Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I like voice command but Alexa is just not that great. Simple example: there are rooms and each device (e.g. echo or smart lights switch) is assigned to a room. I have multiple echos and multiple smart light switches throughout the house. I come to a room and say “turn on lights”. I would expect Alexa to turn on lights in that room. Sound simple? Nope. Alexa replies “there are multiple devices named lights, which one do you want to turn on?” WTF, I need to spell it “turn on kitchen lights”. Why do I assign devices to rooms? Nobody knows. And the same with everything. I tried to buy something with Alexa multiple times. It’s just horrible: “buy dish soap” (whatever I bought last time, I don’t care). But no: “there 1234 dish soaps available on Amazon, which one do you want to buy?” Like I know ;)

Edit: cleanup



The "light on in current room" works for me. Maybe you have "overloaded" the "light" name.


So I tried. Walking into the kitchen, I said “light on in current room”. Alexa: “did you mean lights in the movie theater”? Why???????????


Also add "at the present time, in this version of the multiverse", just to be sure it has enough context.


Imagine if you had a human butler who was this particular with the way you asked things. Fired on the spot.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: