alancha

This is interesting to me as I too have noticed that the dipped beam seems high. In fact, if I switch from dipped to main (i.e. auto) beam, when I'm behind another car, I see the beam lower from more-or-less level with the bottom of the back window, to well below that. I too get flashed even when driving on dipped beam. I've almost completely given up relying on the automatic matrix mode on normal roads now as find I'm being flashed all the time. If I see another vehicle approaching on the other side, I dip the lights as I always would have done in the past. I included this issue in my complaint to Skoda UK about software issues (mostly ACC, which is now fully fixed) but they wanted me to have my lights checked at a dealer. However, my local dealer doesn't have the required equipment to do this and I'd have had to take it about 50 miles away to find one that did, so I'm afraid I gave up on that and just accept that the matrix headlights don't really work as claimed.

Interesting - I'm getting that a lot too, despite it not being long since I last changed the battery. I don't get it anything like every time I start the car though.

OK - so that's what I wondered, although I don't think the manual makes it clear what's sensitivity is affected by this setting. Having changed the setting I'll see if it makes any difference although it may be a week or two before I get a good chance to try it properly. I wish I could be sure of that!

As it happens, a few days ago I did look at the settings and changed this one to the most sensitive setting, even though I wasn't completely sure what effect it would have. As it's summer, I haven't driven in the dark again since, so I'll try it again next time I do.

Now that the latest software updates have fixed many of the more serious problems with my car (ACC etc), I'm now more aware that the matrix headlights still don't work as I thought they were supposed to. I've discussed this before with my dealer, who told me that in his personal experience of Skoda and a couple of other manufacturers' cars with this feature, they don't respond fast enough to be satisfactory on single-carriageway roads. This confirms my experience in the 18 months I've owned the car that they work well on motorways etc. but on single-carriageway roads I find I'm being flashed frequently if I rely on them, so now always manually switch main-beam off when I see an approaching vehicle (just like I have on all other cars I've ever driven). I'm left wondering if they really are working as designed or not. There's a youtube video on the Skoda UK site showing them in use on a single-carriageway road, so clearly Skoda's marketing department think they are intended for such roads. However, if you watch the video closely (perhaps at reduced speed) from 0:24 to 0:26, you see that it takes a couple of seconds before the headlights adjust the beam for the oncoming car, during which time that driver would be dazzled. I think the problem illustrated by this video is that they (a) don't anticipate the other car coming round the bend the way we would (because we'd see its lights before the car itself appeared) and (b) even when the car is in full view it take a second or two to respond. I suppose my questions is, am I expecting too much of this feature or should I continue to press Skoda Customer Relations over the fact that it doesn't work as advertised? This is the video:

At last - after 18 months - the latest software updates seem to have fixed the major problem with ACC - the way it would often refuse to pass a slower vehicle in a lane to my left. Hooray!!! So, now it's working, I tested it for almost the whole of a 400 mile round trip on motorways last weekend and I noticed something that seems less than ideal and could surely be easily fixed with - dare I say it - another software update. If you're behind another car that is going slower than the speed you've set on the cruise control then of course your car keeps to their speed until they move out of the lane. This is correct behaviour but what is slightly frustrating is that it won't speed up until the other car is completely out of your lane - even if its wheels are still on the dotted line it waits until that car is fully in its own lane before speeding up. If I were in control I would start speeding up as soon as I was sure they would be gone any moment; if they suddenly changed their mind and pulled back out, there'd still be plenty of time to drop back again. This is of course a very minor irritation but the opposite scenario could be more serious. You're travelling at your chosen speed and then a car pulls into your lane in front of you, too close and going slower than you. The ACC correctly responds by slowing down and backing off to increase the gap but it only does so once the car in front is fully in your lane. On several occasions I've had to touch the brakes to manually slow down because I can see a car entering my lane that the ACC hasn't got around to responding to; if I hadn't done so, I'd have ended up uncomfortably close to that car until ACC eventually responded. So it seems ACC is programmed to respond to a lane change in front only when it's been fully completed. In one direction it's mildly frustrating but in the other direction it has the potential to be dangerous. Has anyone else noticed this?

Well, as I've posted a lot over the last year and a half on various issues, especially ACC, I thought I'd better report that my dealer applied all the updates he could find for my car a couple of weeks ago, which has updated the level shown on the screen as 1896. He told me specifically that one of the fixes should cure the ACC problem (sometimes not passing slower traffic in a lane to my left). I've had a couple of weeks to test it now, including a round trip to the Lake District (from Hampshire) and a couple of more local motorway trips. So I've probably done at least 500 miles on motorways with ACC and can confirm that so far it has worked perfectly - at last. As others have reported, the Infotainment screen seems slightly more responsive too, a weird problem with Waze and Carplay has resolved itself (although that may have been a Waze update, I suppose) and so far no-one has flashed me when using the Matrix headlights on main beam, so I think they're working properly too. Furthermore, the Satnav now remembers favourites and recent destinations. I haven't had the SOS problem for a long time so I think that was fixed in an update earlier in the year. So, it seems that, although I would say there are many serious design flaws in the system, it is now at least working as designed. Thank goodness! One more thing, which may be my imagination. I have always found the noise generator annoying, so always a choose a drive mode that has it switched off. However, a few times recently when I haven't done so my impression has brrn that that noise generator is less intrusive, so I wonder if they've fine-tuned that a bit in the update?

