Not sure if this is the right place to post this, apologies if it isn't.

I have a 2020 GLE and the entire time I've owned it the suggested routes in the navigation have been nonsensical.

​​​​​​I drive my car the same route to and from work most week days. So what does the nav suggest, a route to work? No it gives me a route home. In fact the only suggestion it consistently gives me is to drive home, no matter where I am or what time of day it is. I've gotten in the car in the middle of the day to go grab lunch and it suggests I drive home.

I thought the system was supposed to learn my patterns and make suggestions based on that.

My question is how do others find this function? Does it make reasonable suggestions, or is my experience of random nonsense typical?

It's hardly a deal breaker, I'm just curious.

 

Hi Kris079, I have a 2021 GLE and the nav system works fairly well. I do not have the same problem that you are experiencing with the drive home always coming up. Unfortunately I still have to double check the suggested route with Waze or Google maps to be sure. I’ve yet to find an in vehicle navigation system that is as accurate as my phone. Perhaps you are having a software issue with yours, I am not sure if your car gets to “learn “ your desired routes. No matter how unreliable my current navigation system is, it’s an improvement over my previous MB.

 

I don't have experience with the MBUX suggested routes. My COMAND system has a pre-cursor to it. You have to tell it where home and work is and then it's supposed to recognize that the vehicle is located on the route between home and work and automatically starts a route guidance. I have this turned off, though, because I don't commute. However, my phone learns my routine or at least it seems to think it knows where I'm going, but I find these learning algorithms to be very flawed. They don't really work in my experience, unless you have a very consistent routine or maybe I'm just not predictable enough, but my phone regularly thinks I'm going somewhere specific because I've gone there in the past a few times on specific days and times, but I'm going somewhere completely different. The simple truth is they can't read your mind.

 

Coming from a GM product using Navteq software, I initially found the MB system to be very odd about the routes it picked. I have learned that it takes live traffic in to account and this skews the routs considerably based on estimated travel time, not the best way to get from point A to point B. The accuracy of the traffic reports is questionable and I feel is the main reason for weird routing occurrences.

 

Funny thing is MB runs Navteq effectively. Navteq was bought by Nokia, renamed to HERE and then sold to a consortium made up of Daimler, BMW and Audi. It's much more than just map data now. Live traffic etc. is all powered by HERE. The accuracy of the traffic reports depends on where you live and the quality of the source where it comes from. The more Mercedes vehicles on the road, the more accurate it gets as well, because they send traffic information back to the mothership. Around here, the traffic data is pretty much spot on. I often compare the routes between the MB navigation and Google Maps and they largely come up with the same routes based on current traffic patterns.

https://www.here.com/

 

I used to have the problem where the car would try to guide me home every time I got in (even if I was near home). It's been a couple of years now but I seem to recall a setting buried somewhere within the Nav options. Some settings aren't super easy to find if I remember well, when you go to the gear icon within the Nav screen you get a list of options, but there are more advanced options and even a few non-obvious horizontal tabs (not within the same popup menu, but next to it) that you can select to get additional options. Sorry I can't be more clear, not in front of the car now

Regarding strange routes, also within the options make sure you don't have anything selected like "avoid tolls, avoid highways, avoid unpaved roads" etc.

 

That would explain a lot. I'm out in the country of Pennsylvania, so traffic data would likely be unreliable.

 

Sorry, I should have been a little clearer.

The function I’m referring to is probably more accurately called suggested destinations.

The routes the nav uses when you select a destination is fine.

The problem is every suggested destination is home no matter the time of day and or where I’m actually heading.

MBUX is supposed to learn your habits and suggest a route, say you go to training after work every Tuesday it’s supposed to recognise that and then suggest that destination on Tuesdays.

I have checked the settings and the function is enabled - can’t remember exactly what it’s called.

I’ve also tried resetting the entire system with a new user profile and it hasn’t made any difference.

 

So, I just checked what the owners manual says, and I think there might be a misunderstanding with how this feature works. I believe the suggested destinations are actually destinations you previously navigated to and not just drove to without actually using navigation. So with your example if you put your gym in as a destination and start route guidance every Tuesday, then eventually it should start suggesting your gym as a destination for future navigations. But it doesn't learn your habits from just driving around. The latter is how it works on smartphones. They keep track of where you've been and if they see you visit the same place regularly, they start suggesting that as a destination to route to, or give you expected travel times when you leave. For example as soon as my iPhone connects to the car's Bluetooth it displays a notification with driving time to the likely destination I'm heading based on where it has observed I usually drive to on that day and time, or an upcoming calendar event with a location. But it doesn't sound like that's what suggested destinations does in the MBUX. The MBUX just learns when you are actually navigating to specific destinations.

 

Thanks.

That makes sense - I’ll give that a try and see if the suggestions improve if I use navigation more consistently.

 

It will never be anywhere near as good as Apple / Google Maps or Waze. I had posted about this in the past. The maps are out of date in major cities and they still haven't updated changes on major interstate highways that are now 4 years old.

 

I agree and voice searches are way behind as well. It’s a nice looking map but not reliable.
My 2020 GLE 450 had the “backtracking’ function that set a return course to home but it’s missing in my 2021 GLE 53. I never found it helpful because Live Traffic was routing me off of main roads to secondary ones that were lower speed limits and often poor traffic flow. Usefulness probably varies by area.

