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I'm doing my research on tech - the one thing that seems to ultimately drive me nuts with cars. I had a 2020 G63 which had "old" COMAND, and supported full-screen Apple Carplay, albeit wired. I've found a load of older posts complaining that MBUX puts Carplay in a tiny "sub window", vs being full screen - but nothing recent.
Is this now resolved? Or did everyone just stop caring about the stupidity of a tiny window? :\
I'm working on the basis that all manufacturer nav systems suck compared with Waze, even with the cool AR stuff MBUX now supports, so Carplay is important....
(I posted same question on the GLS forum, as I'm considering both GLE and GLS.... and the GLE forum seems more active!)
No full screen CarPlay. It takes up about two-thirds of the screen with black borders on both sides. I hope that a future update will fix that and also make CarPlay wireless. I wish I had a wishing well.
I'm doing my research on tech - the one thing that seems to ultimately drive me nuts with cars. I had a 2020 G63 which had "old" COMAND, and supported full-screen Apple Carplay, albeit wired. I've found a load of older posts complaining that MBUX puts Carplay in a tiny "sub window", vs being full screen - but nothing recent.
Is this now resolved? Or did everyone just stop caring about the stupidity of a tiny window? :\
I'm working on the basis that all manufacturer nav systems suck compared with Waze, even with the cool AR stuff MBUX now supports, so Carplay is important....
(I posted same question on the GLS forum, as I'm considering both GLE and GLS.... and the GLE forum seems more active!)
Isn't the aspect ratio of the MBUX center screen in the V167 (Width x Height) a lot wider than it was in the previous generation's COMMAND screen?
So in order to display CarPlay full screen, the image would have to be stretched and distorted? Much like showing an old 4:3 video format on a modern HD TV, you either keep the video ratio undistorted and display blackout out lines on either side of the 4:3 image, or you stretch and distort the image so everything looks short and fat.
To me, it appears MBUX is displaying CarPlay at the correct image ratio and simply "blacking out" either side of the image, rather than distorting the image to fit the wide width of the V167 MBUX screen. MB could have offered a choice, however CarPlay being displayed at the correct aspect ratio is my preference...so this seems like a first world problem to me.
Isn't the aspect ratio of the MBUX center screen in the V167 (Width x Height) a lot wider than it was in the previous generation's COMMAND screen?
So in order to display CarPlay full screen, the image would have to be stretched and distorted? Much like showing an old 4:3 video format on a modern HD TV, you either keep the video ratio undistorted and display blackout out lines on either side of the 4:3 image, or you stretch and distort the image so everything looks short and fat.
To me, it appears MBUX is displaying CarPlay at the correct image ratio and simply "blacking out" either side of the image, rather than distorting the image to fit the wide width of the V167 MBUX screen. MB could have offered a choice, however CarPlay being displayed at the correct aspect ratio is my preference...so this seems like a first world problem to me.
My 2 cents.
No, CarPlay takes full advantage of different aspect ratio screens, however, on MBUX it uses the 16:9 aspect ratio, even though the screen is wider (21:9). MBUX handshakes the wrong aspect ratio with CarPlay. First image shows how it looks on MBUX, and second image shows how it looks on COMAND 5.5 (widescreen). With proper widescreen aspect ratio it shows 5 icons per row on the home screen instead of 4 and spreads them out a bit. Apps also take full advantage of the extra real estate. The new CarPlay Dashboard in particular looks much better on widescreen. I hate to say this, but MBUX was rushed to market as a kludge and is buggy. Looks like they are fixing things for MBUX 2.0 with the bigger screens in the new S and C Class. After having driven some loaners with MBUX, I'm glad my car has the widescreen COMAND 5.5.
BTW, they can't fix this w/o making the screens larger, because they need somewhere to display the home and notification buttons in the upper corners. That's why they have to display CarPlay at a lower aspect ratio. If they made it widescreen it would take over the entire screen and then there is no room for those two buttons.
Last edited by superswiss; Mar 20, 2023 at 01:45 PM.
No, CarPlay takes full advantage of different aspect ratio screens, however, on MBUX it uses the 4:3 aspect ratio, even though the screen is wider. MBUX handshakes the wrong aspect ratio with CarPlay. First image shows how it looks on MBUX, and second image shows how it looks on COMAND 5.5 (widescreen). With proper widescreen aspect ratio it shows 5 icons per row on the home screen instead of 4 and spreads them out a bit. Apps also take full advantage of the extra real estate. The new CarPlay Dashboard in particular looks much better on widescreen. I hate to say this, but MBUX was rushed to market as a kludge and is buggy. Looks like they are fixing things for MBUX 2.0 with the bigger screens in the new S and C Class. After having driven some loaners with MBUX, I'm glad my car has the widescreen COMAND 5.5.
BTW, they can't fix this w/o making the screens larger, because they need somewhere to display the home and notification buttons in the upper corners. That's why they have to display CarPlay at a lower aspect ratio. If they made it widescreen it would take over the entire screen and then there is no room for those two buttons.
No, CarPlay takes full advantage of different aspect ratio screens, however, on MBUX it uses the 4:3 aspect ratio, even though the screen is wider. MBUX handshakes the wrong aspect ratio with CarPlay. First image shows how it looks on MBUX, and second image shows how it looks on COMAND 5.5 (widescreen). With proper widescreen aspect ratio it shows 5 icons per row on the home screen instead of 4 and spreads them out a bit. Apps also take full advantage of the extra real estate. The new CarPlay Dashboard in particular looks much better on widescreen. I hate to say this, but MBUX was rushed to market as a kludge and is buggy. Looks like they are fixing things for MBUX 2.0 with the bigger screens in the new S and C Class. After having driven some loaners with MBUX, I'm glad my car has the widescreen COMAND 5.5.
