Mike5215

There's no legal cause of action for a manufacturer delaying release of a proposed new feature, or abandoning the release of a proposed feature entirely. If it's not listed on the car's Mulroney Sticker, they don't owe it to you. Unless you can prove that MB purposefully induced you to buy a car you otherwise would not have purchased but for the promise of Apple CarPlay, I wouldn't get too fired up about it.

The issue MB (and others) are running up against is Apple's unwillingness to warranty or support CarPlay installations. They want the automobile's manufacturer to be responsible and handle support calls. MB apparently was not convinced of the stability and reliability of the platform across multiple IOS devices when the W205 locked. As someone mentioned, maybe it'll be available in the mid cycle facelift.

For CarPlay to work, MB must license CarIOS from Apple and embed it into COMAND's firmware. It also requires CANBUS level access to the car's microphone and Talk button. They're not there yet, or at least weren't there in time for the 205's launch. CarPlay was intended to be available native on 2015 models, and available as a retrofit module thereafter, but they're apparently still working out the kinks, and I doubt we'll ever see a retrofit module.

NewMBC300

How did he manage to make the CarPlay work?

Zand3rs

im lost.. is this some new images?

Mike5215

It was a one-off demo unit.

Graycat305

Fuel for the fire:





Not the same car as the first one...

Zand3rs

• 2016 A-Class
• 2016 B-Class
• 2016 CLA-Class
• 2016 CLS-Class
• 2016 E-Class Cabriolet
• 2016 E-Class Coupe
• 2016 GLA-Class
• 2016 GLE-Class

I dont get it.. WHY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Graycat305

Doesn't make much sense tech wise. Likely trying to wring the last $$$ from overpriced multimedia pack on c-class.

Graycat305

CarPlay retrofit:

Mike5215

They hate us.

Graycat305

NYbenzzz

would have been nice to have this, but not a deal breaker for me.

i would rather them implement a SKIP track on the steering wheel.

a touchscreen way to input addresses on the navi and i'll be golden

Mike5215

There's a skip track button on the steering wheel. Left side. The screen between the speedo and tach has to be set to Media. Down arrow advances to the next track.

NYbenzzz

i usually have it on TRIP.

so, to skip a track:

Press HOME button

press ARROW until MEDIA is selected

Press OK

then finally you are able to change tracks.

why can't it just be:

press forward to skip track, press back to go back.

instead of all that, i might as well just press middle button on touchbad and skip via swipping (very frustrating way) or rotating knob.

either way, there's no simple way to do it 1 shot, you know what i mean?

Mike5215

I think you can press the Voice button and say "Next Track". Or hit the center button on the rear of the track pad and swipe right.

LateC300

That's what i do every time, so much easier. Yes it's one extra step than having a dedicated button, but i dont spastically change tracks all the time, so i dont mind having fewer buttons to clutter up the dash.

Though it would be great to have the option of a split screen COMMAND

tivoboy

honestly, it's just easier pulling up the favorites menu on the keypad - which comes up no matter what the command screen is, and then just swiping right on the keypad.. there's a bump on the fav. logic button on the keypad to make it easier to find without looking.. a sub pop-up of the current audio/media/station items pops up, then just swipe right or left for next or previous.

Zand3rs

not the point here. It matters to me because my a class has it and my c class doesent even offer it.

Graycat305

nnk

Very unhappy about CarPlay not being available on w205 and the ability to purchase apps for audio 20 disappearing. Since I was early getting a w205, my lease is almost up: I hope jaguar or Audi do a better in-car ICT job ... (Told Mercedes this in their survey too)

rchangek

If you all carefully observe the interior of each of these listed vehicles -
2016 A-Class
2016 B-Class
2016 CLA-Class
2016 CLS-Class
2016 E-Class Cabriolet
2016 E-Class Coupe
2016 GLA-Class
2016 GLE-Class

You will find that all of these use previous generation COMAND NTG5*1 system. This system has a numeric keypad and only a rotational knob to control the infotainment system.

The two glaring omissions in the aforementioned list are 2016 C-Class and 2016 S-Class, both of which use the most latest iteration, COMAND NTG5*2 system. This latest COMAND system gets rid of the numeric keypad and adds a touch pad. See attachment for distinction between COMAND NTG5 systems.

I have been doing a lot of research on this, there are some folks on russian fora who have retrofitted Carplay firmware, that has been released for the aforementioned vehicles, on some older vehicles that were shipped with COMAND NTG5*1 hardware. This clearly proves that once NTG5*2 firmware with Carplay comes out (possibly on 2017 E-Class), it can definitely be flashed on to any of the vehicles with NTG5*2 hardware including W205 cars.

Now I truly hope it doesn't come down to doing all the dirty coding and flashing work. I hope Mercedes takes care of its customers and just issues a software update for all of us and prove that they are "Best or Nothing".

Mike5215

That motto is accurate. In the case of Apple CarPlay in the W205, it's presently "nothing".

They may offer a retrofit at some point but it doesn't look good. I'd be wary of flashing COMAND firmware with a Russian hack. It's possible to brick the unit, and it wouldn't be a warranty fix.

rchangek

Yeah, well if that doesn't change that's what Mercedes will get from me the next time I buy a car - "Nothing".

I love the car, but overall I agree with the sentiment in this thread, we were led to believe from that youtube video that carplay was coming to the new C-Class.

Mike5215

Not sure the intent was to mislead. Anybody who configured a C or ordered a C learned that CarPlay wasn't an option on a new build, much less available as a retrofit on existing cars.

The only hint MB gave about a possible retrofit CarPlay for any model was a press release in 2014 stating that they hoped to deliver a retrofit module for a variety of late model cars by late 2015, as well as having CarPlay as an option on new cars.

That never materialized and MB has been silent on the issue since. Looks like more of a minor PR flub, putting the announcement out prematurely and then being unable to follow through.

wan197

Apple CarPlay works well for me

tron786

well done.
As we say in Afrikaans in my country .."a boer maak a plan" (a farmer makes a plan)