[AMG KLR]

Hi all. My F36 comes with surround view and rear camera. However it seems very inconsistent on how to get the top view to come up.

When I reverse the rear camera comes on. However when I click PDC nothing happens. I have to put the car in park and then click the P multiple times to get it to appear. When I shift into reverse, the top view then switches back to the camera, making it effectively useless. I also have the side view camera button above the PDC button

Can someone who is more experienced please explain how to enter and exit surround view without pulling my hair out? I just took delivery of the car 2 days ago so bear with such a simple question

[rlmesq]

Welcome to "safety features" that make things like surround view and variable light distribution unusable.

The display automatically switches to the backup camera when you put the car in reverse. That's because backup cameras have been required on all new cars sold in the USA since 2018.

On older F3x cars, you could just press the iDrive controller to switch from reverse to PDC/top down mode. Now, you have to shrift from reverse to drive, then move the iDrive controller to the left and tick the checkbox for PDC in the upper left of the screen. Of course, if you're parallel parking, it will switch back to backup camera when you put it in reverse again.

I think other other countries have similar laws. As far as I can tell, there's no coding to make switching easier.

[Skyhigh]

rlmesq That is not entirely true.

Yes, older model-years allowed selecting what to go to when putting in reverse. Now the default is rear view camera, which is annoying.

However you don't need to shift from reverse to drive to enable surround view! Once in reverse, with the default rear view camera, you move the idrive controller to the left and enable surround view. Still annoying, as it requires extra actions, but you can then reverse with surround view instead of the rear view camera.

Another trick I practice when maneuvering (whenever possible of course) is to first get closer to an obstacle in the front, this automatically enables PDC in surround view. Then I put in reverse and surround view remains active.