[QUOTE=e55phil;9213123]I see. I am sorry to mislead you. That photo is just in my hand at the moment, as one of GLS customers just received it, took a photo to me.

 

wow, haha, I almost forget what I did. You still have these photo. Remind me a lot.

cheers!

 

I can assure you that it is feasible！My car infotainment system has Baidu Carlife, which can indeed display in full screen. It only limits connection to Android phones, and Apple phones do not support the use of Baidu Carlife

 

Can you elaborate ?

You have tne Baidu Carlife applicaton on the MBUX, and it is fullscreen ? This is ultrageous from Mercedes. Forcing Android Auto and iOS Carply to not be fullscreen in NTG6 and other app is. That is crazy
If we could sideload the Carlife app on the MBUX, then with a USB-C dongle that enables Android Auto via Baidu Carlife we could have fullscreen Android auto.

If this is true, I really cannot understand how Mercedes does this !!!

 

Currently, many boxes have a fake Baidu carlife program programmed into their chips that is specifically designed to deceive the car system, making the car system think that the device inserted by the user is a Baidu carlife phone. You only need to insert the box into the USB port of the car, and the car system will recognize it as Baidu's carlife. When using an Apple phone to connect to the box's Wi-Fi signal, you can also achieve full-screen CarPlay on the Apple phone, which is equivalent to using CarPlay natively. Of course, if it is an Android phone, you don't need to be so troublesome, just connect to Baidu's carlife directly. This can only be done if the car system has the Baidu carlife program. Cars in China all come with this program by default.

 

On NTG5 devices, pré+facelift, that is correct.
NtG5 is full acreen for Apple Carplay. You can use a USB adaptar to run Android auto over Carplay and then having Android auto also fullscreen.

However that is not the case for NTG6, where both Android auto and Apple Carplay are not fullscreen.
Until today i didn't find any solution for that, and from what i read, it seens Impossible to have fullscreen on NTG6 devices at all

 

Because it’s MB and they think if you like their vehicles
you should deal with whatever they say unless they have enough people complaining about it to them directly.

 

Currently, only the Chinese version of the car infotainment system has Baidu CarLife, which is the only one that comes with a full screen and is compatible with Android phones

 

I dont think that even if you complain they will care

They already removed in car Office, Spotify, etc, from NTG6.
Better to stop/block thise apps than to spend money on development.

 

I do not think Car Life is the answer. I do not think Baidu is the answer. There are reports online describing the drawbacks. If you search this site you will find the drawbacks.

I think Elebest has the answer. That is buy the european NTG6 box, for the w213 and install it and try to code it.

My opinion about Elebest was bad because the part number he sent me was not for an W213. However, Kingscorpion, who is a legitimate user of our site for a long time, speaks highly of Elebest. Max, the owner of Elebest acknowledged that he sent me the wrong picture mostly because he was too busy to send me the actual part number. (or perhaps because he does not trust me) The other boxes don't cost as much but they have a little bugs and little problems. It seems like the Elbest solution is the best solution (pardon the pun) but I'm still worried that when I take my car in for service, I will have a problem. I am in a catch 22 situation because Elebest doesn't trust me enough to give me the complete picture and I'm afraid to proceed without getting my service advisor to tell me it's not a problem.

I may decide to buy an E53 wagon so all of this may be moot.

If any longtime member of this forum wants to purchase this product from Elbest, I would chip in $250 towards your cost so that if it doesn't work you don't lose all of your money. If it does work for you, then I'll buy it for me.

thanks

phil

 

I can help you test the box you mentioned

 

Hi

I know it is not the same as the previous modifications we have been talking, but today I came across this - https://dhstylingshop.com/products/m...y-android-auto
It is a A/V box that is easyly connected to the car. A DYI scenario, but seems quite easy to do.

It will be fullscreen and completely wireless for Android and Apple, and cheaper.

