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My car came with the MB Navigation option. In Houston, the Navigation is borderline unusable. Round about directions, non-existent traffic integration, not recognizing roads that have been around over a year, and unaware of long term major road closures. Travel direction stay North does not always work and re-routing is horrendous, if you take an alternate route it takes forever to re-route and sometimes keeps trying to take you to the original route as you arrive at your destination,
I use Nav directions daily for test purposes and hoping that it will force an update, but no luck thus far. Google maps is usually spot on. Why re-invent the wheel? They should have licensed it from them.
It is worth checking that you have the latest maps installed. Go to the Mercedes me connect portal and it will tell you if there are updates. Only one region gets updated automatically over-the-air. I have heard that the MBUX navigation has taken some steps backwards. The navigation in my 2019 C205 is pretty much spot on in my area. I use it all the time and the maps get updated regularly. One just came out last month, but I haven't fully installed it yet. The OTA update for the home region is still installing. Once that is done, I'll perform the manual full update.
I'm in Denmark, and in my C220d W206 it works pretty well - maps are updated with most newer (larger) roads, and I am even comfortable using it for the driving assists.
Only thing is that it sometimes misses speed limits, and only go by traffic signs (that also fails at times, but not often!)
Full disclosure: I have owned my car for less than two weeks and this is the first M-B I've owned with navigation, so my ability to use it is rudimentary at best. The system does seem to know its way around the Portland area, for the most part. But it has exhibited perplexing weirdness. Last Saturday I asked it to locate the nearest NAPA store, which was on my errands list for cleaning supplies. I know perfectly well how to get there but asked the nav system just to start learning how to use it. It found stores in Iowa, Illinois, and New Jersey; nothing in the Portland metro area of Oregon. I found that rather odd. On the other hand, it worked perfectly to navigate to a state park in the city and back home so clearly the more important local features are in the database.
Full disclosure: I have owned my car for less than two weeks and this is the first M-B I've owned with navigation, so my ability to use it is rudimentary at best. The system does seem to know its way around the Portland area, for the most part. But it has exhibited perplexing weirdness. Last Saturday I asked it to locate the nearest NAPA store, which was on my errands list for cleaning supplies. I know perfectly well how to get there but asked the nav system just to start learning how to use it. It found stores in Iowa, Illinois, and New Jersey; nothing in the Portland metro area of Oregon. I found that rather odd. On the other hand, it worked perfectly to navigate to a state park in the city and back home so clearly the more important local features are in the database.
Some of this might be slightly different with MBUX, but when you search for a location it not only searches the local database and your address book, it also performs an online POI search. When the results come back, you may have to refine them. For example I can say "Show online results" when it came back with a bunch of matches that don't quite look right to narrow it down to just what it found online. The online results usually have the correct place right at the top, because the data source is most up to date. It does try to determine which ones are a close match and shows those first, but I've found that that's not always reliable. Sometimes it comes back with a unique match and starts navigation immediately, but If the results are ambiguous it comes back with a list and lets you refine it and pick the place you meant. Just have to know how to refine it. However, you can also search for the place in Google Maps etc. on your phone and then share it with the car. If you have an iPhone just tap the Share button, then tap Mercedes me, confirm and it will send it directly to the car's navigation. If you are sitting in the car and your phone is connected via BT then it will send it over BT, otherwise it will send it over the Internet and it will show up within a few seconds once the car has its connection established.
Last edited by superswiss; 02-22-2023 at 07:35 PM.
Full disclosure: I have owned my car for less than two weeks and this is the first M-B I've owned with navigation, so my ability to use it is rudimentary at best. The system does seem to know its way around the Portland area, for the most part. But it has exhibited perplexing weirdness. Last Saturday I asked it to locate the nearest NAPA store, which was on my errands list for cleaning supplies. I know perfectly well how to get there but asked the nav system just to start learning how to use it. It found stores in Iowa, Illinois, and New Jersey; nothing in the Portland metro area of Oregon. I found that rather odd. On the other hand, it worked perfectly to navigate to a state park in the city and back home so clearly the more important local features are in the database.
Did you try some other stores to see if they can be found? I have asked for some restaurants and grocery stores and no issue. Sometimes you need to be exact in your request like 'show me the nearest NAPA auto parts store", etc. If I get a chance I will test the NAPA auto part locations here in Detroit area.
Did you try some other stores to see if they can be found? I have asked for some restaurants and grocery stores and no issue. Sometimes you need to be exact in your request like 'show me the nearest NAPA auto parts store", etc. If I get a chance I will test the NAPA auto part locations here in Detroit area.
