Yogi-Bear

i swear I tried that before and nothing changed. But you’re right, unticking those two options - helpfully* named “Road layout preview” and “Speed limit preview” - works perfectly and turns the too smart for itself pAAC back into just smart enough AAC. *not really.

They are playing catch-up... but that's not an uncommon thing for Skoda. VAG will want to sell as many VW/Audi branded electric cars at higher prices before they start selling smaller, cheaper Skoda ones.

The good ol' internal combustion engine rules it out for me. My next car in a few years will be electric, of that I have no doubt at all.

Nope. Or, at least, I've not found any way to do so - and believe me, I've looked.

Totally agree. Not only is the nav data pants in my bear when it comes to speed limits, it’s made worse by the sign “recognition” camera (which is mentioned in the article as part of the system) - it consistently picks up speed signs on side roads (i.e. signs at 90deg from the direction of travel) or slip roads etc. It practically makes the predictive AAC unusable on certain roads, and if this system used the same sources it would be downright dangerous.

On the CarPlay 'home' screen (the one with the app icons, not the dashboard view) - hit the 'Skoda' app icon. This dumps you back out to the infotainment's CarPlay connection screen. I believe you can swap there, but I've never tried it as mine is the only phone paired with my bear at the moment.

I know this is going off-topic again, and for that I sincerely apologise... but wow. I was going to ask if you suffer from OCD, but then I thought that it's not you... it's that the rest of us have become enormously lazy because we don't even bother thinking about any of that stuff. The car puts the handbrake on and turns everything off itself. Every time I get into the wife's Ka, I have to consciously think what that third pedal is for and how to use it... and that the car isn't moving because I haven't released the hand-brake. And it's only going to get worse - I read somewhere that most driving tests these days are done in automatics, and when you think about the advent of electric cars you realise why. Maybe one day there won't even be a driving test as self-driving cars will become a practical reality, but let's not pull at that particular thread these days. TL;DR - sorry for going off-topic again, but we're all lazy.

That's your first mistake 😉. I'd rather people sat there with their brake lights on and engines stopped.

If you do figure it out, let me know. On my 2nd bear and I haven't used it manually in either over a combined total of nearly 4 years. On the other hand, my wife doesn't like auto hold and so uses the EHB all the time (which annoys the crap out of me as I have to remember to turn auto hold back on when I get in the car, otherwise I end up wondering why the car starts moving again when I take my foot off the brake when stopped!).

Thinking about it... my previous bear definitely had a green tinted windscreen. Wasn't heated though...

Can't say I've noticed the greenish tint... but you certainly can't see any elements or anything in the glass (unlike my wife's '13 plate Ford Ka). Only had to use it once so far, but it worked perfectly and is so much better than just using the blower.

I agree with you... but the Enyaq has gone down the same route. Almost everything is now done on the infotainment screen rather than having physical buttons. It's a definite trend across the industry - but especially with the German manufacturers.

Nearly... the icon goes blue on Auto as well: White beam icon with 'A' inside - system turned on but main beams not on at all Blue beam icon with 'A' inside - system turned on an main beams on Blue icon without 'A' inside - system turned off and main beams on manually

Told you 😁. It only happens at low speed - and it's actually the fog lights that are turning on to provide that, nothing to do with the matrix units. But yes... nice to know someone else is as impressed as I am. There may well be better versions of the system around, but it does the job and it does it very well. I think the only thing that could top it now for me is some sort of night-vision system projected onto the windscreen (I know you can get night-vision systems, but the output of those is all on dash and/or infotainment systems at the moment, neither of which I want to be looking at when driving down dark roads at speed!).

More common than the TDI version that made absolutely no sense whatsoever? Hardly difficult, nor surprising really. More common than other variants? I very much doubt it. More common than R-Line Tiguans? Not a chance... possibly not even more common than the Tiguan R (I've seen several of them already). Gave mine a proper clean yesterday for the first time since... err... getting it 😮. Forgotten how nice it is when shiny. 1,300 miles so far and loving it more and more...

Here you go... couple of things to watch for: 1. At the start of the video, the 'backwards L' shape of the light cone due to the traffic in front, even though it is quite a way ahead. 2. The light against the trees on the right hand side of the road as the oncoming traffic approaches and then passes. GRMN-2021-12-18_18-17-40-exportedVideo.mov

And herein lies the issue I was talking about - trying to turn the damn things off 'auto' is harder than it should be. You have to push forward to turn 'auto' off (but the beams are still on), then pull back to turn the beams off. By the time you've remembered all that and done it, you've blinded the person coming towards you.

