Darel

I remember last summer, after I first bought my car, live traffic and route updates worked on my nav screen. At the time I was still on my MBrace trial.

A couple weeks ago (I don't use nav often) I first noticed the live traffic wasn't functioning. My MBrace trial had expired at this point.

I do have Sirius, but I am not subscribed to Sirius traffic.

The "options" for dynamic traffic are not grayed out, and they are selected.

So where does the COMAND unit get its' traffic info from for live nav updates? If it gets it from Sirius, I'll gladly pay the $3.99/month for it. If it gets it from MBrace, it's not worth it, If it gets it from elsewhere, it's not working and I need to get it looked at (when my engine is done getting rebuilt).

Thanks,
Darel

KEY08

If you want to restore traffic, I believe you need to reup your Sirius traffic subscription. To the best of my knowledge that is where it comes from on the COMMAND. I just use Google maps or the Waze app. It is very accurate.
I am not a Sirius XM fan.

thenew3

On my car the live traffic info is from Sirius. A few times a year when Sirius has free previews, I also get live traffic data during those days. I didn't buy the subscription because I don't need sirius radio and they wouldn't sell just the live traffic subscription by itself without subscribing to the radio portion.

Darel

OK, thank you. I do have a Sirius subscription for the music, but not traffic. As long as I know that's what feeds the info to the COMAND unit I'll gladly pay the couple bucks for the traffic subscription. But, if it was the sort of thing where I would have had to go through some sub-menu and it wouldn't read out on the nav screen anyway it wouldn't be worth it. Thanks!

Arrie

thenew3

I have been unsuccessful in getting them to sell just the traffic without music subscription.

Jabberwock

ahhh, so that's why I see traffic data from time to time. thanks

kajtek1

This is on Ford, where my Sirus radio free trial expired 3 months ago, but live traffic by Sirus still works.
Not that I complain.
On MB when it is crucial - I fire android with Google maps.
Sirus tried to send me into 20 minutes detours when it was 3 minutes traffic delay, while limited experience with Google did no do it yet (?)

Darel

I've found that Google is much better than the Sirius traffic but I hate looking at the little tiny screen in the cupholder. Plus I have about a 4.5 hour drive Saturday and my phone battery won't run navigation for that long, not even when plugged in.

I guess I should qualify that I only ever used the Sirius traffic once (again it's my wife's car, I don't drive it much let alone to places I don't know where I'm going) but it turned a 3.5 hour trip into a 7 hour trip. However, on that entire trip we never managed to get above 35 mph because the traffic and weather were so horrible, so maybe it wasn't Sirius' fault.

I'll find out this weekend - going to DC.

kajtek1

Are you saying charging cable on your phone is not keeping up with maps program draw?
I used google maps only when I was stuck in traffic to get info, so did not use it for long time, but I assume cable charging should be sufficient? I have prepaid android, so don't plan to have it on permanently as it would take data when I don't need direction Also my Samsung has pretty good speakers and I can hear directions.
On other hand with all those hackers who drive MB, nobody yet found a way to transfer android screen onto car screen? I have big video plug in my armrest compartment. What this is for?

cetialpha5

You can get the Sirius for about $25 for 5 months or $30 for 6 months depending on the deal they offer. It's been going on for years. You have to hold out for that one as they'll offer you lesser deals til you reach that point like a $99 for one year. Anyway once you have that, I think adding traffic is like $2 extra per month. I had it for a little while but thought that it didn't really add anything so I stopped using it. I still use the satellite radio once in a while so I guess it's still worth around $25 for 5 months, but not really worth much more than that as I usually just use bluetooth and listen to my spotify. If you download the google maps in advance, you'll notice that traffic data doesn't amount to much and it's way better.

There's also a free 3 month trial if you don't have it on.

https://slickdeals.net/f/10971607-st...archBarV2Algo1

Darel

The video plug is for an iPhone hookup. I have Android, but I do have an old deactivated iPhone that I leave in the armrest with music on it.

Yeah, when I have the phone plugged in to the USB charger it doesn't keep up when running Google maps. I can get maybe 2-3 hours out of it, but by the time I reach my destination it's dead. This is like, 3 different phones I've tried this with too, in multiple vehicles. One (I think it was the iPhone that's now just music storage) kept shutting down on thermal overload on a long plugged-in drive from PA to TX.

Lorenzo

I use my phone all the time for nav. To save on battery i shut it down when im on the same road for 2 hours or so. Im hoping that when i find a e350 i want to buy that the nav is good enough to use and i wont need the phone for nav anymore

kajtek1

USB charging ports are coming on 2.5 or 0.5 amp variety. I wonder if the one in armrest is 0.5 and not enough to keep with mapping program draw.
But how about getting adapter for cigarette plug?
So once again, anybody found a way to transfer android screen onto car screen?

thenew3

The one in the armrest puts out a little below 0.5 amps. Definitely not enough to charge phone while screen and mapping apps are running.

cetialpha5

You need to get a quick charge 2.0 or quick charge 3.0 charger. Probably 2.0 will work as not too many phones support 3.0 and the cost is greater. I had the same issue even with a 1 amp charger. Once I got the quick charge, it was actually able to charge the phone and use the GPS at the same time.

Darel

I've tried it in multiple cars, I have this cigarette lighter plugin thingy with 1.0 and 2.0 outlets and even the 2.0 doesn't really keep up. I believe my work phone (yeah, I carry around 2 smartphones, it sucks) supports 3.0 but that quick charge feature only works with one plugin wall charger.

thenew3

Have you tried different cables? I can do google maps, wifi hotspot, music streaming all at the same time with a plain old 2A cig charger (not quick charge) with my S8 and it still has enough power left to fully charge the battery.

KEY08

I use the APPLE iPhone Smart Battery Case and never have any battery problems. I don't know how anyone can use an iPhone without that case. It's the best $90 you will ever spend if you have an iPhone.

Darel

Hmm, no I didn't try different cables. I'll try that. Thanks.