Received an email tonight that says:Part of our offer for you is the "Online Map Update" service.

A new version for your navigation maps is available at the Mercedes me Portal.
You can download the maps from the portal to bring your navigation system right up to date.
If you receive automatic map updates for a certain region, this will continue to work in the customary manner.

Kind regards,

Your Map Update Team

What is the Mercedes me Portal? I have the app and even went to it online but can’t figure out how to download the updated map.
As you can see, I’m still figuring out my 2019 C63S Coupe.

thanks in advance!

 

It funny that I’ve not use mine yet. It so much easier with an IPhone 😄

 

It's https://www.me.mercedes-benz.com/

Your car will automatically start downloading the map update in the background for your home region. You don't really have to do anything, but with each map update, there's an updated voice instruction file which doesn't automatically get updated and if you'd like to update the maps for other regions that you might drive to, then you have to update them manually as well, but each region covers a large area. Like for me I get the entire western united states automatically updated, so I don't really have a need to update any other regions unless I plan a cross country trip. You will eventually get a notification in the multimedia system that the map has been updated.

For manual updates log in to the portal, then go to my vehicles, select your car and scroll down. You should see a tile for Map Updates as well as Software Updates. Under Map Updates you can go and download what you want to update. There's a download manager that you need to install first and then you need an external medium like an SD card. The files will get stored on it and then you simply insert it into the car. The SD card slot is in the center storage compartment. It will automatically detect that there are updates on the SD card and will ask you if you want to install it. Just follow the prompts. It's pretty easy. You don't have to leave the car running. The update will take place in the background, so just leave the SD card in until you get a notification that the update is complete.

 

I guess you never drive in areas with no cell coverage. It's pretty cumbersome to navigate offline with an iPhone. Google Maps supports offline maps, but you have to download individual relatively small areas, so you have to exactly figure out where you gonna drive and where there might not be any cell coverage.

 

thank you very much!! Found it with your instructions!

 

Thanks mate! Found an update for Australia.

 

thank you again for this info! If i use a USB memory stick, instead of SD card, do I use the USB slot in the center console as well?
any idea how big of a memory card/usb stick I need to get these upgrades fully loaded?

thanks!

 

I think so. I used an SD card. You can see the file sizes in the portal. The update for the western united states with the voice instruction file together is about 3GB. I haven't looked at the other regions, but I'm guessing they are about the same size. If you want to update multiple regions at once, then you need an appropriate size memory stick, but you can also do it one at a time.

 

I'm doing a full map update with a 16gb usb flash drive, downloading as we speak will post an update with the results. Cant fit everyone in one go (18gb total for all north america) so gonna see how doing a few regions at a time works.

 

This is nowhere as complex as you have described with Google Maps. I live in NorCal and have downloaded offline maps for 8-10 areas within a 4-6 hour driving radius from my location. This has worked great for most from-home road trips I might do without too much planning. You can select the maximum rectangular area it allows (which helps cover a good 150-200 mile radius eg. the full western half of Washington state). Each offline map download is a one-time thing, and you can configure automatic updates of these maps (every 30 days or so) in the background when you're on Wi-Fi. Google Now even offers to automatically download offline maps based on your upcoming trips. If you have sufficient storage on your phone, you can download a whole bunch of maps and they do not occupy a whole lot of space either.

In terms of driving, I do at least 10k miles of road trips each year and majority of these trips are through remote outdoor wooded areas like State and National Parks with little to no cell phone coverage. In the last 4 years with these trips, we have rented cars primarily and not even once I have had an issue with Offline maps. I used to carry a backup old school Garmin Nav unit for emergencies, but I have never taken that outside. In the last one year or so, I've even stopped carrying this Nav unit on such travels because of this.

The Assistant integration with Google Maps however is not great with Offline maps, however using the keypad/touchpad to search, Favorites, Starred places all work reliably with offline maps.

I have tried using the in-car Navigation on my C63S few times but the UI and the Maps quality and traffic info have nowhere come near Google Maps or Waze. In my own car, I just stick with Google Maps / Waze with Android Auto.

 

Maybe it's better on Android than Google Maps on iOS, but there's not a good way to avoid downloading overlapping areas or missing a sliver between areas. There's no UI where you can stitch the offline areas together to see if you've covered everything you need. I have my home area downloaded, which Google Maps automatically suggests and I found out on one trip that you need all areas between current location and destination in order to plot a route from an area w/o cell coverage. I knew I wouldn't have cell coverage at the destination, so I downloaded the area, but I couldn't plot a route home, because there were pieces in between that I hadn't downloaded. Google Maps does download everything it needs for the current active route, so you can continue if cell coverage drops out in between, but the challenge is starting a complete new route. I have also discovered that the offline maps only stay with the current device. I lost all my offline maps the last time I upgraded my phone, and there's no configuration in the cloud that remembers which areas were downloaded before so with every new device one has to start over. Again, at least that's the case with iOS. Another challenge especially in cities is that GM regularly loses its orientation when stopping at traffic lights. The compass seems to have difficultly maintaining which direction the car is pointing and all the sudden thinks the car is on an adjacent street for pointing in a different direction and then starts rerouting until it catches up again once the car is moving. This doesn't happen with the internal nav.

I have used the HERE Maps app in the past where you can download entire states or larger areas for offline use (even entire countries). It's basically using the same data as the MB system, since MB(Daimler) is part owner of HERE. I used it primarily for oversees travel in the past, when traveling across Europe. It would have been very tedious to stitch together the large distances I drove in Europe with offline areas in GM. These days I get a local SIM and use GM with online maps. Not having cell coverage so far has been less of an issue in Europe.

