lsutigers

Hello everyone

I just picked up a 2014 E350 Sport with Nav and mbrace2. This is my 4th MB and they have all been excellent cars.

I have been playing around with the mbrace2 apps and in-vehicle internet and at first I thought it used my cell phone's internet connection to piggyback but it looks like the car has it's own connection. The internet service and apps are painfully SLOW, almost unusable, no matter where I am located (I have tried it in many different locations). I have to say, if this is the way it is I will not be renewing the service after the 3/6 month trial is up. Did anyone at MB test this? Can I change providers?

Other than that I'm really enjoying the car.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

edspider

Each car has a 3G data account. BMW has the same deal. You have to pay an annual fee after 6 months and you can't choose the provider. It is slow, but of little google searches, and weather. I can't see how it would be good enough to stream audio from Pandora. I never tried.

jnejah

lsutigers - I know it's hard to believe but your apps and internet connection speed via mbrace is probably working normally and basically useless . I think you will notice that the Sirius weather and forecast information work well. The "best or nothing" certainly does not apply to the in-vehicle apps suite.
edspider - I have never seen Pandora as part of MB's suite of apps though I have seen it in Lexus amongst others. If you want to stream content from Pandora, you can always use your bluetooth audio connection easily enough. At least you can use your mobile device's carrier and the bandwidth they may provide.

I guess we are all waiting to see if MB's Drive Style app and Drive Kit Plus will work well and when the required parts will be available.

Anyone have a car successfully running the app?

jmatero

Start watching this at 1:00

lsutigers

@jmatero

Thanks for posting the video. To anyone considering purchasing a new MB with mbrace2, take a look, it's obvious the slow data speeds are a big issue. My main problem is with data speeds, not really the nav system speeds. I wish I would have researched and seen this video before I bought the car, this is unacceptable in my opinion. As you mentioned, the only barely usable feature is Sirius weather, every other data feature of mbrace2 is completely useless, it's a good thing I don't care about Facebook.

BTW, I did find out the data services are provided by Verizon. What really irks me is that I was just in my buddies brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Chrysler infotainment system is light years ahead of MB's, and the Internet actually works great!!!

Does anyone know if you can ditch Verizon?

jmatero

You can't change carriers for mbrace. My iPhone is AT&T and I get no reception in my underground parking garage. But mbrace works fine. I can unlock my doors from my condo and send directions and the car gets it. In fact, if mbrace uses Verizon, I'm glad because between my AT&T phone and mbrace, The chances of having no signal and getting help in an emergency are low.

I don't think the slowness is a Verizon issue. Essentially, when you launch an app, mbrace calls a Mercedes phone number, establishes a data connection with a modem, confirms your account is active, and then downloads the requested data. That's what's happening during the "establishing connection" screen.

My new 2013 has the same system. I knew the performance issue before the purchase. However, it wasn't an issue for me. Mainly because I owned BMW's and MINI's with iDrive and things like Facebook, Yelp, etc all sound great but they are terrible in cars, period.

The best implementation I've seen to date (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Pandora) is Lexus and Toyota. The apps are built into the car and use your phone's data connection to connect. And they all work via voice command while you're driving.

And frankly, there is no better way to access these apps than right from your iPhone. In fact, I can find a POI using the mbrace iPhone app/sendtobenz feature in seconds and BAM.

My biggest beefs with the system are lack of Pandora integration (thumbs up/down, station access) and no Siri. I can buy a chevy spark or honda accord with built-in Pandora and Siri but not a $60k MB?

The new drive kit plus is going to run around $1000 and can only be installed by your dealer. I'm not seeing why anyone would get this unless you don't have the P1 package.

hyperion667

new studies show ever hands free devices are causing accidents and trouble on the road.......more so than a cell to your head..........

I tried to find crashes due to dumb internet in cars....
isn't phone internet enough???

I personally would like the net on my microwave, then I can watch my favorite shows on Netflix while I'm waiting for my breakfast burrito

CEB

Yep. I see the very sad reports of distracted driving nationwide in my email every day. I'm afraid that it will take a very horrendous, visible, crash to get the public's attention.

There is no reason to have in-car internet and I'm amused by the poster who says that he wishes that he had researched this issue more before he bought the car.

Cars are intended to get you from point a to point B. Options are intended to make that task safer or more comfortable - not to turn your car into a moving internet cafe.

The internet and cell phones as we know them have only been around for about 20 years. I wonder how we survived before that time?

jmatero

A Siri button would be perfect. Don't even need a map.

"Where is the nearest Starbucks?"

"I found one a mile away on 2nd st. Would you like directions?"

"Yes"

lsutigers

Thanks for judging how you think the poster would use the internet while driving (which you cant do by the way, and thats a good thing). I could not agree more that having Internet in the car is a distraction for the driver and I have no intention of using it while driving, but that's not the point. Facebook in particular is a ridiculous feature in the car. The point is that MB sells this mbrace system with all of these other services which are practically unusable. The hotspot feature would be great to keep the kids entertained with their iPads in the back seat. In using the system I can't help but think the product was rushed and poorly tested.

CEB

The whole in-car app thing is still inits infancy. I think that we'll ultimately see a screen in the car with all functions being run by the phone. If cars retain internet features then it'll be limited to things like Pandora and a hotspot.

lsutigers

Agreed its just unusual to see MB go with an inferior system when there are other auto manufacturers executing well with much better infotainment products. As jmatero mentioned, the Toyota/Lexus system which I tested is much better and uses your phones data plan (much faster if you have a 4G LTE phone vs mbrace/Verizon 3G. The best implementation I have seen was the Chrysler product which uses Garmin for nav and Sprint for data/hotspot services and its plenty fast, not to mention, really user friendly UI.

jnejah

As previously mentioned, the MB Drive Kit Plus does exactly as you guys suggest including Siri - Seamless integration of iphone with the car's system. I think we're just behind the curve in the U.S. Japanese and Korean models of Lexus and Hyundai for example have had this capacity for quite some time. I've also seen seamless integration between Nokia and Volvo in the Swedish models.