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you don't need to give up MBUX buttons to enable widescreen CarPlay, Porsche did it with their PCM 6.0 and kept the native PCM navigation buttons on each side:
you don't need to give up MBUX buttons to enable widescreen CarPlay, Porsche did it with their PCM 6.0 and kept the native PCM navigation buttons on each side:
Right, it just needs a wide enough screen. CarPlay supports three different aspect ratios, 5:3, 16:9 and 8:3 (24:9) and 4 resolutions, with the last one being widescreen. So the car's display needs to have a higher than 24:9 aspect ratio and more than 1920 horizontal pixels in order to have extra room on the left and/or right. The MB widescreen displays are 24:9, so they don't have extra space if they run CarPlay at 24:9, therefore they have to run it at 16:9. The displays were designed for COMAND NTG 5.5, where 24:9 was enough as there is no touch interface, so CarPlay can take up the entire screen. MB should have made the center display wider when they introduced MBUX.
The China variant mbux has Carlife (something similar to Android Auto or Carplay form Baidu, Inc) and people recently found it is possible to force fullscreen display from Carlife. See reference here: Google Translate Page.
And someone else even made a wireless Carplay to Carlife adapter box. I bought one for my X253 GLC 2022 and it works like below, with some minor flow though:
- minor lag on touchscreen;
- the text on the screen is kind of blurring (which should be the rendering issue of Carlife) however I believe the screen resolution is 1920x720;
- album image from Apple Music or Spotify does not show on the instument cluster, only music titles
My Ford F150 just got full-screen CarPlay, so it does exist. However, the screen has a 4:3 ratio.
Apple has a new version of CarPlay in the works. It is supposed to more dynamically adjust to the car's hardware.
This issue is 100% MB's issue. Many carmakers have full screen CarPlay including Mercedes, my 2020 S Class has the same screen setup as the GLE and I have full screen CarPlay, but its COMAND not MBUX. No clue why MB did that with MBUX 1.0...
Yeah it's nothing new. It's MB thing. I can use full screen map or play video to fill the whole screen. Whatever ratio it is, it will be displayed. IMO, the car quality/ride are important but those will get used to/bored overtime. If you have a nice infotainment to display/play audio/video nicely, that will keep the excitement "fresh" going long/longer.
Yeah it's nothing new. It's MB thing. I can use full screen map or play video to fill the whole screen. Whatever ratio it is, it will be displayed. IMO, the car quality/ride are important but those will get used to/bored overtime. If you have a nice infotainment to display/play audio/video nicely, that will keep the excitement "fresh" going long/longer.
Its an "MB Thing" only in this version of MBUX and not in any other application of CarPlay for the brand.
This issue is 100% MB's issue. Many carmakers have full screen CarPlay including Mercedes, my 2020 S Class has the same screen setup as the GLE and I have full screen CarPlay, but its COMAND not MBUX. No clue why MB did that with MBUX 1.0...
Post 28 by Superswiss explained the reasons why Mercedes did this and likely why they won't fix it either.
It's a moot point for them now that the facelift will use a newer version and we likely won't see any retroactive OS updates apart from fixes. While highly unlikely to nearly impossible, it would be nice to make the newer MBUX a payable update but that's just wishful thinking on my end
Apart from the full-screen CarPlay, Comand was a terribly outdated piece of software (with slow hardware to match) that should have been deprecated many years earlier.
Apart from the full-screen CarPlay, Comand was a terribly outdated piece of software (with slow hardware to match) that should have been deprecated many years earlier.
FWIW, there are different versions of COMAND. Even the latest NTG 5.5 has two flavors. One for MY2018 and earlier and the updated one for MY2019 and later. The latter uses the same Mercedes me connect online platform complete with OTA updates as MBUX. MBUX is not actually a new software. It's largely a new name. Internally MBUX 1.0 is NTG 6 and MBUX 2.0 is NTG 7. They didn't rewrite the whole thing, which is why the latest 2019+ NTG 5.5 and NTG 6/7 use much of the same online infrastructure. NTG 5 was definitely a slug in the PFL GLE, and NTG 5.5 in models such as the PFL W213 is hampered by the old partly discontinued mBrace. Hardware speed seems adequate at least for the 2019+ NTG 5.5. The most computationally intensive task is route calculation and that's pretty quick. Not really faster with MBUX and graphic rendering is also fast. I've had several loaners with MBUX in the meantime and compared it to NTG 5.5 in my 2019 C63S. I take NTG 5.5 over MBUX, and those who primarily use CarPlay anyway I bet they'd pick NTG 5.5 as well as this thread pretty much proofs.
