U0263: Lost Communication With Speech Recognition Module
What to do
The car drives normally; voice control will not work.
First, work out whether the car can hear you or cannot respond at all. Press the voice button and see what happens. If you get a chime, a prompt, or a listening indicator, the system is working and simply cannot hear you — that is the microphone, which is a separate part in the headlining or mirror housing, and a much smaller job. If pressing the button does nothing whatsoever, it is the module.
If the windscreen has been replaced, mention it. The microphone and its wiring sit in the headlining right above the screen and get disturbed by that job.
And check whether it is a subscription or signal problem before paying for anything. Many cars now send your voice to an online service, so voice control stops working when the connected-services package expires, the signal is poor, or the manufacturer withdraws the service. That is not a fault, and no amount of diagnosis will find one.
What this code means
The speech recognition module has stopped being heard from. See U0200 for the block's framing.
Voice control has a failure that looks identical to this code and is not it, so the first job is telling them apart: the microphone.
The microphone is usually a small unit in the headlining above the windscreen, in the interior mirror housing, or in the overhead console. It is a separate item from the module that processes what it hears — so a blocked, disconnected or damaged microphone gives "voice control does not work" with a perfectly healthy module, and no network code at all.
The distinguishing evidence is whether the system responds to being asked. A vehicle that acknowledges the voice button — a chime, a prompt on the screen, a listening indicator — has a working module that cannot hear you, and that is a microphone problem. One that does nothing at all when the button is pressed is the module.
Windscreen replacement is the specific event to ask about, because the microphone and its wiring live in the headlining directly above the screen, and that area is disturbed whenever a screen comes out.
One modern consideration worth stating plainly: much voice recognition no longer happens in the car. Where the vehicle sends speech to an off-board service, "voice control has stopped working" can be a mobile data or subscription problem rather than any fault at all — an expired connected-services package, no signal, or a service the manufacturer has withdrawn. That is worth checking before a diagnosis is paid for, because no amount of testing will find a fault that does not exist.
Nothing here affects the vehicle's driving in any way.
Likely causes
Start here
- Disconnected sensor connector · easy
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
- Module software fault needing an update · specialist
Less common
- Damaged wiring harness · moderate
- Water ingress into module · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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