Every major company is moving toward satisfying the younger generations from a technology point of view. What you state is absolutely true.

 

TestnDoc--
Do you still have IHeart Radio as an option?


I just spoke to MBrace. Last Friday IHeart radio disappeared on my internet radio option list.


MBrace told me today they have removed IHeart Radio and they don't know when they will add it back as an option.


Just want to know if anyone else currently had IHeart Radio as an option

 

About a week ago, when MBrace sent an update for Internet Radio to my car, I saw the TuneIn and iHeartRadio logos. At that time I tried to connect to iHeartRadio to see if it would work and I got nowhere.

 

From Monday through midday today my TuneIn radio was working almost perfectly. Then I made a call to follow up on when MBrace will get the driving journal fixed. Within 2 hours I lost all the options of internet radio so that I now have no internet radio options in my car.


MBrace and MBrace Management must be so screwed up. They are nice people but my car was delivered on 9/12 and we are still dealing with the same issues. I bet I have talked to someone from MBrace every other day since 9/12 and it is now 10/22. Either the technology is so screwed up with MBrace or the management is so bad or both. Again nice people when you call in but the end result is horrendous. In fact the lady I just spoke to at MBrace said "Wow, I can see you have called very frequently". At this point I am starting to wonder if they are purposefully sabotaging me/car just to **** me off! It sure seems like it. The internet radio is really a great option when it works. But in order to keep it working I have called every day or every other day for approximately a month and a half. CRAZY!!! Obviously I want it to work since I used it for a 1.5 years in my '14 S Class and got used to using it.

 

IHeart radio is no longer an option in my car. Bummer!!

 

I concur 100%.

I had a similarly fantastic experience with the MBrace emergency response after and accident and love that functionality. I also very much love driving my '14 C300, but being in the younger crowd, 31, I can't help but sit baffled at what MB is doing with their in car tech.

The speed of anything Internet in their cars is just insanely too slow. There is just no excuse for this. They need to either pull the cars up to LTE or allow users to tether their phones or something. The Internet shouldn't be so poor in a modern car.

It is crazy that in a BMW I can have access to an array of Internet audio options from services I use regularly, like Deezer, but on my MB I'm only allowed TuneIn and (at some point) IHeartRadio. Not to mention no other real "Apps".

I hope they get this sorted soon. As you are correct to mention that this is a major problem for them grabbing us in the younger demographic. As I expect something close to Tesla's capabilities in my Mercedes. Let me close my moon roof from my phone and have fast connectivity...

 

Im confused, I keep reading that 4G LTE will be offered as an option in 2015, even 2014 in some articles.... whatever happened with that? I have a MY16 S63 on order, would be a shame to have 3G in that

 

No confusion here. This is the worst part of the '14, '15, and '16 S Class cars.


My '14 S550 4matic and my '16 S550 4matic have 3G and it is essentially worthless with one exception. I use the TuneIn and Iheart internet radio frequently and it works most of the time with some buffering issues from time to time due to the 3G. But forget it if you want to use the WIFI hotspot--it does not work well.

 

Mercedes needs to offer some kind of upgrade for us, having 3G on a 2016 $200k car is embarrassing.

 

The internet radio is a joke. I listen to a lot of old time polka and German music. Most is available on Tunein. Most of the time it says buffering and then I get a few min of music and then back to buffering. I activated the WIFI and connected my smart phone to it. I ran a speed test and best I got was 20kbs ! That doesnt even come close to a old fashioned dial up connection! I now use my smart phone to get the tunein station I want and then turn on bluetooth and go to media and stream my phone audio to the Mercedes radio. Works great!.
Odd that my cell phone has better internet connection that my $100,000.00 Auto.

 

I doubt it's even 3G, it's edge at best! Complete junk

 

I don't have Mbrace. I turn on my hotspot on my phone and I can do everything except internet radio that requires Mbrace. Instead I use Pandora on my phone and have no issues via Bluetooth.

 

It is 3G. It could be 4G/LTE and still equally slow. Never heard of subscription based throughput control?

 

Not sure I would agree that the internet radio is a joke. Of course, this depends on the day of the week whether either Iheart radio or Tunein radio is working in my car.