Last edited by superswiss; Jan 30, 2023 at 07:11 PM.
FWIW, there are different versions of COMAND. Even the latest NTG 5.5 has two flavors. One for MY2018 and earlier and the updated one for MY2019 and later. The latter uses the same Mercedes me connect online platform complete with OTA updates as MBUX. MBUX is not actually a new software. It's largely a new name. Internally MBUX 1.0 is NTG 6 and MBUX 2.0 is NTG 7. They didn't rewrite the whole thing, which is why the latest 2019+ NTG 5.5 and NTG 6/7 use much of the same online infrastructure. NTG 5 was definitely a slug in the PFL GLE, and NTG 5.5 in models such as the PFL W213 is hampered by the old partly discontinued mBrace. Hardware speed seems adequate at least for the 2019+ NTG 5.5. The most computationally intensive task is route calculation and that's pretty quick. Not really faster with MBUX and graphic rendering is also fast. I've had several loaners with MBUX in the meantime and compared it to NTG 5.5 in my 2019 C63S. I take NTG 5.5 over MBUX, and those who primarily use CarPlay anyway I bet they'd pick NTG 5.5 as well as this thread pretty much proofs.
My last experience with 5.5 was our 2018 E63s and the software was so laggy I could get an espresso while using CarPlay or other functions. Slower than molasses and overall underwhelming experience.
I am sure you are right about the technical underpinnings but apart from the full screen CarPlay I don’t mind MBUX at all as we have been using it for a few years. Very comparable to iDrive 7 although BMW has the speed advantage and kept the controller knob.
Definitely more feature rich than Comand
My last experience with 5.5 was our 2018 E63s and the software was so laggy I could get an espresso while using CarPlay or other functions. Slower than molasses and overall underwhelming experience.
I am sure you are right about the technical underpinnings but apart from the full screen CarPlay I don’t mind MBUX at all as we have been using it for a few years. Very comparable to iDrive 7 although BMW has the speed advantage and kept the controller knob.
Definitely more feature rich than Comand
I haven't used 5.5 in anything earlier than a 2019, so I can't speak to its speed and whether it was a specific issue with your car, but the system is definitely not slow in my 2019 C63S and possibly uses newer hardware, but definitely updated software. CarPlay fires up right away and navigating around is quick. There's a brief initial lag when going to a particular screen the first time as it doesn't seem to boot up all the UI in the background. It only does the final booting the first time you go to a functional area, but then switching back and forward is instantaneously.
I don't like MBUX, because the UI is made for touch and you have to lean forward given the placement of the screen. The lack of the jog wheel means a lot of swiping on the touchpad otherwise. Terrible to use with physical controls and a pain to use the touchscreen while driving and trying to hold your arm steady with nowhere to rest it. Less of an issue with a standard GLE perhaps with softer suspension, but try to operate the MBUX touchscreen in an AMG while driving. Turns into futile target practice and frustration quickly.
Last edited by superswiss; Jan 30, 2023 at 07:59 PM.
I haven't used 5.5 in anything earlier than a 2019, so I can't speak to its speed and whether it was a specific issue with your car, but the system is definitely not slow in my 2019 C63S and possibly uses newer hardware, but definitely updated software. CarPlay fires up right away and navigating around is quick. There's a brief initial lag when going to a particular screen the first time as it doesn't seem to boot up all the UI in the background. It only does the final booting the first time you go to a functional area, but then switching back and forward is instantaneously.
I don't like MBUX, because the UI is made for touch and you have to lean forward given the placement of the screen. The lack of the jog wheel means a lot of swiping on the touchpad otherwise. Terrible to use with physical controls and a pain to use the touchscreen while driving and trying to hold your arm steady with nowhere to rest it. Less of an issue with a standard GLE perhaps with softer suspension, but try to operate the MBUX touchscreen in an AMG while driving. Turns into futile target practice and frustration quickly.
Our E63s was an Edition 1 and all early deliveries had the same issues. To be sure, later production dates (6 months) had better experiences This had to do with an older hardware module as it turned out so everyones hope for some software or firmware update went away.
