the Tesla, and there’s always someone watching. Just talk to them!
Bdk420@reddit
He sounds like a Stubborn old man. I also do not use siri or whatever my phone does but I like the navigation speech feature in the tesla. While the Benz of a friend never understood what he was saying I never had a problem in our tesla
shoe_scuff@reddit
I don’t even use the voice control on my tv remote. Never trust people who like to talk for the sake of being heard.
Admirable_Device_100@reddit
James May is a global fucking treasure
CanCable@reddit
The longest comment is a reply from someone complaining about wordy responses… 🤣