I believe CarPlay uses one's iPhone's mic for a "Hey Siri" wake, not the radio's mic.
It's certainly that way with my wireless CarPlay Alpine iLX-107. It may also be the same for a wired CarPlay unit where the phone is stored in the glovebox or closed console.
As part of the process of installing the Alpine, I was working on sorting out where to place the HU's mic. Sometimes Siri would come right up, other times I'd have a devil of a time getting Siri to wake even when speaking directly into the radio's mic.
A pattern formed though. It turned out that if my iPhone was mounted on the dash or laying nearby, Siri responded right away. If the phone was in my pocket, the response became iffy. As a test I put my phone in the glovebox...no response from Siri at all...nada.
More testing and it was clear only the iPhone was being used for "Hey Siri". Once Siri was up and running the radio's mic was used. I did some searching and found some folks with wired CarPlay units were having problems with "Hey Siri" and found their iPhone's location made a difference.
FYI...it turned out the location of the radio's mic wasn't very critical. I had good Siri response and audio quality for phone calls in all of the locations I tried. The center console, on the steering wheel column, at the top of the A pillar, and up by the mirror all worked very well.
Has anyone else with a CarPlay unit experienced something similar?
It's certainly that way with my wireless CarPlay Alpine iLX-107. It may also be the same for a wired CarPlay unit where the phone is stored in the glovebox or closed console.
As part of the process of installing the Alpine, I was working on sorting out where to place the HU's mic. Sometimes Siri would come right up, other times I'd have a devil of a time getting Siri to wake even when speaking directly into the radio's mic.
A pattern formed though. It turned out that if my iPhone was mounted on the dash or laying nearby, Siri responded right away. If the phone was in my pocket, the response became iffy. As a test I put my phone in the glovebox...no response from Siri at all...nada.
More testing and it was clear only the iPhone was being used for "Hey Siri". Once Siri was up and running the radio's mic was used. I did some searching and found some folks with wired CarPlay units were having problems with "Hey Siri" and found their iPhone's location made a difference.
FYI...it turned out the location of the radio's mic wasn't very critical. I had good Siri response and audio quality for phone calls in all of the locations I tried. The center console, on the steering wheel column, at the top of the A pillar, and up by the mirror all worked very well.
Has anyone else with a CarPlay unit experienced something similar?
