The iPhone seems to jibe much better from my experience when using it via apple carplay. I didn't notice if anyone said but there is an owners manual downloaded within the command system and you can go to that for help when your having a problem with something. It's mainly about just exploring though, like sitting in your garage or the driveway going through all the different menus until you get to know them. You want to make sure all your settings are as you prefer them under "Vehicle" settings and then go to "System" setting and look at the different things on those. I don't use the self parking system on the car, takes too long and is a little unnerving, I'm kinda a control freak and watching the steering wheel whip around as you come close to other cars is not for me. I never use lane keeping assist either, I find it annoying like someone is pushing me around as the car tries to correct if you go a little over the lines in the road, plus it is added brake wear.

I actually went backwards with technology, lol. I recently traded in my 2019 E450 Cabriolet for a 2017 S550 Sedan and it makes me realize how far the tech came from those 2 model years. I still have my 2019 E450 Wagon and it's nice to get into that car with all the extra and improved technology features over the older tech. I am glad I got the 2017 S550 as the car is super comfortable and I really like the S class, but just adjusting to it not having the refined Distronic Adaptive Cruise control as on my E450 and no apple car play either. To get a 2018 used S550 woulda been around 35 to 40 grand more so I figured I'd sacrifice having the kind of tech I'm use too.

 

I prefer a dual approach first used when switching to MacOS from Windows 5 years ago: read a few manual chapters on basics and the Comand quick start guide, then do a deep dive into topics of particular interest. It helps to keep in mind that some topics (like towing with my 2017 GLC) are not at all adequately covered in the manual.

 

I appreciate (and continue to welcome other suggestions/idea) but to clarify, I said "dedicated" button. You have to be viewing the radio/media/audio screen for the little touchpad swipe to work. It doesn't work when the main screen is displaying other content (navi, Android Auto, etc.). A dedicated physical button for next/previous file would give direct access to these functions no matter what the screen is displaying. Sorry for the apparent thread hijack, but this minor detail is kind of symptomatic of a larger problem which is still relevant to the thread. Too many functions are either buried, difficult to use (too many clicks/swipes or not intuitively accessed), or missing altogether.

 

Voice control is always available. I rarely take my hands off the wheel when driving.

 

For better or worse, the trend has been away from physical buttons for many features, especially features that few use. I have a feeling that not many skip tracks. The next level is touchscreen only, which I pretty much find the most idiotic move in car history ever. Even with haptic feedback, there just is no way to operate things w/o taking one's eyes off the road. I'm not sure how the regulations bodies let this happen when there is ample evidence that distracted driving is on a significant rise and has been for a while. I do realize there are so many functions in today's cars that unless we want car interiors to rival airplane cockpits there is just no way to do everything with physical buttons. Heck even airplane cockpits are moving to digital. Personally, I find the balance between the digital cockpit and the physical buttons in my '19 C63S fairly spot on. I don't really need to fiddle with the COMAND system very much while driving. I mostly change drive mode functions etc. and I can do all that from the steering wheel. Pretty much all drive functions I use on a regular basis are found on the steering wheel now and voice control is a touch of a button away for the more involved tasks such as entering a navigation destination. With the same button by holding it for a second I can also activate the voice control function for my iPhone and start navigation if I have the phone hooked up for CarPlay or operate other phone functions such as dictating text messages that works better than trying to do it through the COMAND system's text messing function. Honestly for most functions that require me to dive into menus in the COMAND system I just use voice control. It's much quicker, unless I'm stationary and can fully concentrate on the system. I really find it doesn't take long to learn the right commands or figure out the button combination quickly for the functions I use regularly. As far as vehicle settings etc. goes, that's something that's done probably once after taking delivery of the car, and then maybe a few adjustments here and there occasionally, so they don't need to be at the top of the system. The car manufacturers are definitely under the impression or at least try to convince everybody that voice control is the future and it's how drivers should interact with the system when driving. Unfortunately, it's not happening for everybody at least yet.

 

Voice control allows one to "read out text message" while driving. The system voice reciting the message works quite well. I only wish you could say "reply to message" and have the system prompt for the verbal message to compose and send. Should be easy enough to do while driving, not much different than verbally responding to several sub menus to select a song or album to play. But alas, you can't unless you pull over and stop. This is the one feature (or lack of) that annoys me.

 

The command is "text message to <name in address book>.
If reading a text message the command is "reply".

 

Yes, I'm aware and I even thought I can reply via voice, but from what I remember it's more convoluted and it doesn't do a good job at recognizing naturally spoken text. I tried once to send a text message to my wife and it just didn't understand the message correctly, so after repeating it twice I gave up. It's much easier to press and hold the voice control button and then when the Siri prompt comes on say for example "Tell my wife I'm running late". Siri knows who my wife is and composes a text message to her with the correct message. I know MBUX in the newer cars has a voice control system much more akin to Siri/Google Assistant and can understand natural commands like this. But really now that Siri/Google Assistant is integrated into the car's voice control button it doesn't really matter to me. I have the option to talk to the car or Siri depending on what I need done and I neither have to fiddle with the COMAND system nor my phone. It's all just a button press, followed by a voice instruction away.

 

Some Voice Control systems have a learning mode so that they will adapt to the primary user. Does the system in the 213 (2019) do that?

 

No, that's mostly older versions.

 

I recently got a 2017 used S class which is a great car but it is really hard going backwards in tech when I've experienced the 2019 e class wagon which I still have and am thinking maybe I should just be driving the wagon all the time and not having another older S class which depreciates daily in my garage alongside the wagon. Getting a 2018 up S class up is out of the question as then I'll have even more depreciation on my hands. But man, once you've experienced the tech like dictation of texts via apple car play and it reading you texts as your driving and somebody shooting you a address and having it come up and then hitting it into Nav you don't want to go back.

 

Oh come on. I was having a fine day until you went and reminded me of this friggin' oversight again. And please don't anyone on this thread offer the left steering wheel touchpad as an option. It takes a swipe to focus the radio/media window and then another swipe to actually change the channel. Maybe someone can rig that air conditioning menu button in the middle of the console? Money there for the taking!

Rant over...back to your original thread topic.

 

​​​​​​​Have to be on the radio screen for right steering wheel touchpad swipes. Try changing the channel or media when you're on the NAV screen.

 

I keep both the nav screen and the media screen visable though media is the primary one. That said, I use random play of the thousands of files on a selected given media.

 

Yet another take, written by a journalist with a cross-brand perspective:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/s...r-new-car.html

 

Here this should help you a little:

 

Mucho gracias.

 

Good video. But it's sad that the only telephone (and Navigation) "Favorites" are mixed up with completely unrelated Favorites, such as Seat and Massage. Completely unusable, IMHO.