Yes, the Garmin Nuvi 860 with Speech Recognition has finally hit South African shores!
This really is a very nice looking unit but I don’t want to delve too much into the aesthetics or even the standard functionality of this unit in this post. The Nuvi 860 is obviously a top of the range unit similar to the Garmin Nuvi 760 and as such has all the usual bells and whistles of the other Nuvi’s in its class. What does make the Nuvi 860 truly unique however, is the speech recognition capability.
Since being able to “speak” to the device and give it voice commands is this units’ biggest selling point, I would like to concentrate on this particular feature. As with all highly advanced technology, there are often features or functions that depend on a variety of factors to work correctly (or even to work at all). We have often seen devices released in South Africa where, due to a lack of infrastructure, available mapsets, radio frequency licensing problems and other issues outside of our control, some of the features were unavailable or were severely limited. We are also warned on the Nuvi 860 Product Presentation and in the Product Description that “some speech recognition functionality is dependent on the capabilities of the mapping in use“.
So, what works on the Nuvi 860 in South Africa and how well does it work?
These are the menu, screen selections and features that are accessible via voice command.
“Main menu” or “Menu” (from any screen) to access or return to the main menu screen.
Main menu selections:
- “View map” to access the map screen (this command can be used from any screen)
- “Hands Free” to access the phone menu screen (when paired to your phone via Bluetooth – this command can be used from any screen).
- “Volume” to go to the volume menu screen (all settings can be manipulated by voice)
- “Tools” to access your Tools menu screen (this command can be used from any screen).
- “Where To” to access the search menu screen (this command can be used from any screen).
- “Stop” and “Detour” (if you are already in an active route and wish to stop or change it. The “Detour” command can also be used from any screen).
View Map Menu:
- “Speed” to access your trip meter screen.
- “Turn” (if you are in an active route) to see your turn-by-turn preview screen.
Hands Free Menu (when properly paired to your cellphone via Bluetooth):
[Note: Some of these functions are dependent on your phone and will only be available if you have transferred your phone book to your GPS unit.]
- “Phone Book” to access and scroll through your phone book listing. Can only scroll through your phone book by using the “Page Down / Up” command. Cannot search or spell names for selection (which is rather irritating if you are looking for someone whose name starts with a “T” and you have a large listing of numbers)
- “POI Dial” to access your POI listing. Select any category and then scroll through the listings.
- “Dial” to speak the phone number and dial.
- “Call History” to see your Last Dialled, Last Received and Missed calls.
- “Call home” to call a preset number.
- “Voice Dial” to access preset voice dial options on your phone (only if your phone supports this).
Volume Menu:
- “Plus” to increase overall volume.
- “Minus” to decrease overall volume.
- “Mute” to mute and unmute all sound.
- “Audio Output” to select Internal Speaker or FM Transmitter as the audio output option.
- “Mixer” to set the voice prompt, media player and phone volume levels individually.
Tools Menu:
- “Settings” to access your settings menu and change any of the system, navigation, security, time, display, map, Bluetooth or language settings (can all be done by voice).
- “Where am I” to access your present location screen and find nearest hospitals, police stations and fuel. You can also save the location as a waypoint (this will then give you the option to name the waypoint but voice commands are not accepted so you will have to manually type in the name)
- “Route” to access the saved routes listing and select a preset route to activate.
- “Help” to access the help menu (strangely enough, this is one function that I have not tested extensively)
- “Music Player” to access your music player. You can “Browse” your music listings by song, album, artist, genre or playlist and then “Play” or “Pause” at will.
- “Audible Player” to access your audible book player. You can “Browse” your audible books by book, author, narrator or provider and then “Play” or “Pause” at will. [Note: all sound from both the music player and the audible book player will automatically be muted any time you press the "activate voice commands" button on the steering wheel remote control]
- “Picture Viewer” to access your image album.
- “My Data” to access your imported routes, set your home location or clear your trip log.
You can also access your calculator, currency converter, language guides, unit converter, world clock and alarm clock screens from the Tools menu via voice but you cannot then use voice commands to further change, manipulate or use these features.
Search “Where To” Menu:
This was probably the biggest (and only) disappointment for me. The search menu itself is accessible via voice command but only the “Go Home“, “Favorites” and “Recently Found” search options are usable via voice command. Any other search feature where you would have to spell anything at all (i.e. road number or name, city name, POI name or coordinate) is unusable.
With the Favorites and Recently Found folders, you also have to use the “Page Down / Up” command to scroll through your listings (no spelling). As with your phone book, if you have large listings of waypoints, this can be time consuming and frustrating.
The Points of Interest (POI) search feature can be accessed by voice command down to category and sub-category level (i.e. “Food & Drink” and then “Chinese”). This will then list the 50 results nearest to your present position. This works the same for all categories and sub-categories.
The search POI’s by “Place Name” feature should allow you to speak the name of the POI that you are searching for (i.e. “Woolworths“, “MacDonalds” or “Cresta Shopping Center“) but unfortunately it seems that this particular feature is not able to access the Garmap Southern Africa Streetmaps mapset to find your selection (remember that all of these type of POI’s are embedded in the mapset itself). The good news is that this feature works like a charm with the European mapset.
Can this issue be fixed?
I am not 100% sure whether the POI “Place Name” voice command search capability is a problem for the Garmin guys (i.e. if it is a unit problem this could be fixed via a firmware update sometime in the future) or for the Garmap map guys (where they will have to release a new mapset that is properly optimized to allow the voice command search feature access to the POI’s embedded in the mapset) but, since this feature works without problems with the European maps, I am assuming that we will have to wait for a map update to fix this.
While it would also be nice to be able to simply speak the street number and name and then have the unit direct you to your destination without any further (manual) touchscreen input on your part, I must also point out that, in my personal experience, most people only search for addresses while the vehicle is standing still (i.e. before they set off on their journey). In these situations it only takes seconds to type in an address and activate a route manually on the screen so I do not think that this shortcoming will be a serious disadvantage when compared to the rest of the voice command functionality of these units.
A quick note on battery life
The battery life is a little on the short side when using the voice commands. Obviously most people would be using this feature only when the unit is plugged in to the car mount with the cigarette lighter charger attached so this wouldn’t generally be a problem.
Overall Impression
Despite it’s few limitations this is a very good unit. Voice recognition is the wave of the future and since testing and using this unit I can only say “Bring it on”. Once you have mastered (remembered) the various voice commands used (it really is easy since they are also shown on the screen), and gotten over that self conscious feeling that most people get when talking to an electronic device, you will wonder why you waited so long to get one. Life is just so easy with the Garmin Nuvi 860.
I would really love to hear your opinions on this unit (and on voice recognition technology in general) so please use the box below to leave a comment.
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