 

I think I understand what you are asking. It will learn the route but you have to have a destination address entered (or selected ) on the navigation map. If you don’t have a destination entered, in my HUD (left panel) it will show me how to get home (I have my home address entered as my home location). It will not automatically know where you want to go without entering an address.

 

The accuracy of the maps depends on where you live I guess. They are spot on here and the result of new road construction is quickly added to the maps and disseminated to the cars via OTA and manual online updates. There are still a number of things the MB and other in-car navigation systems do better than any of the phone apps. First off, they are much better integrated with the car, showing information not only in the center screen, but also in the instrument cluster and/or HUD. I know AA and CarPlay can show some information on an auxiliary display if supported by the car, but it's pretty much limited to turn-by-turn directions. With the MB system I can have turn-by-turn directions as well as a smaller detailed map in the instrument cluster and for example a zoomed out overview in the center display to see the whole route and what the traffic situation is like on the entire route. Secondly, lane guidance is much better with the MB system. It's even aware of express lanes and guides you in and out of them in the right places. Google Maps is barely aware of HOV lanes. Offline navigation is another thing. The car navigations work whether you have cell coverage or not. The phone apps range from unusable, to barely usable if there's no connection. There's only one free phone app that has proper offline support and ironically that's HERE Maps, the same tech that's powering the MB system.

One of the benefits for me is also that the car navigation system is always there. I can have the map open on the center screen to see the traffic in my area at all times, so I can use my local knowledge to get around congestions when I see them. Along the same note, it also continuously keeps an eye on traffic and announces over the speakers if there's a traffic event, congestions or toll station coming up, even if I'm not actively navigating. Especially the traffic events and congestion warnings have alerted me a few times to take a different route when I wasn't looking at the map and not realizing that I was heading for an issue.

But just in general, I regularly compare routes between the MB system and Google Maps when I head out and they largely come up with the same routes. The MB system actually has re-routed me on some alternate routes that I wasn't even aware of, and Google Maps never considered for some reason. Just yesterday I was driving home and there was an accident on the Interstate closing two lanes. Google Maps said to stay on the highway, but the MB navigation re-routed me around it on local roads. Don't know if I really saved any time in the end, but it's probably not a good idea to keep going on the highway knowing that there are lane closures up ahead. It can likely get worse by the time you get there.

 

Android Auto works in areas without Cell Service…my GMC truck, Audi & Mercedes all seem to get basic route guidance off of Satellite. Central Nevada has very little Cell signal. You lose POI & search but there’s nothing much there anyway except for gas stops. You can also download a map of your route but I haven’t ever felt the need. In the last 2 years I’ve been in 9 Western States and can’t find a hiccup with AA but lots of them with M maps. For the most part it’s rural areas but even in large cities AA works better for me. A lot of times it’s not point to point Nav that I need but maybe finding an off route destination in a strange city. Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake, Las Vegas & Denver no problems with AA. It also works the same way no matter what car I’m driving. To each his own!

 

Just to clarify. If you have an active route, then Google Maps will continue to route you on the original route, even without a cell signal, but miss a turn and it won't be able to re-route you. You'll have to find your own way back to the original route. You can also not start an entirely new route w/o a cell signal unless you previously stitched together enough overlapping offline areas between your current location and the destination. If there's a gap anywhere it can't calculate a route. I've been there numerous times when we take my wife's car on a road trip into remote areas. Usually I can't route my way back until I'm back in an area with cell reception, but for those cases I have HERE Maps on my phone as well.

As far as finding places goes, do you know that you can send destinations to the car directly from the phone? For example on iOS I can send a destination to the car directly from Google Maps or any other app. Just need to tap Share, then tap the Mercedes Me app and it sends it to the car either via Bluetooth if I'm already in the car or over the Internet and then it pops up on the screen from where the route guidance can be started. That's actually what I do most of the time. I rarely look up destinations directly in the car, although if I do I can usually find them, too, as it does an online search if there's a connection. But sending the destinations to the car ahead of time before I even get in is super convenient. Once in the car it takes one click to start the route guidance. I even created a shortcut routine on my phone that let's me pick an upcoming calendar event and send the location to the car. Two taps on the phone, a click in the car and I'm on my way to my next appointment.

 

I can’t image ever needing to change Nav in an area without cell service but I suppose it happens. With AA I can fire pff a request using Google Assistant for just about anything I want and there is always Cell in 95% of the West. For example-in Vegas my wife wants to go to Total Wine returning from the car wash. Or we decide to stop at a Loves, Chevron, etc. quick Nav request and it’s done. If there are multiple locations I get a list and the distance to each. Mercedes is slow and more often than not makes me repeat the request or can’t help at all.
With Android any reservations for Plane, Hotel or even AB&B are entered in my Calendar and pop up as destination selections. On a trip to Tahoe last summer it gave me my Reno Hotel as a choice as AA booted leaving town. When I left Reno it popped up my AB&B destination in Tahoe on screen. One tap and Nav starts. I could go on all day but for my needs there is no comparison. After my last Mercedes firmware update I can now toggle back and forth between AA and Mercedes Nav but it doesn’t always work all day for some reason.

 

Yeah, they are all good options, and it's good to have them both. I have an iPhone and I do use CarPlay and Google Maps if it suits the situation better. I personally like not to put all my eggs in one basket. Generally, I just find it less convenient to first have to connect my phone to use CarPlay. If MB supported wireless, I might use it more. Also with MBUX what would bother me a lot is the lack of full screen. At least with COMAND in my car, CarPlay is full screen and taking full advantage of the nice widescreen display.