DaveFromSydney

So I got my car back for the weekend. The dealer kept it from 8am Wednesday to 5pm Friday. They said they performed various "updates" after contacting Skoda CZ on the first night - some taking hours which is why they kept it the second night - and they also took it for a test drive on the final day. However not one of my issues above has been fixed. #1, #2 and #3 are acknowledged to be real and they say they will contact me when Skoda CZ gets back to them with a fix. #4 they say is an unfortunate case where the brochure offered on the Australian website at time of purchase shows a feature that is not present in Australian models. It DID say "Overseas model shown". I guess if you want to be sure about features you need to ask a salesman or verify yourself each and every one of the hundreds of features! I took a picture of the System Information screen again and attached it to this post. In spite of the updates performed the data on the screen is identical to the data before I gave them the car, as shown above. I conclude that, regardless of the speculation on this site, there is more to know about the software revisions than is displayed in this screen and we should not try to draw conclusions that tie observed behaviour to the numbers in this screen. SKODA Octavia MY21 Brochure Apr21 .f59bc390ea84be817d36876fdfc6c198.pdf

Yes. It is hard to know what the device part number is supposed to mean. DropBear and I have cars delivered at the same time in NSW but his is an RS sedan and mine is an RS wagon. Yet the device part number (and all of the other numbers) are the same.

In fact if you check here - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/car-balk/ - it seems these jokes started around 1997 yet here we are in 2021 and they have come true.

Rebooting to cure a problem is better than nothing but we should still hope that Skoda/VAG will cure these bugs early in the lifetime of our cars. And suppose it was something more major - that threatened one's safety while moving! I worked in software development all my life but I never thought I would encounter these typical software issues in a major appliance such as a car. It reminds me of the jokes that they used to crack about what it would be like if Bill Gates had invented the car. Like this one from Harvard Computer Society many years ago: https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/pnw/microsoftjoke.htm

My 2021 RS Wagon turns off Sync each time I restart too. Which is strange since my 2015 VW AllTrack 132 does not do that yet in many respects they are the same.

It did not go quite as expected. They applied the updates but their own tests indicated that no problems were resolved. They asked to keep the car overnight so they can report to HQ in Chechia and perhaps get an answer for tomorrow. So I do not have the car yet and don't know how the revision numbers changed. Must be something about the hardware since yours and mine have the same software details in the screenshots above yet you do not see the faults that I see.

The car is now in the service department and I am waiting to see what gets fixed. They said there are some recommended software updates so here's hoping. I took a picture of the System Information before going in so I can see what gets changed.

Hi DropBear, I agree with your issues. I have a ritual on starting the car like an aeroplane copilot's checklist: SET: turn off auto-stop, MODE: turn on Comfort or Individual (where I have disabled engine sound), CLIMA: Warm my feet (but it only lasts a few minutes!), Assistance systems: disable Lane Assist. When my grandsons are in the car they enjoy this being their job. When on the road I need a passenger to control the radio/media/phone/aircon since they are too distracting. If I am on my own I just have to tolerate them remaining as-is until I can pull over. In my wife's VW Golf Alltrack, which I thought the Skoda would be very similar to, all of these things are much simpler and generally have dedicated physical buttons/knobs. Re the speed in the HUD and like issues: One has to guess at which features are available, and how they are supposed to work, because the manual is so lacking in such detail. Re the phone heating up: My phone is a Pixel 3a which does not have wireless charging so I use a cable. The phone gets very hot anyway on long journeys. I think it is because Android Auto keeps the CPU very active. I generally like to use the car's built-in SatNav and Media player so I am trying to avoid Android Auto but I am also tempted by some its features which often work better than those of the car.

I think I read your post elsewhere and I tried changing the language to another and back but it did not help. (I tried French, UK English, US English). Actually there was another issue I thought it might help with but it did not: In the SatNav the keyboard is a European one with up to 3 characters, 2 with accents, on each key. In the brochure the keyboard is a simple English one with no such characters so I know it can be done but there is apparently no option for changing this in the UI. The presence of these characters - useless in this country - is very distracting when trying to enter data.

I am in Sydney Australia. Ten days ago I took delivery of a New Octavia 2021 RS Wagon (with Premium Pack). So it is the top-of-the-line model, with all options and the 180kw petrol engine. I believe it is equivalent to what you in Britain call a Mk IV SEL VRS Combi. Here they seen to have only been on sale since March or so. The software in mine, which built in April, seems up-to-date. At least to 1788. I has several software issues that I believe are faults and Skoda seem to acknowledge that. It is going back to the dealer tomorrow to see what they can do although I think it will turn out that we are the mercy of the Skoda factory to come up with updates so probably it will come back tomorrow with nothing changed. I will let you know how it goes. My issues for tomorrow are: 1. Voice control (no Android Auto) just says loading voice control but nothing happens. Without this I need to take my eyes off the road to fiddle with the touch screen. 2. Navigation voice announcements do not work. It just does Tone Only regardless of my choice. Without voice announcements I need to take my eyes off the road to look at the screens if the HUD details are not sufficient. 3. Speed limits in SatNav - I have turned them on. I see a sign on the map (red circle with white background) but it is empty. But the car knows them since the speed exceeded alert sounds appropriately at 65 etc. Without those, if I have not noticed a speed sign on the road I have no idea what to set the cruise control to. 4. Speed limit (from Satnav) do not appear in the HUD – yet they are shown as doing so in the brochure. Without those I have to take my eyes of the road to check the speed limit on the map, if it actually worked – see #3. I also have other weirdness and erratic behaviour but I will be happy if they fix these faults first.