GM definitely has its benefits. I used it exclusively during my 2 months ED trip, since the Me services weren't active while the car was in Europe. Here in the USA, I use GM, Waze and the internal nav depending on the situation. I usually don't plug in my phone, so it's much more convenient to do ad-hoc navigation with the internal system, because it's only a voice command away. I also like having the map up even if I'm not navigating to see the traffic in my area. I'm not using this feature because I don't commute, but if you are commuting and have both your home and work address stored in the system then it automatically starts a silent navigation in the background when it detects that you are driving to/from work and alerts you if there is traffic etc., and suggest alternative routes. There are some cool features the system has. I'm hoping MB eventually releases an update, so it shows the turn-by-turn instructions in the digital instrument cluster when using GM, Waze etc. via CarPlay, but for now that's another reason why I like the internal nav. It gives better instructions with the road configurations than GM and Waze do and I get it directly in front of me in the instruments cluster. Can even have a small map there in addition so I don't have to look at the center screen at all. I understand that with the HUD it shows it there in addition. So far I have found the traffic information to be quite accurate for the Oakland/San Francisco area and further north. GM has better traffic on surface streets, so when the highways are clogged or I know I'm gonna drive surface streets mostly I tend to use GM. Having options is really the best situation as each system has their strong and weak points.

 

In the end I think its great to have options and backups. When I crossed the country in my w204 I had the comand nav running as well as waze on my phone. With carplay in the FL w205 you cant run both simultaneously but I have already found myself using the integrated navi a couple times when I'm in a rush and havent bothered to connect my phone.

 

You can indeed select multiple overlapping areas, and Google Maps automatically figures out redundant areas, and ensures it doesn't download the same area twice. Same during map updates too. When I plan for my long trips I anyway look at Google Maps to plan my route, figure out POIs, restaurants, etc. and for me downloading Offline Maps has become a natural muscle memory aspect as part of this planning.

I agree about Offline Maps being limited to the single device and the list doesn't get persisted across devices in the Cloud. Indeed it would be a great feature to have. I have personally however not found this to be a concern since I just have one phone I need to worry. Even if I upgrade my phone, it is not more than once every 2-3 years, and as part of device setup this will be just one more thing to do if needed.

I also have Scout Maps (a paid app) on my phone which uses OpenStreetMaps based data and allows downloading the map for the entire World in under 20GB or so. I have tried this on few trips just to try alternate options. It had reasonably up to date maps in my experience and worked great without any cell phone coverage.

Even though many apps get data from the same Mapping data source, how they wish to render it, the layers that get rendered depend highly on the app itself. Also different apps have different licensing agreements with the map data provider, and how up to date these maps are vary. Some apps also overlay different layers of info from different sources (eg. Map data could be from one source, POIs could be from a different source, Traffic from a third source, etc.).

 

Yeah, I use GM to research my trips as well, and generally always take a look at the route it suggests before leaving and compare it to the car's route. Perhaps one thing that makes the internal Nav quite convenient and more attractive is that on iOS I can share locations from any app directly with the car. Just have to tap share, select Mercedes Me as the target and it gets sent to the car. If I'm already in the car and the phone has connected via Bluetooth the location gets sent directly to the Nav over Bluetooth and pops up right away. So I tend to look up a place on my phone, send it to the car and then just start the navigation from the prompt w/o having to fiddle with the cable and plugging in my phone. As far as I know, this kind of convenient location sharing is not available on Android.

 

how’d it work out? If 16gb covered it, will order me a SD card now to get that done.

 

Android has supported transparently sharing content between apps right from the beginning. I think ios added this feature only two or three years ago.





Yes, ability to send the location to the car is indeed convenient. What I end up doing is, I start Nav on the phone in Google Map before connecting my phone to the car and the moment Android Auto starts up, it automatically opens up Google Maps with the destination.

I prefer anyway not to keep my phone in my pocket while driving, and I place it in one of the center compartments hence I leave it connected to the car while driving.

 

I do that, too when I use GM. With iOS 13, Apple actually decoupled CarPlay from the phone, so you can have one app running on CarPlay and a different app on the phone. When connecting the phone, it brings up the last app used on CarPlay. I haven't done this yet, but I could mount my phone and have GM going on CarPlay and Waze on the phone simultaneously for all the alerts.

 

Do you think it is possible that MB will integrate for example GM with internal car features (eg. HUD)? Are there any other car brands having this feature already?

 

Technically it is possible. As far as I know they've already done it for Android Auto. Not sure about the HUD, but I've heard with AA the turn-by-turn directions are displayed in the instrument cluster. iOS 13 supports this, too, now, but it's two fold. MB has to add support for it and push out a software update (can be done over-the-air now), and the apps on iOS have to take advantage of it. I'm not aware of any other brand currently supporting it.

 

Very good news about Android Auto - I hope now it is just matter of time they'll add id for iOS! Fingers crossed, thanks .

 

Yes AA supports the turn-by-turn info in the Mercedes Digital Instrument Cluster now and I believe also with the HUD (I don't have HUD, might need confirmation from somebody who has it).

 

hey there! How did the update go?

 

Update went well, after the first round I just emptied the flash drive and used the downloaded software to load the remaining files. Car recognized and loaded everything with no issues.

 

awesome! I’m going to give it a try!

 

Basically the update for the entire USA will fit on a 16GB stick. It's about 14.2GB. Then the only two left are Mexico (2.6GB) and Canada (1.7GB). I'm not gonna bother with these as I'm unlikely to drive to Mexico or Canada. Not even sure if I really wanna bother with all the USA regions outside of the western states, but it's easy to just put them all on my SD card and then just let the car update the entire USA map.