Bowhunt24

So uh, MB is really taking some liberties calling this FOB a "smart" key, huh? Can't even pair it to a profile or a hard coded seat setting (ie, the 1-2-3 buttons on door). It's just a wireless fob. My sprinkler is smarter.

graffixnyc

My wife got a brand new Honda CRV Hybrid like a week after I got my 2024 GLE. Her key fobs have the number 1 and number 2 on them and depending on which fob is in the car, it adjusts the seats to the memory preferences for that driver automatically. It's actually pretty cool and the first thing I said to my wife was "Why doesn't my MB have this?" So if I get in the car and have my keybob (I'm #2) it automatically adjusts the seats to the position I programmed them to. Also she has driving assistance that helps with steering. Her's you don't have to have adaptive cruise control engaged for it to work (although you have to manually turn it on when you want to use it) unlike the GLE where you have to have adaptive cruise control on for steering assist to work

mikapen

It's a corporate decision by Mercedes, and they claim it's for safety and security reasons.

There may or may not be merit in their position, but we certainly don't see thefts increasing with smart keys like we do with other brands.

Mercedes also resisted implementation of touch screens, for safety reasons. Although I like my touch screen, I have to agree that with MB that it's less safe, because you have to take your eyes off the road.

But I would like to see the different keys select my profile, or at least use my seat settings.

Bowhunt24

I know, even my 2018 yukon has fobs that tie to our seat and mirror positions.

Bowhunt24

What do you mean? They call it "smart" because it has safety and security features, or they don't tie it to user settings for saftey and security reasons? The latter making less sense, but plausible.

mikapen

Hackability, they say.

Example: Hyundai Kia insurance rates are through the roof because of hackable "smart" keys. No, not the YouTube headlight hacks - the keys.

Benzina

Indeed it's most unexpected. I just couldn't believe this was the case with my newly acquired GLE 350 2021.
My Tesla is so much smarter, just get in and the first smartphone that is registered to the car, that is detected sets the driver seat and all the rest of the profile/music accounts/etc... just what you expect to happen.
Now I have to open the door, and then change the seat position using the door memory switch, because the Easy Entry feature on Connect Me doesn't work, and my previous driver wife has the seat all the way to the car roof. I'm tall.

Some strange decisions Mercedes makes. Seems like stubborn reticence to join the modern world.

mosysav

Certainly related to some licence fees that Mercedes don't want to pay. I suspect this is the same reason why BMWs don't have front height adjustable seat belts.

EL-34

100%.
my 12 year old volvo remembers the car settings for each fob and adjusts automatically as I open the door.

mercedes fell asleep at the wheel for this easy convenience. I told my dealership. like they care.

mercedes should take note and wake the **** up. I bet welfare asian cars even have this cheap feature standard now.

Benzina

After some experimenting I found this mitigation of the Smart-less key fob not setting my seat up before I enter, according to a saved Profile that should be paired with the key fob.

Scenario: my wife previous drove car, she has her seat way fwd and up. I cannot get into the car like this at all. For some reason that Easy Entry feature in the Me profile does nothing about this, at least for me to Enter Easily.
Solution: I press seat memory 1, which I previously set up for me. Nothing happens.

Why? Because after some experimentation, I find that the 3 memory seat settings are LOCAL to each profile.
In other words, when you select your Me profile, then ALL THREE memory seat settings are only defined for your profile.
Put differently, the 3 memory seat settings are not global, they are not independent of which profile is currently selected!
When you set seat memory 1, and another profile is selected, that seat memory 1 does not contain YOUR previous setting for memory 1 previously set under your profile.

So the workaround is, my wife set up a memory 2 under her and my profile, and I set up a memory 1 under my and her profile.
NOW, once I unlock and open the car door, whenever I press 1, no matter who drove last, seat memory 1 gets me to where I can at least get in, and then my Profile selection will do the rest.

I think that's the best we can hope for here with this model.