I have used the internet radio pretty successfully in my '14 S and my '16 S. But I have gotten to know the tier 2 tech support people at MBrace because I have been persistent to get it to work. It is now working "almost" flawlessly for me.

 

So, to get this to work do you start with the dealer or Mbrace? The dealer shows no interest in fixing it and says that is about the way it works.. Mbrace sent a update to it but it made no difference at all.

 

I have only dealt with MBrace. Back in early 2014 not long after my '14 S was purchased, I tried the dealer route. The dealer did a flash update of the software but that did nothing. I was very persistent with MBrace and finally got the internet radio to work on the '14 (although periodically it would do the buffering thing which drove me nuts).


Then my '14 S was totaled in an auto accident in June and I order a '16 S delivered in early September. It took me about 7 to 8 weeks of almost daily calling to get the internet radio and the driving journal to work. MBrace has three (I think) supervisors in tier 2 tech support and I work very closely with one of them. Before getting to the supervisors however I was almost getting nowhere with the customer service reps. In my opinion they have management issues in MBrace since it took me soo long to get to someone who could actually follow-up with me to ensure things were working. It really was a pain but I really want the technology to work as advertised. Finally it is working "almost" flawlessly. Every once in a while it does hang up and the screen goes blank. I simply then hit the "backspace" button and try it again in about 5 minutes or so and usually it will work. Of course it sometimes does do the buffering thing as well but I have learned to be patient with it. I believe a big part of this issue is tied to the slow internet connection. I love the internet radio so I have learned how to be patient with it. I would bet most people are not as persistent and just simply give up. My nature is to dig my heels in and "make" it work by driving people like MBrace crazy over all my calls to them--but I finally got some ones attention and the supervisor told me I helped them solve a problem they were having with the driving journal.

 

I'm still getting a grip on the internet connection process. When I activate the hotspot on my phone, all the MB apps work with the exception of the MB Internet radio. Is it true you must have Mbrace for the MB Internet radio to work? I have been using Bluetooth to stream what I need from my phone to the system. Is there anything I'm missing ? I no longer have my trial Mbrace subscription active.
Anyone have any tricks and tips ?

 

Yes you need an MBrace subscription for the internet radio to work.


So your MBrace Apps don't work when you do not have your hotspot on your phone on. Is that correct? Interesting--since I did not think your phones internet connection in the US could connect this way to the S Class.


Beginning with the 2016 mode year S Class the MBrace Apps are free for 5 years. The internet radio is by subscription basis after the trial period.


Since you don't have an active MBrace subscription, I would not think that any of your apps would work but maybe you discovered a back door here.

 

All my Apps DO WORK with the exception of Internet radio when I use my Sprint HOTSPOT. I now stream Pandora and others via Bluetooth to get around that.

 

Maybe when Mercedes Me goes live in US this year, we can have better access via smart phone. https://app.secure.mercedes-benz.com/app/#/home

 

Just to clarify, Mercedes Me is active via a PC and MBrace does have an app that ties to Mercedes Me but it does not look like the one you have posted. So maybe there is a major upgrade coming.

 

I just connected through the UK and it worked for a few mins then got an e-mail they removed me Was fun for the moment.
https://me.secure.mercedes-benz.com/...vZ0FBIS9nQSEh/

 

Also the google maps APP has been shut off effective 12/31/15

 

I have literally ongoing problems getting connected with my 2015 S550. I've had it to two different dealers and get repeated messages that say they're unable to connect. Why won't MB just say it doesn't work on a $125000 car. Is anyone else having problems?

 

Ditto all the software issues with mbrace on my 2015 S63. I had it at the dealer all week, and they apparently couldn't replicate the problems. When I picked up the car, I tried connecting while still in the parking lot and got the message that the connection was unavailable. And they of course still don't know what to do about it.

This service is truly an embarrassment. I've had bouts of it actually working for a few weeks at a time only to fail for weeks at a time. The dealer can't fix it, nobody on the phone can fix it, everyone seems to have an excuse for why it's such terrible service.

I'm convinced that most North American drivers have just given up on it. Which is I think what I'll end up doing. Sigh.