BTW, they can't fix this w/o making the screens larger, because they need somewhere to display the home and notification buttons in the upper corners. That's why they have to display CarPlay at a lower aspect ratio. If they made it widescreen it would take over the entire screen and then there is no room for those two buttons.
its the same on all the current benz screens. its using the same portion as the camera display. this is what happens when people who know nothing about tech start talking about tech. car play and android auto both use the camera display screen portion of the center display. it should be obvious to any owner.
2021 GLS450 2020 GLE350 2005 BMW 325ci Convertible
I just had to rent a Mazda CX-5. While I do like the full-screen wide-screen CarPlay, I do hate the lack of touchscreen while driving! I have only driven 40 miles and have tried 20 times to hit the screen!
Waze works well but is ugly as sin IMO. I frankly only use it to alert for stopped cars, cops, etc.
Since we have our BMW I can’t accept wired CarPlay anymore either; so outdated given that wireless CP was available 5 or 6 years ago.
We use a wireless adapter which is a bit clunky but works.
While Mercedes fixed all these issues with MBUX 2 I wouldn’t hold my breath for any meaningful update to full screen even though a UI solution could easily be found for the elements that MB allocates so much screen real estate for (temp, home, notifications)
Waze works well but is ugly as sin IMO. I frankly only use it to alert for stopped cars, cops, etc.
Do you use a second one at the same time? It sounds like you use waze as a back up and then also use something else. I tried sing waze and the MB navigation at the same time and one always cancelled the other one out. I agree I like waze to tell me about cars, cops and it works the shortest fastest route so much better than the MBUX but the MBUX works so much better at showing where to turn.
As for full screen CP, I would like it too but I have read else where that MB isn’t “hard at work” to fix it.
We have not really used route guidance on the GLE as its only a car used for local errands.
I do use 2 separate services on the BMW and believe that also works on the MB (as long as both are part of CarPlay). Apple Maps for guidance on HUD and instrument cluster and Waze on screen.
Well, having a Porsche with wireless CarPlay that’s a bigger fail on these cars than the size of the display. They have a charging mat but need the phone connected, silly.
I saw an MB sedan yesterday while driving on the highway which had full screen Google Maps running. Couldn't tell the model but it was definitely running CarPlay and Google Maps in full screen. Looked great.
I saw an MB sedan yesterday while driving on the highway which had full screen Google Maps running. Couldn't tell the model but it was definitely running CarPlay and Google Maps in full screen. Looked great.
Checkout out post #4. Whatever you saw was running COMAND 5.5 and not MBUX. COMAND 5.5 has full screen CarPlay as explained. C, E and S Classes all run COMAND 5.5. The E Class only switched to MBUX with model year 2021.
Checkout out post #4. Whatever you saw was running COMAND 5.5 and not MBUX. COMAND 5.5 has full screen CarPlay as explained. C, E and S Classes all run COMAND 5.5. The E Class only switched to MBUX with model year 2021.
It was running MBUX because it had the new screen pane plus an MBUX instrument cluster. Unless they performed a hardware swap and custom software but that would be pretty out there I'd think.
From what I could tell though, there were no buttons on the screen, it was just Google maps occupying the entire display estate. Which makes sense because of what you explained in regards to the screen ratio.
Could it be that this was an employee driving a test unit of some sort?
Apple is re-issuing an update that has caused incompatibility with Carplay.
Check with their Customer Support to see if it helps the Apple Phones, which seem to be the primary culprits, at least from the amount of posts here.
Android is still the dominant phone OS.
It was running MBUX because it had the new screen pane plus an MBUX instrument cluster. Unless they performed a hardware swap and custom software but that would be pretty out there I'd think.
From what I could tell though, there were no buttons on the screen, it was just Google maps occupying the entire display estate. Which makes sense because of what you explained in regards to the screen ratio.
Could it be that this was an employee driving a test unit of some sort?
No sure what you mean by the new pane. The PFL E Class running COMAND 5.5 has the same screen setup as the FL running MBUX. You can't tell by the screens alone. The giveaway is the center console controller. With MBUX there's no jog wheel anymore. Only a touchpad.
2019 E Class with COMAND 5.5:
2021 E Class with MBUX:
Last edited by superswiss; Dec 18, 2021 at 01:19 PM.
I see what you're saying. Can't confirm 100% that I saw the MBUX cluster, I believe it was the newer design that comes with MBUX but can't say without a doubt that in fact it was. Perhaps you are right and it was a COMMAND unit.
No, CarPlay takes full advantage of different aspect ratio screens, however, on MBUX it uses the 4:3 aspect ratio, even though the screen is wider. MBUX handshakes the wrong aspect ratio with CarPlay. First image shows how it looks on MBUX, and second image shows how it looks on COMAND 5.5 (widescreen). With proper widescreen aspect ratio it shows 5 icons per row on the home screen instead of 4 and spreads them out a bit. Apps also take full advantage of the extra real estate. The new CarPlay Dashboard in particular looks much better on widescreen. I hate to say this, but MBUX was rushed to market as a kludge and is buggy. Looks like they are fixing things for MBUX 2.0 with the bigger screens in the new S and C Class. After having driven some loaners with MBUX, I'm glad my car has the widescreen COMAND 5.5.
BTW, they can't fix this w/o making the screens larger, because they need somewhere to display the home and notification buttons in the upper corners. That's why they have to display CarPlay at a lower aspect ratio. If they made it widescreen it would take over the entire screen and then there is no room for those two buttons.
what does the “LOW” button in the bottom corners do?
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