Wireless Carplay / Access Siri

[Codermik]

Has anyone had issues with the Wireless Carplay functionality on their Grandland X?

When I press and hold the Voice button like I used to on my 17 plate Astra to access Siri I get a Voice Recognition Unavailable error on the screen.

I'm currently using an iPhone 7 - I'm hoping I am missing something simple here, the manual states wireless carplay functionality is available yet I am having issues getting it to work.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would be so grateful.

Many thanks.

[Ricom831]

I didn't think wireless CarPlay was available? Do you get the CarPlay UI when the phone is NOT plugged in? I certainly don't on a 2020 Hybrid4 (but you have got me slightly excited if it is ha!)

[Codermik]

Its the Speech Recognition Pass-Thru application i was referring to, its where you press and hold the speech button to access the phones Siri and other features such as asking the weather, verbally sending a text message etc.

[Midinotes]

If you have your iPhone connected and CarPlay is working, first make sure you have enabled Siri settings on your phone to allow Siri when locked, listen for Hey Siri (although these may not be necessary but what settings I use). Next the voice button on the steering wheel uses a short press to activate the Grandland’s own built in voice recognition (awful) and a longer press will activate Siri when you are in the CarPlay display mode. Also make sure you’ve paired your iPhone over Bluetooth, even though you connect the phone to the front USB port. You also need to use a decent full lightning sync cable to your phone using the front USB port for CarPlay to work.

Just to make clear, CarPlay is NOT wireless and requires a lightning cable between the phone and front USB port. There are 3rd party units available online that plug into the USB port and provide a wireless connection between the WiFi on your phone and car for CarPlay, however having read many reviews I’m not convinced they are reliable or offer a good user experience. Some work fine for a short while but then the audio breaks up, others take so long to boot up that you might as well connect your phone with a cable!

Simon

[Codermik]

Thanks for your reply Simon, its really appriciated.

Its really just for the Speech Recognition pass through - in my 17 plate astra before i got this one i could press and hold the voice button to access Siri on the phone (audio only and not screen projection) without a cable connected via the usb port. According to the infotainment manual its supported without a cable just like the Astra was but I get the error when trying so im a little confused here lol.

Carplay (the screen projection part where you see the iphone screen on the dashboard), i am aware doesnt work without being connected via a cable but the audio function would work without the cable connected on the Astra.

[zice]

wireless adapter for carplay work ok-ish, but after testing one myself, i sold it because once connected to it, you couldn't connect via BT to the car anymore in order to transfer trip and consumption data into the app....rendering it useless. Wireless carplay performance was ok though. Interface came up in less than 10s.

[Midinotes]

@Codermilk

Sounds like you want to stream audio from your iPhone to the infotainment system via Bluetooth and control it via Siri? Only tried streaming music myself via Bluetooth to the Grandland from my phone and sounded great. I seem to remember I could change tracks via the steering wheel controls or touch screen, and I guess if you have listen for siri always on (enabled on your phone) then providing the phone can hear you it might still work? If you streaming over Bluetooth I don’t think you can use Siri via the infotainment controls/system, but I might be wrong. After all you can make bluetooth phone calls and use handsfree wirelessly, and I guess that should be able to use Siri? I’ll have to try it and get back to you.

Simon

[Midinotes]

@Zice,
Interested to know you tried the wireless carplay unit on the Grandland. Which unit did you try? Could you give us a bit more detail of your experiences? I don’t know anyone else who has tried it on the Grandland, but sounds like it worked ok? I haven’t ever been able to use the trip and consumption features of the Vauxhall Connect app with my GX, but I think that might be because it’s a mid 2018 model. I can sync live traffic services via the Sat Nav to the phone, but that’s about it.

Simon

[zice]

@Zice,
Interested to know you tried the wireless carplay unit on the Grandland. Which unit did you try? Could you give us a bit more detail of your experiences? I don’t know anyone else who has tried it on the Grandland, but sounds like it worked ok? I haven’t ever been able to use the trip and consumption features of the Vauxhall Connect app with my GX, but I think that might be because it’s a mid 2018 model. I can sync live traffic services via the Sat Nav to the phone, but that’s about it.

Simon

Trip & consumption are part of bluetooth services that came up in my app after an update. It cannot be "ordered" from the Opel connect portal, like e-remote or live navigation.

I tried the Carlinkit 2.0 adapter, very new device, has USB-C and Wifi 5 GHz chip. Less interference and lower latency than the crowded 2.4 spectrum. It works only for OEM units that have wired carplay from factory and you want to add wireless functionality.
For me it booted very fast after car start, about 10-12 seconds. Siri worked ok, steering buttons ok, flawless. Some delay when skipping audio tracks but not dramatic, maybe a second or so vs. wired connection. Also interface swiping pretty fast, but sliiightly slower than wired. No big deal. Auto darkmode worked 100% as opposed to what many youtube videos claim that it doesn't.

As negatives, it sometimes (very rarely though) did not connect at all, or had some weird sound effect, like pops or tempo getting faster lol. Seems like buffering issue or something. Maybe once out of 10-15 times, so less than 10% of the time. As a neutral fact, it introduces highlighted app icons that allow you to see what's selected if you don't have a touchscreen. This didn't bother me too much. Audio quality seemed to me maybe slightly lower than wired connection, dunno why, can't pinpoint it. Maybe apple bitrate over wireless carplay is lowered? I'm not too sure about that though, as soon as you move the car it all sounds the same

If it wasn't for the broken phone-to-car connection for the trip/consumption/statistics, i would've kept the device.