zitsky

2020 S560 with 2023 map. I try both short and fast routes and sometimes neither makes sense compared to my iPhone / CarPlay. Does anyone else agree. I like using it but sometimes it’s just dumb.

The live traffic is kind of cool. I did a test routing where it popped up a change right away.

My nav drives my partner crazy though.

superswiss

I essentially have the same COMAND system with 2023 maps in my car and I have no issues with the routing. I always use fastest route. It largely comes up with the same routes as Google Maps. I usually check the route on my phone first before I leave to know how long it takes and what the traffic is like, so I have a baseline for what to expect and the MB system gets me there on mostly the same routes in the same time.

There are a few places where it prefers one highway over an other and I usually disregard it and simply take the other way. It's more of a personal preference, because one has better pavement than the other. It doesn't make a difference to the travel time, but Google Maps seems to prefer the same highway that I prefer. The MB system has actually come up with some interesting detours when the main routes were congested. Instead of following everybody else to equally congested alternate routes with Google Maps, the MB navigation routed me around all the Google Maps users clogging the other alternate routes.

Having said that, built-in navigation systems generally follow the pecking order of roads. Meaning they prefer main arteries until you are near your destination, before it starts taking smaller side streets for the last mile. That's generally more effective, because the main arteries are built to handle the traffic. Google Maps and Waze in particular don't follow this and often route you through even residential streets. While this may feel faster at times, it often isn't actually faster, because those roads were not designed to handle the traffic. It's become a real issue in some neighborhoods, where these apps are routing commuter traffic through streets that can't really handle it and bring car traffic to neighborhoods that used to be quiet and free of traffic.

Waze for example got me badly stuck in San Francisco one time. It insisted I get off the highway and take city streets. It had me make unprotected left turns, but completely failed to take into account the rush of pedestrians that made it almost impossible to make the turns. I had to sit through several traffic light cycles before I could make the turn. Waze thought it would be faster, because the traffic going straight on those roads flowed relatively well, but it essentially had no data about how problematic the left turns were. After that experience, I uninstalled Waze. I generally don't drive during busy times as I have the luxury to not drive, but if I do have to go somewhere local and the roads are busy, I do use Google Maps when it comes up with a better route. It's good to have options.

zitsky

Thanks for that comment superswiss. I don’t mind taking a different way. My partner might get on his phone and say AHA SIRI SAYS GO THE OTHER WAY.

Does Mercedes-Benz offer marriage counseling? I did say he’s a BMW driver.

superswiss

Haha...people like that remind me of folks who followed their preferred GPS and ended up driving into a lake. There are some good stories out there of these apps being completely wrong. I usually use Google Maps in rental cars when I travel, now that pretty much all of these have CarPlay, so I don't have to mess with an unfamiliar Infotainment system or one that isn't personalized to me. Most recently we did a trip to Seattle with a rental BMW, and Google Maps on numerous occasion wanted me to turn onto closed roads, or even one-way streets in Seattle downtown. I was actually somewhat surprised by how poorly it performed. So the takeaway is that none of these systems are perfect and YMMV depending on where you drive.

Sactownmb

No, I don’t like the navigation system. It’s the one thing I don’t like or use on the car.

superswiss

That's understandable. With a 2018 your maps are not kept up to date and live traffic has been discontinued on the old mBrace platform. Your navigation is outdated and dumb at this point.

95Sinned420

I've updated to the latest map version for my car and of course it's still outdated compared to Google / Apple maps. No other system will be more up to date than those two. Yes, the routes suck and traffic isn't as updated as Apple Maps via Car Play. I don't ever use the car's navigation system unless I'm in an area with no service for Apple Maps. Now, with the new iOS 17, there are offline maps I pre-download areas where I frequent that do not have service (such as going to Yosemite) and have no reason to ever use the car's navigation. It's just outdated in all aspects.

Lou B

I cannot think of any problems with my 2018 S560, other than my input errors.

S_W222

The amount of research and development that goes into Google Maps and Apple Maps is huge, and the factory navigation would never be as good or accurate as either those. Since the car has CarPlay/Android-Auto, I would simply use those. I used the Mbenz Navigation strictly when I am on highway short routes and I know the exact destination and route, just so I also get the HUD animation.

People might try to sell you on the idea that you need to update your car navigation, but that's not the issue, it's the map data itself and it's compiled compared to Google or Apple maps. I've had/owned 7 different car brands since 2020, and the only cars that have excellent factory navigation were BMW and Tesla. Mbenz navigation sucks. Lexus and Honda had the worst navigation followed my Lincoln/Ford.

superswiss

Not sure people know that there's a separate company behind the maps and the navigation platform called HERE. HERE is the former Navteq company, which is one of the major digital map providers and supplies much of the industry. Google started out using the maps from Navteq. BMW uses the same map data as Mercedes, because together with Audi, the three own HERE after Nokia sold them off. HERE is now a leading provider of high precision maps for self-driving cars.