Hope that's clear

Benzina

doing some research on this easy entry/exit feature, because I did notice that the steering wheel did move up during car exit and entry, slightly.
The back down when I got in (I forget when it exactly came down a bit, I know I did not start the car yet.

Anyway, found this tidbit on a UK forum, maybe this explain why the seat is not moving, despite having selected both wheel and seat to move for easy entry, thank you injury lawyers!
https://forums.mbclub.co.uk/threads/.../#post-3053670
where the author said:

stktyz33

Correct, it's also something "Mercedes concierge" people usually try to articulate to people when they take delivery but many people feel overwhelmed at the moment and it doesn't click for them later. It applies to both front seats. Some other gotchas include:

1. You don't need to use that parking brake button as in most cases the car takes care of it.
2. Brakes have the "hold" function that you can engage instead of keep your foot on at all time or putting it into park.
3. Keys are interchange by design and not tied to profiles. The articulated reason was - many people keep the keys in garages or other places and get confused when they grab the wrong key. It was surprising at the beginning as we do have the seat memory -> key fob connection on our Jeep GC. The utility of it is somewhat questionable, though. With the car open in the garage, I often needed to press the button on the door to get it to the position I needed. Additionally, it's somewhat annoying when your family member opens the car with their key just to grab something from the back seat and the seat moves. All-in-all, I don't miss the feature.

The seat and the steering wheel do move on my MY2024 GLE and it's configurable via the MBUX. I.e., you can separately choose to move both, or just the steering wheel or just the seat.

superswiss

There are really two schools of thought to this one. My previous car was an Audi and it tied all the settings to the key fob. Problem with that was I was the only driver and sometimes I just grabbed the spare key, which I kept downstairs in a drawer, but when I did, the settings in the car were different. The climate control wasn't where I left it etc. Basically had to set my "profile" up twice to sort of have consistent settings between the fobs. The Mercedes fobs are interchangeable. You can grab either of the fobs and the settings don't change in the car unless you select a different profile. I prefer this approach.

While my wife doesn't drive my car, I drive her car. Neither of us carries a key ring anymore, so there isn't really a her key and my key situation. Our house keys etc. are digital, so our phones are our keys. The car keys are the only remaining physical keys we carry and sometimes I use "her" key. With settings tied to the key fob, you always have to make sure you grab the same key fob. The other issue with this is if both keys come in range of the car, you don't know which one is gonna determine the settings.

Benzina

Thank you for this, appreciate the insights. Does make sense to me, too. I did not know about 1 and 2 either, so thanks for mentioning these.
Once you explain 3, it also makes sense. I kinda get it now.


OK, mine does not quite see to implement this, even though it's all set up on app and car MBUX the same. Profiles sync'd I think. Still not sure what is going on, because my wife seat settings definitely do put the front seat in front of B pillar.
BTW, I found another youtube comment from a MB dealer service rep where they clarified this legal issue, and that is the seat is no longer allowed to move past the B pillar, but if in front of B pillar, it should move back a bit if enabled under Easy Entry/Exit option.
So I believe for my wife's settings, the seat should move. But it ain't.
Thanks for confirming yours does, maybe I need to play with it a bit more. I think it might have to do with the settings in MBUX for seat comfort, i.e. where they have that computed seat position based on Height.

stktyz33

In my understanding, position based on Height is one-time adjustment that you can trigger whenever, it's not going to maintain it or keep resetting your seat. Having that said, everything related to the seats is super sensitive to WHAT you do in a car at that moment:

1) If there is an obstruction, the seat move will be interrupted. You'll need to click the memory button / reactive the profile again to override.
2) If you put your car into gear too easy, your profile won't be fully applied, which includes the seat position. When the car is back in "P" mode, it may resume and fully apply the profile and adjust the seat.
3) For Easy Exit/ Entry, if you start exiting the car too fast, like, unbuckle the seatbeats / open the door, the process will be interrupted and you seat may end up in wrong position.

Once you know these gotchas, you can easily adjust.