That said, I have liked Comand in many other models but it felt pretty dated a decade ago with its less than perfect menu structure. But with CarPlay that didn't matter anyways. We still have Comand in our AMG GTC roaster which omitted CarPlay despite being newer than the E63s. MY20 was the first year, a full 4 years after BMW offered wireless CarPlay. The curse of low production volume and MB being late the party. We went with an aftermarket wireless CP retrofit on that car.
Completely agree with the dual screen being inferior for touch functions. The center screen in the current S, C and SL have the ideal touch position with the arm in a rested position yet it appears to be the most controversial feature. I do like the zero layer layout of the newer MBUX versions. The GLE definitely could have benefitted from a knob vs the trackpad.
Our E63s was an Edition 1 and all early deliveries had the same issues. To be sure, later production dates (6 months) had better experiences This had to do with an older hardware module as it turned out so everyones hope for some software or firmware update went away.
That said, I have liked Comand in many other models but it felt pretty dated a decade ago with its less than perfect menu structure. But with CarPlay that didn't matter anyways. We still have Comand in our AMG GTC roaster which omitted CarPlay despite being newer than the E63s. MY20 was the first year, a full 4 years after BMW offered wireless CarPlay. The curse of low production volume and MB being late the party. We went with an aftermarket wireless CP retrofit on that car.
Completely agree with the dual screen being inferior for touch functions. The center screen in the current S, C and SL have the ideal touch position with the arm in a rested position yet it appears to be the most controversial feature. I do like the zero layer layout of the newer MBUX versions. The GLE definitely could have benefitted from a knob vs the trackpad.
Yeah, definitely not a fan of COMAND prior to 5.5 and the latest hardware and I agree MBUX 2.0 is what it should have been from the beginning with an interior designed around it. My critique is about MBUX 1.0, which I think was a complete dud and I think MB knows it which is why they followed up so quickly with MBUX 2.0 and an interior that's designed around the touch experience.
Right, it just needs a wide enough screen. CarPlay supports three different aspect ratios, 5:3, 16:9 and 8:3 (24:9) and 4 resolutions, with the last one being widescreen. So the car's display needs to have a higher than 24:9 aspect ratio and more than 1920 horizontal pixels in order to have extra room on the left and/or right. The MB widescreen displays are 24:9, so they don't have extra space if they run CarPlay at 24:9, therefore they have to run it at 16:9. The displays were designed for COMAND NTG 5.5, where 24:9 was enough as there is no touch interface, so CarPlay can take up the entire screen. MB should have made the center display wider when they introduced MBUX. https://developer.apple.com/design/h...design/layout/
Post 28 by Superswiss explained the reasons why Mercedes did this and likely why they won't fix it either.
There's no reasonable reason, every competitor basically has full screen CarPlay and Mercedes has it in portrait screen models.
It's a moot point for them now that the facelift will use a newer version and we likely won't see any retroactive OS updates apart from fixes. While highly unlikely to nearly impossible, it would be nice to make the newer MBUX a payable update but that's just wishful thinking on my end
Apart from the full-screen CarPlay, Comand was a terribly outdated piece of software (with slow hardware to match) that should have been deprecated many years earlier.
I don't have one of these, so not a moot point for me lol. This would be a primary deciding factor between BMW and Mercedes for me for a GLE or GLS purchase.
COMAND can be laggy at times for sure, but I would take it every time because I use CarPlay 100% of the time.
There's no reasonable reason, every competitor basically has full screen CarPlay and Mercedes has it in portrait screen models.
I don't have one of these, so not a moot point for me lol. This would be a primary deciding factor between BMW and Mercedes for me for a GLE or GLS purchase.
COMAND can be laggy at times for sure, but I would take it every time because I use CarPlay 100% of the time.
Well, your prior post said that you had no clue why MBUX 1 was like that and Superswiss explained it. Nobody argued that is was reasonable It's clearly not liked by anyone but I am sure the decision logic to go smaller was sound to some software engineer. Now at least some will have reason to upgrade to the 24 model for a "near" full screen CP. That one is definitely acceptable.
I guess it's technically fullscreen in MBUX 2.0 as the bottom bit is always reserved for the climate controls and home button and CarPlay takes up the same amount of screen real estate as all the other MBUX functions. Definitely a much better implementation, but what's disappointing is that it isn't widescreen. Because apps have to cram most of their UI onto a single screen, the widescreen format just makes it so much more pleasant and less cluttered.
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. our Audi and BMW both use the full screen width for carplay