I asked some questions to them, still waiting response, but i am thinking on trying it.
They have a video on how to assemble, here -
If I see that in doesn't break any stuff on the current MBUX, I may try it

 

after all the research and reviews i've decided to buy from max @EleBest . he seems to respond promptly and his fit seems to be the best option for what i'm looking for. $1062 out the door for something that should be standard from mb is insane to me but i'll pay for convenience and happy to have a faster unit, the lag on the mid is starting to get to me. he'll be shipping the unit out soon and i can't wait to install. i had coding done a couple months ago from @rjautomotive and that went to plan with my ILS/auto start stop/drive mode memory. thanks to everyone on this forum including @S_W222 who helped influence my decision. ill update with some pics/vids once done. 🤙

 

Good to hear that.
@EleBest solution is indeed the best, no doubts.
Still 1k€ a little expensive to me, I am looking for a cheaper alternative that I could do it myself. I am sure I could also do the one from Elebest, but this last one it's much easier.

Please, make a review and put more photos/videos

Thanks

 

@cinzas there’s one company in China that makes an add-on box that a lot of other companies distribute. I think it might be called car life or something like that. It’s mentioned above in this thread. You have to read the reviews on that to see what features are missing. If it’s that same box being remarked by another company and double check the features and see if that’s what you want. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

@aynort, I see that you are in New Jersey. I’d be very interested to see how this turns out for you. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a replacement to my wagon because you can now buy an E 53 wagon and that would solve the problem of CarPlay. However, I’m thinking about keeping my existing car as well You may not have seen this, but I offered to contribute money to anyone who purchased the option from Elebest and will let me see it. I was afraid to take the risk by myself. My offer stands if you’re interested PM me. If it works for you I will buy it.

I agree that W222 is a great reference but I do not know if he purchased this CarPlay option.

 

hey @e55phil i'm going to pm you, but you also had some input into my decision making based off location and your posts lol little shoutout there. here's w222 post #34 which kinda solidified it for me, make sure you keep scrolling on that post. now he doesnt have a w213 Fl but once you scroll down ele best has confirmed it'll work with our mode.


*** @e55phil you'll need to PM me, i believe i'm too new, i always just browsed in the past instead of making an account 🤷🏼‍♂️***

 

You dont know what you are talking about, Phil.
First of all, Biadu and Carlife is the same thing. It is called "Baidu Carlife" Yes, it can achieve fullscreen carplay and yes, it has lot of drawbacks. But buying new HU from Elebest is just giving you exactly this Baidu Carlife. It is not EU headunit, it is Chinese headunit. Our originall EU headunits does not have baidu carlife, and why would they? It is the system that is only used in China (and now also in Russia, since they import chinese cars because of sanctions). Mercedes does not give damn about its US and EU customers, so they fixed fullscreen only for china. By transfering this chinese protocol, it does not behave as native carplay. But there is only one other solution, which also have drawbacks.

 

You must bought my head unit before? If yes, post a photo here. Don’t post or do statement just by your wild imagination.

 

Yes I have. But I knew even before, that there are only 2 solutions for fullscreen carplay. Headunit with baidu Carlife and Chinese box (with carplay support) that hijacks headunit display image.
Why would I be required to verify something with a photo is beyond me. This information also does not cause any damage to you, or steal your customers., so why would you even imply, that I am lying, when you know that I am saying the truth?

 

All units sold (from EleBest) to EU or USA customers are not China version. The reason why I ask you share a photo is why you say something untrue? Or some mis understanding?

 

I apologize, I get you now. I claimed that it is not EU headunit based on different A number, and also different region features.
Maybe, it is EU/US headunit in the end. Nevertheless, rest of my original point still stands.

 

This is not “Never mind” can solve. If you bought the unit from me is a China unit then show it to proof your point. “Unit from EleBest are all Chinese Unit”. If not, just delete that untrue statement in your post.

 

Sorry, you are right. I cant seem to edit original comment. And to be fair, I never said it is ALL chinese units.

 

Appreciated, Thanks for your input.

 

Thank you for your polite and friendly response. I'm sure you're correct in everything you say and as you point out if we lived in China or Russia, we could use these products and perhaps they work. In Germany the W213 has full screen CarPlay for some reason we do not in the United States. Elebest seems to have a solution to exchange the radio module with a EU version which allows full screen CarPlal, also, with all of the features that would normally come with a W213.

If I'm mistaken, and the Chinese version does the same. I stand corrected. Thank you for correcting me and I will keep this in mind if I move to China or Russia. In the meantime, I wanted to share my comments with the other fellow who lives in the United States so that he didn't purchase a product that wasn't ideal and I wanted him to be able to read the posting because someone did a tremendous review.