In my limited experience so far, very good. Next time I'm out in the dark, if I remember I'll take a diversion down the road near me that I think demonstrates them really well, and post some dash cam footage.

Apologies if I'm asking stupid questions, but you're using them on roads without a central reservation, yes? Just thought I'd check as you mention 'lane'... Anyway, what does or doesn't happen? How do you know it is not detecting cars coming towards you - do they flash at you? As for the manual, yes, it is **** and they really could do with someone who is a native English speaker to translate it, instead of using Google or whatever they have used. The speed thing, based purely on my experience, worked as follows (MAS = Minimum Activation Speed, which I think is 40mph/60kph on UK cars) with the old High Beam Assistant system. Driving < MAS - turn lights to auto, main beam will never switch on Accelerate > MAS - main beam will come on if road is unlit Decelerate < MAS - main beam will stay on if it is already on, but if it turns off, it won't come back on again unless you accelerate > MAS again This system was particularly annoying on roads with lots of slow bends, which is precisely when you need as much visibility as possible. If you met a car coming the other way just as you were slowing for the bend, the main beams would go off and then not come back on again until you were around the bend and accelerating again. With the new matrix LED lights - and this is just me theorising as I haven't found any description or done enough driving at night down dark roads to say for sure - it should be better as the main beams never turn off completely. Once you go > MAS and they activate, then the beam pattern should continually adjust for traffic, but I don't believe the system turns the main beams off completely at any point, even if you drop below the MAS. However, I have noticed that when I have gone from a stretch of unlit to lit road, the beams do turn off no matter what speed you are doing. My assumption is that they would not turn back on again if you went back to unlit roads unless you also exceed the MAS. You can almost see the logic in how these systems have been programmed to work... but they also highlight the problem in any automated driving aids right the way up to full self-driving cars - as humans, we make judgements based on many factors and control our cars and their systems appropriately. To teach an AI system to do this is a massive undertaking, and whilst AI systems will improve and get better, they can never (IMHO) respond as instinctively as a human. But the real problems occur when we cannot control our cars or their systems properly because trying to override the High Beam Assist or whatever is a lot more convoluted than it should be (or is in a car without those systems). Sorry, went off on one there 🙄.

I'd disagree with you, if I'm honest. Maybe it's a bit more difficult for me to judge as the interior bears so little resemblance to the old one (Edition > VRS, so leather > fabric, different headlining and door panels, etc.), but I can't say I've noticed any lowering of standards or quality. The software in the MIB3 is a step backwards... but the materials used in the cabin all seem to be of perfectly acceptable quality.

Yeah... first my dealer knew about mine was when it was sat in Germany waiting for a boat over here. He was a bit shocked too.

Pretty sure it's just standard cloth - same as all the other Kodiaqs. But anthracite instead of grey/cream/whatever it is, obviously. Edit: Oh, and mine has a pretty large slab of see-through material too 😉.

The distinct advantage of LED lights, in my experience, is that they have a very definite edge to them - they're either lighting up a bit of road or they're not. You can clearly see the light pattern change to keep oncoming traffic and cars you're following 'in the dark' whilst still illuminating the road around them. I think they are also quicker to react to oncoming traffic as well, because it appears that the beam pattern starts to alter way before my old bear would dip the lights on auto (and because it's not just full or dipped, there is a better balance between maintaining your visibility and not blinding the oncoming drivers). I'm not assuming it is a perfect system, but on twisty and hilly roads I've not had any complaints from other drivers yet.

No, that just flashes the lights as normal... and is the most annoying thing about the system. If they are set to auto, then only way I can see to turn the main beams off completely is to push forward to set them to permanently on, then pull back to turn them off. If you just push forward, it cycles between auto and permanent. I'm not sure of the speeds for the matrix system (believe it or not, I've not driven enough at night on unlit roads to get to grips with exactly when it turns the beams on/off) - but on my old bear it would turn the main beams on when you got to 40mph, but wouldn't turn them off when you slowed down until you got down to about 20mph if my memory serves me... unless they dipped due to oncoming traffic, but then they wouldn't go back to main beams until you got back over 40mph.

It does indeed. You should have a white main beam symbol with an 'A' in the middle of it on the dash as @CJJE says above. It then turns blue when the main beams come on (above a certain speed (pretty sure it's less than 40mph, but I could be wrong) and on roads that don't have street lights - in my short experience so far). If you push the stalk forward twice, you'll get the blue main beam symbol in the dash without the 'A' - that's basically permanent full beams and not what you want. So far, the system has been excellent. You really can see it shut off / hide the beam incrementally as a car approaches - and blank out a whole section if you're following a car as well. I haven't yet had someone flash me, so it seems like they have been working flawlessly.