S_W222

That's true but doesn't change the fact that this is still different from one car to another. It is more about how each software and vehicle process the map data itself, which is even more important that the accuracy of roads and map data. If they were processing the data the same, you would see the same exact route and ETA estimates, but that's not the case. There are many times when Mbenz navigation tried to take me through an exit that takes a less than ideal route, when Google or Apple maps would have otherwise chosen a better route, same as the one I'd personally choose. Another example where Mbenz fails even though the map data source is the same, is predicting driver's behaviors based previous trends.

In summary, it is how the car software allows you to interact with, and for Mbenz it is not even close to Google Maps - even though the underlying road map data is the same. A real example from two great systems working together: Google’s data informs Tesla’s navigation - but does NOT provide the detailed driving data which Tesla excels so much on. On the other hand, Mbenz fails to master anything other than getting the Map data itself, which is something the BMW does better than Mbenz. MBUX vehicles bring some improvements, but still not as good as Google/Apple/BMW/Tesla... and am surprized that a company like Mbenz fall that far behind others in this area.

mercedesbuff

I prefer to use MB Navigation, as I've found the dynamic traffic rerouting to be highly worthwhile. That said, my wife prefers Google Maps and will often chime in as copilot with "But, Google says to go this way..." To avoid the pain of disagreeing with her, I just silently note the current ETA and remaining distance on the MB Navigation, before I deviate to follow my wife's route. I leave the MB Navigation running, so I have a baseline for comparison. The most recent time this happened, the MB Navigation indicated 6 minutes and 3.1 miles remaining. Once I deviated to follow the Google Maps suggestion, the MB Navigation updated to indicate 6 minutes and 5.4 miles remaining. So, I can now say that I have 2.3 unnecessary miles on my odometer, since our ETA didn't improve at all, but my marriage is still intact.

For some reason, I just can't seem to imagine a German as a marriage counselor. On the other hand, perhaps their advice might be worth a try... "Vee Ah Gehman, and vee know bettuh vhat you vant zhan you do..." Anyone who owned a W126 or W124 and remembers the climate control knows what I mean.

SW20S

I never have it navigate, Google Maps or Waze for me.

superswiss

I'm not sure how many are aware of this, but Goolge Maps by default now uses the most fuel efficient route if the ETA doesn't change that much from the fastest route, so you can get very different routes on Google Maps than the MB navigation system. Doesn't mean one is better than the other, just a question of which data points each algorithm prioritizes. There's a lot of subjectivity in these discussions, often from folks who have never written complex software in their life.

SW20S

I don’t need to write software to know what software I prefer.

superswiss

Correct. That doesn't mean you understand the software you prefer and why it does what it does. There's nothing wrong with preferring the Google routing algorithm, but that doesn't mean the MB routing algorithm is bad. It just makes different decisions.

SW20S

Nor do I need to or care to.

"Bad" is relative. To the OP he doesn't like how it routes vs Google Maps, so to him yes its bad. You may prefer that so to you, its good. I personally haven't used it enough to have any opinion on how it works, I just don't see any reason to even try it when I'm happy with Google Maps. Only benefit to me is the route mapping when there is no cell signal, which does impact me every once and a while.

superswiss

Yep, however that's not really the tone many of the posts here take. People like you dismiss the MB navigation system w/o really having much experience with it. It's mostly prejudice.

Lou B

You mean OP = Other Person!?!?!?!?!

Well, how about that/?!?!?!?!

At my age, I'm still learning. Not much of importance, but still!!!

SW20S

I don't dismiss it, I just don't care enough about it to try it. Its navigation, what I use works and I just don't have any interest in trying something else when I like Google Maps. I was very clear that I don't have enough experience with the MB nav to say whether I like the way it routes or not. I don't understand why you get so defensive about it. if you like the MB navigation, use it. . I like Google Maps, I use that. I might like the MB Navigation, but I don't care...what I use and know works fine.

C Swenson

"OP" means Original Poster (person who started the thread). In this case, zitsky.

zitsky

I wouldn’t say I hate it. Just that it makes funny choices sometimes. My husband will use his 2010 BMW nav in our downtown area because not much has changed.

I still plan to use MB Nav on my 6 hour round trip this week.

SW20S

If you use any navigation in areas you know well, they will all at times make funny routing choices. I use Google Maps for most driving to have the ETA and the traffic info, but if I am driving around where I know I tend to ignore the suggested route