sportsedan89

Hello,

I recently purchased a 2021 Mercedes-Benz AMG C43 without the touchpad, and I'm having a problem with CarPlay.

Background
Yesterday, I had my phone connected to the vehicle via USB, and CarPlay was active. Apple Maps was running in the foreground and providing me navigation instructions, and Apple Music was running in the background with music playing. I was able to nudge the controller (the wheel on the center console) to the right to advance to the next track in my playlist and to the left to jump to my previous track — all the while with Apple Maps in the foreground and Apple Music in the background. Overall, things were working well and it was easy to control my music and follow the route guidance.

The Problem
Not sure what I did, but I seem to have lost the functionality I described above. Today, when I'm in the same situation that I described above, nudging the controller to the right no longer advances to the next track; rather, it pans the map to the right. See the video labeled Apple Maps here.

My Question for You
Any idea how I can regain the functionality I described in the background section above? In essence, I'm looking for an easy way to advance to the next track in my playlist when the Apple Music app is not in the foreground.

Thanks!

sportsedan89

Mr. Toad

I'm sorry that I can't answer your question, but I do love the way you presented it. Clear and concise!

jtjbt20x

Ditto. He must be an engineer.

sportsedan89

😂 I am an engineer/designer, yes. I currently design automotive infotainment systems, so you’d think I’d be able to solve this problem on my own!

jtjbt20x

Thought so. Whom do you work for, if I may ask?

sportsedan89

@jtjbt20x Feel free to private message me, and I'm happy to share that!

sportsedan89

If any of you have CarPlay in your vehicle, could you please try the following procedure and let me know what happens?

1. Connect phone to vehicle via USB and launch CarPlay
2. Play a song in the Apple Music app
3. While the song is playing, launch Apple Maps on the vehicle’s center screen
4. Nudge the controller (the wheel on the center console) to the right

I’m curious if your map pans to the right, the system skips to the next track in the play queue, or something else happens.

Thanks in advance for your help,

sportsedan89

sportsedan89

-- Looks like I posted this to the wrong thread by mistake, so I've moved the post here. --

I'm happy to report that, with the help of a Mercedes-Benz representative, I found a solution.

Recap of the Problem
I want a one-touch solution for skipping to the previous/next track in my Apple Music queue while Apple CarPlay is active and Apple Maps is in the foreground on my center screen.

Solution
Maybe you already discovered this, but my solution is to use the steering wheel along with the instrument cluster. Here are the steps I took to reach the solution (see pp208-209 of the owner's manual for details):

1. Press the Home button on the left side of the steering wheel.
2. Swipe left/right on the touchpad on the left side of the steering wheel to cycle through the carousel.
3. When you land on the Media panel, select it by depressing the touchpad. At this point, you should see something like what's shown in the photo below. Note that this photo is of what I believe is the Super Sport instrument cluster design. If you have the Classic or Sport design selected, your cluster make look different, but these steps should still work.
4. At this stage, you can swipe up on the touchpad to skip to the previous track and down to skip to the next track.

What's nice is that the vehicle will remember the layout you've selected, and so the next time you get in your vehicle, you can skip steps 1-3.