Figure 30: Searching the POI Database Near Your Current Position

Another peculiarity with the Mercedes navigation system is that the system displayed different POI categories, depending whether you select "Current Position", "Different City", or "Global Destinations". All three choices produce different lists of categories. Take a look at figure 30, above. This is the list of POI categories displayed when "Current Position" is selected. Compare that list with the categories displayed in figure 29. I can only guess that the category list is being filtered based the POIs that are available within the chosen radius, but it's still odd and adds confusion to an already complex interface.

Figure 31: Searching the POI Database Near Your Current Position

Compared to hard drive or flash memory-based navigation systems, the Mercedes' DVD-based system is slow when performing data-intensive tasks, such as searching the POI database.

Figure 32: Listing the POI Search Results

Once the navigation system completes the lookup for your chosen POI category within the given search radius (in the example above, I selected told the GPS to search for POIs near my current position), the results are displayed in order of closeness. The list can also be re-sorted alphabetically by pressing the Sort soft key. To route to a POI in the results list, scroll down and select the POI using the pushbutton.

Figure 33: Configuring Navigation System Settings

The settings configuration page is accessed via the navigation application's main menu by pressing the "Setting" soft key.

Figure 34: Configuring Routing Preference

Relatively few navigation options can be configured on the Mercedes navigation system. One of the more interesting settings is the "Minimize" menu. This menu allows you to specify how the system should decide which route to take when calculating the route to a destination address. Options include "Minimize Freeways", "Minimize Ferry/Auto-Train", "Minimize Toll Roads", and "Minimize Tunnels". Adding an option to prompt the user for route preferences each time a destination address is entered would have been a nice touch, as would displaying the the estimated arrival times

Figure 34: Configuring NAV Settings

Other configurable NAV options include the ability to set unique volume levels for the navigation prompts and the music.