SirNH

I tried linking my EQS 450+ to a T-Mobile MiFi, but the car would continuously re-connect, making it useless. So I thought I would check out the HotSpot service available from within the car settings. It required a lengthy registration process that is free - sure the registration is free, the plan is not. BUT, it seemed like the unlimited annual plan was fairly priced, just $240. It even had the T-Mobile logo on it. I forgot that T-Mobile is actually a European company. The performance sucks. In fact, it appears that maybe all traffic is being directed to Germany and back to the US. I need to do a trace route to find out more.

Speedtest.net connected to a server in New York, even though I am in silicon valley. And it was getting 16Mbps down, 4 up. I usually get at least 40 down and 20 up with my personal hotspot.

And then sadly, when I connected YouTube, the browser performance was pathetic. It was playing maybe 2 frames per second.

All of this is to say, if you ever want to stream some video while charging, you better bring an iPad.

SirNH

Further evidence that this is not using a US carrier, I received an email that I was charged a tariff:

Diesel Benz

I'm confused, what are you trying to say. In the US all carriers are US-carriers (borders may have split over e.g. from a Canadian carrier). The owner of each of these carriers can be anywhere in the world but makes no difference as long as it is not China.

Are you interpreting that you have used a roaming service because you were charged? The bill is from using a Mercedes service, Mercedes pays the carrier for their network use.

Connectivity used to go through Germany at some point. I don't know if it still does today. Obviously adds delay and hurts ping times but streaming is not so delay sensitive, perhaps some other issue

SirNH

I think they are using the German T-Mobile as their carrier, rather than US. There is no reason to be charged a tariff if they were using the US carrier. T-Mobile is owned by Deutsche Telekom. More hops, especially if you are going over an undersea cable and back, is going to affect both latency and bandwidth. I still need to find a way to do a traceroute through the browser to see, though.

c4004matic

Wifi hotspots are a useless expense. If there is enough signal for it to work, there is enough signal to stream directly to your device. Absolutely useless.

Diesel Benz

Are you seriously claiming German T-mobile having base stations in the US? Which other countries of the world have base stations in the US? Have you tried manual network search from your cell phone? Did you find many European networks?

Your car connects to internet with a subscription paid by Mercedes. The deal Mercedes has is for low volume traffic like Mercedes Me (Connect) remote features plus maps updates very infrequently. The hotspot service increase data volume significantly. This is why Mercedes needs to pay more and you need to pay more if you want to use that service in your car.

In Europe Mercedes mainly uses a deal with Vodafone and they use roaming in European countries that do not have Vodafone networks.

njtransit215

I was able to watch a Twitch stream for 30 minutes while charging at an EA station today. Idk if I got lucky with the connection or what but it was flawless once I requested the mobile site. Zero dropouts and good quality.

SirNH

I was trying to watch in the browser built into MBUX, not on my device. Essentially, I am trying to see if I can get a Tesla-like experience where I can stream content on the hyerpscreen while charging. It's a bit of a passion project. I am always trying to find ways to compensate for the features I had on my old Tesla.

njtransit215

That's what I meant, I was watching trying different channels on the center tablet with no issues on any of them. Loading took a little while but after it buffered it didn't fall out of sync. Motion was fine too. I took a pic as an example since I was amazed it actually worked

SirNH

Can you try a speedtest.net and take a screenshot of your results? What are you using for internet service, by the way? Did you sign up for the hotspot, tethering to your phone/house wifi, or using whatever came with the car by default?

I will try a speedtest tonight, on my way home from work, too. I'll also take another attempt of connecting it to my mobile hotspot device.

Brian

njtransit215

It was the in-car T-mobile hotspot that I signed up for through the initial browser prompts on the infotainment. I did the $15/mo plan until I decide if it's worth the annual cost. This was at an Electrify America charging station since I wanted to use my free 30 min session. My phone is on Verizon and it was tethered with wireless CarPlay but not in use. I'll take a Speedtest next time I'm in the car. It would not shock me if they throttle download speed or video quality though.

njtransit215

you're onto something with this. my Speedtest had a ping of 161 and originated from a Duestche Telekom IP address. I only got 3mbps down. it does seem like it may feed through a proxy server in Germany. I'm amazed I got video to stream earlier. perhaps worth us filing a bug report or calling the Mercedes EQ support team.

SirNH

Tonight I was able to reliably connect with my personal mobile hotspot and the Mercedes cellular data service. Both had the same data rates in speedtest, although the hotspot (t-mobile, as well) had a much lower ping. Both had crummy streaming. When you were streaming before, were you really getting smooth frame rates? I wasn't getting anything close to 24 or 30, on either hotspot.

All of this makes me think it's really the browser that sucks. My hotspot can reliably get 30-40 Mbps down and 10-20 up.

njtransit215

I can't say for sure, but as someone who looks at a lot of screens all day, I'd guess it was around 480p (maaaaybe 720) at a solid 30 fps. If it was YouTube I probably could've known by looking at the settings.Twitch also puts a lot of priority on mobile optimization when they develop their net coding so I'd expect mobile-first websites like them to do better on limited bandwidth. I already want to call and ask about Apple Music being broken so I'll just add hotspot weirdness to the list.

FFT1

Has any had better success with the in-car hotspot? Mine seems to have no internet connection despite everything apparently being set up the right way.

StormingHabs

Finally got around to trying mine and sure enough, it’s not working. Has anyone had any success getting the hotspot to work?

Got AMG

There is a Software Update for the MBUX system. You will have to go to service to get it done

lifehukka

Do you know why it isn't an OTA update and instead needs to go to a service centre? Also, how did you find that out?

Got AMG

not sure why it is not an OTA. I work at a MB dealer and have access to all the LI Documents.

lifehukka

I took my car to dealership and asked them to do a MBUX software update. They didn't see any new software version available, but did a software reset and the WIFI hotspot started working. This is very strange though.