I only talk to Siri while I’m driving — and that’s a problem for Apple
What is the purpose of a virtual assistant? In theory, it should make our lives easier by letting us make a single request to have our phone perform tasks. However, when it comes to Apple’s virtual assistant Siri, I only ever find it useful in one specific situation.
I’ve used an iPhone for a long time, so I’m familiar with Siri. But the only time I turn to the personal assistant on my iPhone is when I’m in the car. And that should worry Apple, given how long Siri’s been around and how it has yet to really take root with a steady iPhone user like me.
Originally introduced as with the iPhone 4s, Siri aims to be the perfect virtual assistant. among the advertised features are the ability to look up information, ring a contact without having to first launch an app and more. Yet, even after the changes in iOS 18, Siri seems to continuously be in a state of “not quite there yet.”
So, why does it work so much better in the car than it does when I’m anywhere else with my iPhone?
Using Siri while driving
A knowledge of basic safety tells us that you shouldn’t use your phone when driving. However, sometimes you need to make a call, send a message, or even just change a song.
In the old days, you might be tempted to reach for your phone, unsafe as that may be. But Siri prevents that impulse, giving you a hands-free way to perform some tasks, even if you don’t have Apple CarPlay.
A few months ago I had to drive from London to Manchester — about a 4-hour drive. Being behind the wheel that long, I’d have to occasionally change podcasts, call up songs on Apple Music or make a phone call over the Bluetooth connection in my car. Siri lets me do all that just with voice commands.
I’ve found that asking Siri to call a certain contact, send a message or play a certain song is a real life-saver. However, it’s not a perfect solution. Siri has issues recognizing the names of certain people or songs.
Still, even with those blips, my phone can stay on the dash, allowing me to glance at driving directions from Google Maps while otherwise keeping my eyes on the road.
All of this is great, and occasional issue aside, it’s still perfectly usable. So why don’t I use Siri in other situations?
Siri roadblocks outside of the car
In the car, Siri offers a beneficial experience out of necessity. Out of the car, it’s the opposite.
For instance, while I’m walking around, I can just change the song I’m listening to on my iPhone 15 Pro Max’s Dynamic Island — which calls a lot less attention to me than speaking out a song name on a crowded street. I can also quickly find a contact and call someone at the tap of a button, which is usually more seamless than having Siri find the right name.
There’s also the issue that even after all these years, Siri just doesn’t work as well as it should. In theory, I should be able to use Siri to find out information from the web and have it condensed into an easy to read format. However, if I ask Siri, then it will simply ask ChatGPT — something I can already do. So why not just cut out the middle man?
Not only that, Siri can struggle with answering some of the more basic questions, which can be annoying.
As an example, we recently reported that users on Reddit were struggling to get Siri to answer even the simplest questions. I will admit that Apple has seemingly solved some of this, but there are others instances.
I live in the U.K., and when I asked Siri, “Who is the president.” Siri’s response: Keir Starmer. Right leader, wrong title. And I’ve also had issues with Siri using my search engine of choice. (I’ve selected Google; Siri seems to want to default to Bing.)
How about having it perform tasks for me? If I need to send an email in Gmail and ask Siri to do that, I get a reply back that it can’t, as it needs to use the built-in Mail app.
Supposedly, Apple Intelligence will bring an update to Siri that allows it to work better across more apps, but that update has been pushed back.
Even with the recent setbacks to Apple’s efforts to improve Siri, these issues have been around for a while. And you can be forgiven if you’re wondering if there will ever be a solution.
Siri outlook
More clarity on the status of Siri’s overhaul would help. After promised features haven’t materialized as part of iOS 18, it now looks like iOS 19 will bring a revamp to the assistant. But even that timing is up in the air, as Apple may have to push back its Siri improvements to an update that comes out in 2026, long after iOS 19’s fall release. Perhaps the likely iOS 19 preview at WWDC 2025 in June will bring some clarity.
It doesn’t help that reports suggest Apple is a long way off from getting its Siri update off the ground. According to a report from Bloomberg, improved Siri features only work about 80% of the time in Apple’s internal testing.
I choose to focus instead on reported features that would make me more inclined to use Siri — capabilities like the ability to locate a driver’s license number on command or find specific photos, along with the ability to operate more apps with voice commands. Should those features appear, Siri would do precisely what I needed it to do — perform tasks on the device faster and easier than I can do them myself.
Ironically, some of Siri’s competitors have the exact opposite issue. My colleague Tom Pritchard says stated that the Galaxy Assistant works perfectly well in his day-to-day usage, but it’s next to useless in the car. As such, he is excited for the release of Google Gemini for Android CarPlay, and I can see why.
Otherwise, let me know if you find Siri to be more helpful than I do, or if you also only find yourself using it in very select circumstances.
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