Yes, I did. I typed in "NAPA store Hillsboro Oregon" and it still came up blank. Perhaps it was befuddled because I didn't type the full "NAPA Auto Parts" store name? I don't know. Obviously both the car and I have some learning to do.
Yes, I did. I typed in "NAPA store Hillsboro Oregon" and it still came up blank. Perhaps it was befuddled because I didn't type the full "NAPA Auto Parts" store name? I don't know. Obviously both the car and I have some learning to do.
A couple of days ago, MB signed an agreement with Google for the purpose of improving the navigation system. I think there's a new update coming. You might want to check with your MB dealer to see if your car was built during the time frame that the cars need to be built in order to be able to receive this new over the air update.
While I am waiting on the Navigation to work, is there a trick to getting Received Destinations ? When I send routes to the car, an hour before the drive, it is usually available several hours later and in some cases the following day, rendering the feature useless.
While I am waiting on the Navigation to work, is there a trick to getting Received Destinations ? When I send routes to the car, an hour before the drive, it is usually available several hours later and in some cases the following day, rendering the feature useless.
Nope, provided your car has a stable cellular connection with a good signal then it should pop up within seconds after starting the engine and the system booting up and establishing the online connection. I usually send destinations as I'm heading to the car and while I'm waiting for the engine rpm to settle down, the destination pops up on the screen. Usually a couple of seconds after the 4G LTE logo has lit up indicating that the online connection is active.
However, I have found that if I send them too early in advance, then they never arrive. It seems that the MB servers only buffer it for a short amount of time. If the car is not available to receive it within that time, then it gets discarded and I have to send it again, hence why I send them now just before I'm leaving. That has been fairly reliable. Also, if you send them while you are sitting in the running car with the BT connection already established, then the destination gets sent over BT and pretty much pops up instantaneously.
Last edited by superswiss; 06-21-2023 at 07:32 PM.
if you send them while you are sitting in the running car with the BT connection already established, then the destination gets sent over BT and pretty much pops up instantaneously.
That defeats the purpose. If I am in the car it is easier to enter the info into Navigation instead of tinkering with the phone and waiting for a sync.
That defeats the purpose. If I am in the car it is easier to enter the info into Navigation instead of tinkering with the phone and waiting for a sync.
That is not my experience. Much faster to find the destination on the phone and sending it to the car, than entering it into the navigation or use the search functions in the nav. Finding the destination in the nav is much slower, even if you use voice commands. I use voice commands to enter a known destination while driving and that works pretty well, but if I'm stationary it's much faster via the phone, plus I can research the destination before actually deciding to drive there, so I avoid double entry by just sending it to the car while I'm already looking at it on the phone. .
Last edited by superswiss; 06-22-2023 at 12:49 AM.
You have come up with a work around that works for you, that is great. The feature however is not designed for that purpose and does not work as intended. If I am looking up a Doctor's office or a client site I want to be able send it to my car. Not get in the car, start it, lookup the location on my phone, send it my NAV a foot away which has a much larger screen, wait for it to sync then drive off.
You have come up with a work around that works for you, that is great. The feature however is not designed for that purpose and does not work as intended. If I am looking up a Doctor's office or a client site I want to be able send it to my car. Not get in the car, start it, lookup the location on my phone, send it my NAV a foot away which has a much larger screen, wait for it to sync then drive off.
I think you misunderstood. I'm not using this as a workaround. I just explained to you a second scenario for how it can be used. If you read the first part of my response I explained that it works just fine if I send the destination before getting into the car. As I said there, I can send the destination to the car, then later get into the car, start the engine, and once the car has established the online connection the destination pops up on the screen where I can start the navigation. Works just as intended for me.
I have found that if I send them too early in advance, then they never arrive. It seems that the MB servers only buffer it for a short amount of time. If the car is not available to receive it within that time, then it gets discarded and I have to send it again, hence why I send them now just before I'm leaving.
That by definition is a workaround for something that is not working as intended. Enough said....
That by definition is a workaround for something that is not working as intended. Enough said....
Perhaps I should have clarified the above a bit more. That is if I'm sending it like the day before. The thing is that I don't know how long the servers buffer it, so that's why I send it closer to when I actually need it. Call it a workaround if you will, but it works and doesn't defeat the purpose. Your issue is different. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you said the destinations you send arrive like a day late or something like that. That's obviously not usable, I agree, but I've never experienced that. The MB implementation is limited in that you can really only send one destination at a time. With my Audi previously I could send up to 50 destinations, but then I had to manually retrieve them from the car, which was less convenient than how MB does it where it gets pushed to the car and then automatically pops up.
02-12-2023, 01:45 PM