So, if I were you, I'd make sure both seat / steering are enabled in the car, then come to a full stop, put it in park, turn the engine off. If the seat or steering wheel aren't moving, unbuckle the seat belt, wait, open the door. Basically, do it step by step to understand its behavior.

Benzina

Thanks for all this good advice. I did experiment a little today and I did see the wheel and seat move a bit, in fact, the seat moved about 1" forward from my somewhat far to the back position (I am 6'4").
My wife said oh look it is push you forward of B pillar so you can easily get out LOL. Maybe she's right.
Yes I will experiment some more.

But for sure, my wife's profile position is SO close to the dashboard that I figure even for her, wouldn't easy entry mean it should go back a bit? I guess since the car doesn't know it's me at the drivers door, and the seat was last in wife's very close to dash profile, maybe it's not reasonable to have easy entry move the seat so that the seat back is closer or even to B pillar? Dunno.

Also I notice that if I select my Profile, it doesn't automatically select my Theme that I set up. That's the next challenge LOL.

EL-34

I think you intended to post this in the "dumb fob and dumb people" thread.

superswiss

My bad. I must have accidently entered your echo chamber. Or maybe the MB engineers simply managed to think of more than your personal use case. For example are those who share their cars with wife and kids supposed to buy extra fobs so each kid can have their own profile? MB's approach supports more profiles than there are key fobs, and the latest MBUX can use biometric identification via Face ID or fingerprint to recognize the driver.

Benzina

But how to insert yourself into the proper seating position for the Face ID to work, if the seat is way too close?
The solution is like my Tesla... phone key. Have phone pair with Bluetooth in the car, and if the car picks up my wifes phone first, oh well, then I am back where I am now, I have to switch profiles on the touch screen.

superswiss

It doesn't solve that as it's currently implemented. The solution would be to have biometrics on the driver's door. The phone solution is no different from a fob. They both use proximity detection. Identity shouldn't be tied to a device, it should be tied to the person. I'm wondering how many people even share a Mercedes-Benz. The typical target customer likely has his and her Mercedes-Benz. While I do drive my wife's car sometimes, she has hers and I have mine, and that's partly because her car is more her size.

Benzina

Fingerprint recognition on drivers door would be nice, and the most robust in terms of exactly isolating who is getting into the drivers seat (vs the confusing scenario of two phones or two smart fobs coming into range at the same time).
Wonder how robust it would be to the elements though. Maybe NFC scan by phone to door reader instead? My Pixel phone has NFC.

I don't know if I know the target customer persona, but my wife and I both drive our Tesla and our GLE 350, depending on the task at hand. Long commutes use Tesla thanks to super cheap electron filling station in our garage.
Mercedes for shorter trips so we can bath in the luxury of ionized and perfumed air in nice massage seats. And we take many trips together, randomly, so the seats are always screwed with respect to the next driver coming up.

superswiss

There are fingerprint readers that can be put below glass, so environmental factors should be minimized. It could even be a PIN code as well. Some American cars have a keypad on the doors to unlock it w/o a key. That's similar to my smart locks at my house, so it detects who is actually coming home and unlocking the door as long as every family member has their own PIN.

Benzina

Yes but those keypads seen on old Ford trucks are not seen on modern vehicles here. I had one. Good experience. I have pin to unlock Tesla drive away.

I'd settle all of this with a good easy entry exit solution, which the GLE does not have.

superswiss

I thought Lincoln still has them. They are now touchpads integrated into the B-pillar that light up. Yeah, easy entry/exit is supposed to fix this. Not sure what's going on with the GLE in this regard. As I understand, moving the seat is disabled in some markets due to the potential of rear passengers getting getting their feet crushed.

Benzina

Interesting, haven't seen a Lincoln up close in forever.
I liked it on my Ford back in the 90s but vastly now prefer Tesla phone key as the new standard.

But GLE is so nice to be in, I don't feel the slightest desire to replace it with another Tesla. Even with these entry and mbux clunkiness, I love the Mercedes cabin. My last Mercedes was a S500 in 1997.