No - in fact I've had it in various places in Hampshire and beyond. However, it's interesting you said that, as I have found odd behaviour with satnav (not just Waze) giving completely wrong locations sometimes but I've only noticed it when within a mile or two of the AWE. As I live nearby it's not a problem but the satnav has sometimes shown me driving across fields etc., on the way home.

I know this thread is quite old but it didn't seem to reach any real conclusion... I too have had this problem occasionally for a long time but, as of about a week ago, it seems to be doing it all the time. There are two symptoms: one is the pinkish hue on the whole WAZE map and the other is serious distortion of the picture to the point where it's unreadable. I can get one or other or both problems, but usually both. It always starts out fine but after a few minutes the symptoms occur. Rebooting the Infotainment usually clears it for a few minutes but then it returns. The attached picture illustrates both problems. Notice that the pop-up messages and the CarPlay navigation icons on the right are displayed correctly - it's only the Waze map that isn't. The problem occurs with the phone wireless or cable connected. My phone is up to date with iOS 15.5. Everything else works perfectly with CarPlay, so I don't think it's a generic CarPlay or Skoda problem but some quirk of the combination of Waze, Carplay and the Skoda Infotainment system. I like Waze but I've been trying the built-in SatNav recently, which isn't as bad as I remembered, although it doesn't remember any previous destinations, which is annoying. I've also been using Google Maps navigation, which works fine through Carplay and will probably be my preferred solution from now on if the Waze problem doesn't go away.

Interesting. I've just removed mine (March 2020, 12000 miles) and it didn't feel at all loose and showed no sign of melting or heat damage. By the way, I did feel the message on the Infotainment screen advising about this was poorly worded and should have included instructions on how to remove it. It would have been useful to know that it just pulls off with no tools required, otherwise some people might make a pointless trip to the dealer just to have them pull it off, when they could easily have done it themselves.

I too use Waze via CarPlay all the time and that pink looking map does look familiar, so I'm pretty sure I have had it in the past, but it's so long ago I can't remember the details nor whether I did anything to make it go away, or it just went away on its own. Sorry - not much help at all!

Quick update on mine: on Friday afternoon we drove on the M4 J11 to J7 followed by the M40 J2 to J1, and then in the evening the M25 J16 to J12 and then M3 J2 to J6. The ACC problem occurred several times on the M4 mostly between J11 and J10, so it definitely hasn't gone away, but it then worked perfectly for the rest of the round trip. Interestingly, that stretch of the M4 has proved particularly troublesome previously, so I agree with some others who feel it may be location dependent to some extent at least. One other thing I noticed on the M4 after I'd moved into Lane 1 just before exiting: I was going faster than a car in the middle lane and ACC was going to allow me to pass it on the left, which it's not supposed to do. I have seen this before and it does support the theory that the car is confused about which side of the road we drive on in the UK, as others have observed.

Yes - I don't have Travel Assist so I haven't seen this particular issue, but many others have. You may already have found it but there's a very long thread on the subject here:

So, I got my car back from several days at the dealer. They told me they'd done two software updates: one to fix the SOS Emergency Call problem (which was only a minor irritation anyway) and the "pop-pop" sound from the speakers when the car loses it's internet connection (which was an even more minor thing). I see the software level shown on the Infotainment has been updated to 1803, whereas it was previously 1788, so clearly something has been done. Anyway, the most interesting thing they told me was they had a technical bulletin from Skoda admitting the existence of the ACC problem and saying they were working on a fix that will be out by Week 25 (i.e. almost the end of June). Considering now long the problem has been around and reported by so many people, this does seem unreasonably slow but at least they're admitting the problem exists, which no-one in Skoda has officially admitted to me up till now. As an aside, they lent me a Superb iV, which was interesting as it's the first hybrid car I've ever driven (and the first Superb I'd driven). The Superb seemed very soft - suspension and steering - even in Sport mode, so not really my cup of tea at all. However, when I got mine back this morning (Octavia vRS petrol), I was blown away by the performance and the responsiveness of the car - just reminding me how much I like my car even despite the software issues.

So, this does seem a very plausible explanation for the ACC problem - I mean the car being confused about which side of the road we're driving on. I and others have discussed this and I felt it may explain several otherwise seemingly unrelated problems as I described here:

I hope it's obvious I meant March 2021!

