I have a new 2017 GLC 300 without the media package, but pre-wired for Nav. However I haven't purchased the garmin maps nav yet and in the meantime, I am trying to use google maps on my Iphone 6 (with most recent update) and have the voice directions play to the car sound system, either through bluetooth or media interface. I haven't been able to have either work for me. I called Mercedes US and they said car is not compatible with google. ?? Question: Has anyone managed to be able to hear voice directions for google maps through the car's sound system? If so, please advise. Thank you.

 

I have the same issue too , + I have the media package and navigation (but it is not as good as google maps ).
I hope MB wakes up and makes an update to enable apple carplay for us.

 

I've found, on any car, that if you want reliable phone satnav commentary over the speakers that your head unit will have to be switched to ensure it is streaming music via bluetooth as it is. If you haven't got your head unit set to listen ALL THE TIME to your phone, you will not guarantee that the interruptions happen on time and consistently.

So if you are listening to music on your phone anyway, then an interruption of that music becomes a feature of the phone, and has nothing to do with the incar system. That way it is reliable as it is just a sound output.

Not listening to music on your phone is like not having your phone input switched and thus it can be hit and miss whether it registers as something interruptible.

Works for me with Google Maps, Waze (my favourite), Apple Maps or anything else. Even works with Siri.

 

dejongj - sorry but I don't quite understand what you are saying - could be a difference in UK-US terminology. What is a "head unit"? When I'm trying to run google maps, I am not trying to play music from my phone at the same time. Are you saying that I need to do that for the car system to pick up the google map sound? The ideal situation would be for me to be able to play the car radio and also be able to hear the directions from google maps coming from my phone through bluetooth. Is this impossible?

 

Sorry - yes I'm not even a native UK English speaker I'm Dutch, albeit living in the UK.

A head unit is a generic term for a car radio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_unit). I used that generic term on purpose as it doesn't matter whether you have a full Command system or the basic radio, whether you have a Mercedes or Audi or Whatever...it is all the same.

When you have the 'head unit' aka car stereo source input to the Radio it can't also play bluetooth at the same time as the secondary source input. If it could it would be mixing two inputs and that is very rare on a standard radio. This is not specific to Mercedes it is normal operations on all vehicles.

What sometimes may happen is that specific applications, don't think Google maps is one, can pretend to be a like an incoming telephone call. It then effectively transfers its spoken directions via the bluetooth handsfree protocol (HFP). A 'head unit' normally listens to the HFP signal, and will interrupt its source input for such interruptions. Some satnav apps can use that and mimic that protocol, hence you may have experience it and think it was possible. However due to the immediate nature of satnav directions it really isn't reliable enough to operate this protocol.

Normally bluetooth music and device sounds are broadcast using the A2DP bluetooth protocol, but for that to work the source input will have to be switched to bluetooth. Then in most phones it has a built in software mixer which will lower the sound of the music and increase the volume of navigation sounds. This is near instant and reliable.

It is exactly for those reasons I do like built in SatNav systems as I listen a lot to something called DAB radio, which is digitally broadcast and not great to stream to the phone when on the move.

I hope that make better sense.

 

Thank you for the detailed explanation - I apprieciate it. It makes sense now.

 

Hi Zing, just checking if you did get this working? I have a 2017 (with no navigation etc) and have google maps working through both Bluetooth or media interface (USB). I couldn't tell that if in your last statement you had resigned yourself to the fact that it will not work. There are some quirks to both methods.. but generally speaking make sure you have the 'play voice over BT ' and 'play as a BT call' to ensure you have all basis covered. This is done inside the 'navigation settings' on the google map app.

 

Haggis62, thank you so much! When I looked at my settings, "play as BT phone call" was not enabled. I'll give it a try on the ride home tonight.

Another thing I realized is all lightning usb cables are not created equal....