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Volkswagen owners can now control their cars with Siri

@Kyle_L_Wiggers
Hamburg, Germany - February 10, 2017: Black steering wheel with logotype of second generation Volkswagen Tiguan, 4x4 R-Line.
Black steering wheel with logotype of second generation Volkswagen Tiguan, 4x4 R-Line. Hamburg, Germany; February 10, 2017.
Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Looking to unlock your car with Siri? If you have a newish Volkswagen, good news: Now you can.

The Berlin automaker today announced that the latest version of its VW Car-Net app includes two new types of commands recognized by Apple’s voice assistant. On iPhones and iPads running iOS 12, Siri can unlock and lock the doors, check mileage, honk the horn, and flash the lights of supported cars.

That’s not all. Car-Net now offers shortcuts that can be added to Siri with personalized phrases, including one-tap buttons for charging, defrosting, and climate control and a self-descriptive “where is my car” command.

The new features are available now.

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VW Car-Net

Above: The VW Car-Net app.

Image Credit: Volkswagen

“We are constantly looking at innovative ways to make Car-Net more convenient and relevant for our customers,” Abdallah Shanti, global chief information officer, said. “With Siri Shortcuts, creating voice commands to use with our mobile app was a great opportunity to do just that. Integration with Siri helps our drivers keep eyes on the road and hands on the wheel.”

Besides the new Siri features, Car-Net offers (for a $17.99 per month subscription fee) a suite of security and service features like automatic crash notifications, manual emergency calls, roadside assistance, and stolen vehicle location assistance. Subscribers can remotely lock doors, honk, flash the lights, and see their last parking spot (from a Wear OS or watchOS smartwatch, if they so choose), or pull up diagnostics and maintenance information on demand.

Voice-controlled cars

Volkswagen might be the latest automaker to integrate voice commands with its cars, but it’s far from the first.

Mercedes-Benz’s MBUX platform — the work of Santa Clara company SoundHound — lets drivers perform tasks like switching on the heads-up display, getting restaurant recommendations, and pulling up sports scores with speech.

Meanwhile, BMW’s bespoke voice assistant — which launched in September alongside the automaker’s BMW Operating System 7.0 software — changes the lighting, temperature, and mood of music when it hears, “Hey BMW, I’m tired.” It’s powered by Amazon’s Alexa tech and integrates with Microsoft Office 365 and Skype for Business, and it learns preferences over time. (Another fun touch: BMW drivers can name their assistant.)

Vehicles from Audi, Toyota, and Ford sport similar Alexa integration.

Amazon, for its part, recently launched Alexa Auto SDK, a toolkit that lets developers adapt the retailer’s natural language processing to infotainment systems, and the Echo Auto, an in-car Alexa-powered device with an eight-microphone array and Bluetooth connectivity. And both Google’s Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay platforms support voice interactions.