I hesitate to even suggest this as it seems so improbable... My car has had the ACC problem that many have reported (sometimes refusing to pass a slower vehicle in the lane to my left) since I bought it in March 2020. For this and other issues I'm in contact with Skoda UK customer relations, and in fact right now my car is at the dealer for several days for investigation and updates etc. related to this. A few weeks ago, my Customer Relations person suggested it could be useful if I kept a note of when the various issues occurred, which I started doing on November 30th. In the following few days, the ACC and some other problems occurred frequently - for example on Dec 2nd, the ACC problem happened six times between M3 J6 and J4, and on the 4th again seven times between M4 J11 and J8/9. But since then it hasn't happened once - even though I've driven a total of several hundred miles on several separate occasions, on the M3, M4, M25 and M40, using ACC at all times. I don't see how it can have cured itself but it is very strange that it seems to have disappeared like this. I also notice that there's been no discussion of the issue on these forums recently - has everyone become bored with the problem or have they, like me, not experienced it recently?

Interesting: https://www.focus.de/auto/news/220-000-autos-allein-in-deutschland-massive-software-probleme-vw-ruft-alle-golf-8-in-die-werkstaetten_id_25166295.html. In English, according to Google Translate: Massive software problems: VW calls all Golf 8 to the workshops Because of persistent software problems, Volkswagen is bringing around 220,000 Golf 8 models to workshops in Germany alone. A software update should now solve the problems. The car manufacturer Volkswagen is asking the workshops to update the software for the latest model in its Golf bread and butter range. Because the Golf 8 to be produced in the future received new hardware and software elements, the copies already sold should also get new software installed, said a VW spokesman on Wednesday. Among other things, the Wolfsburg-based company wants to improve voice control in the car. Since the start of production, the Golf 8 had problems with the significantly expanded software and electronics features compared to the previous version, which did not work as smoothly as initially thought. Last year VW called the cars to the workshops because of malfunctions in the electronic emergency call assistant. Unclear whether this applies to Golfs outside Germany or, of course, Skodas.

As far as I remember, I did that when I first got the car and enabled Skoda Connect, so do I have to do it again I wonder, and if so how? Assuming that I have nothing further to do, I'm wondering what is going to appear where; the message refers to the "Online Remote Update function" but I'm not aware of, and can't find, any such function, either in the MySkoda app or the Skoda Connect web site. All a bit of a mystery so far!

That would be great - do a honk and flash now and have it go off in the middle of the night, later in the week! Actually, I've tried that (for fun) and couple of times and it does seem almost immediate. As does turning on the fan remotely.

I've had my car 8 months now and until now hadn't found a use for the Area Notification feature in the app, which notifies you when the car moves out of a specified area. But the other day I found a use - I thought. On Saturday, we were returning from a cruise into Southampton, where our car had been valet parked. I was wondering how efficiently the disembarkation process would join up with the valet parking and I could see from the app that the car was parked some distance from where our ship was berthed. So, out of curiosity, I set up an area notification to tell me when the car was moved from where it was to where we were going to be. Sadly nothing happened. The car was waiting for us conveniently close to the ship, but I received no notification that it had moved from where it was... ...until Monday lunchtime, when I got a notification on my phone that my car had left the area. So it took over two days to realise the car had moved. Another "simply clever" feature that just doesn't work!

I've been really impressed by the fuel consumption on mine. On my previous MkIII VRS diesel, my long-term average was around 42mpg so I was expecting the petrol one to be much worse but in fact I seem to be getting high 30s on average. And even better on long drives for example, yesterday evening I drove 270 miles from Ambleside in the Lake District to our home in north Hampshire and averaged 40.3 for the whole journey, despite wanting to cover the ground fast so certainly not driving for economy. I honestly think the diesel vrs would only have got a few mpg better on that drive.

Update on this... Yesterday, I drove back from the Lake District to Hampshire (270miles), using ACC at various times along on the way and it always worked perfectly. I don't think it's fixed - I just think I was lucky. Anyway, today I finally spoke to Skoda Customer Service and I was a little encouraged by the person I spoke to. He had e-mailed me asking me to book my car into my dealer so that they could "diagnose the problem" and raise a report. I pointed out that the dealer had already had the car once and that I couldn't understand what they could "diagnose" anyway. He agreed that there really wasn't any point as the ACC problem is something they already know about and are working on a fix for. I was convinced he wasn't just saying this as he described the symptoms in more detail than I had given him, so clearly he was already familiar with it. He's going to keep me posted with regular e-mail updates so that I'll know as soon as a fix is out. But he didn't have a timescale for the updates for which we have all been waiting a long time already. By the way, on other software problems, I do have the impression that, since the updates my dealer applied at the end of June, the system has been more stable. I can't remember the last time I had to re-boot the Infotainment system or log into it again as used to happen from time to time.

I've contacted Skoda customer care too, but so far haven't actually managed to talk to them in person (I've missed their calls, so not really their fault). But I am afraid they'll want to have my car looked at for a prolonged period, which we all know is pointless when it's surely clear that it's a software issue. They just need to fix it once and then send out the update to us all.

I'm a convert to start/stop. On my diesel O3, I always turned it off every time I drove but this was mainly because I hated the rattly sound of the diesel restarting. Also, there were a few times when it had decided to stop the engine just as I was ready to pull away again, but insisted on stopping the engine anyway before restarting, which was annoying. However, with my petrol O4 I barely notice stop/start so I happily leave it on all the time. And, I think it's really cool the way in a queue of stationary traffic the engine restarts as soon as the car in front starts moving.