ACC Traveling abroad

[woody3537]

BillyJim I totally agree with what you say.

 

In fact it would be not only pretty much useless having CC if you have to constantly have a foot hovering over the gas pedal to override it but I think the way the system works could be potentially very dangerous also. If you are travelling at European motorway speeds you could easily be passing slower vehicles at double their speed and often have vehicles travelling at similar speeds as you are very close behind you. If the road in front is clear someone following you is not going to be expecting you to decelerate or worse brake suddenly. We all know how dangerous it can be if the car in front of you suddenly and unexpectedly slows up or brakes for no good reason, especially at speed, it only takes a momentary glance at Sat Nav or the radio and there you go.

 

What is even more concerning is the suggestion in the manual that the cars speed MAY or COULD be regulated by the traffic in the offside lane. It should be WILL or WONT. Not knowing how the car is going to react in these situations would probably just cause me to turn the system off entirely.  I don't fancy 1500 mile round trips with no CC.

 

I eagerly look forward to hearing what they say BillyJim.

You have raised some very good points, the system could be very dangerous on European roads. This needs to be addressed by skoda asap. These cars are designed to be long distance cruisers and I would think there will be a lots of people buying them with European holidays in mind. (Well I am anyway when I finally get my car next year)

[panmat]

Didn't realise that the two systems differed, so accept my apologies. I do know that my system does allow undertaking typically on the motorways, while in roadworks and the 3 lanes of traffic are all travelling at different speeds, eg i'm in lane 1 travelling faster than those in lane 2, so to me this is simulating driving on the Autobahn (given at a much reduced speed)

[BillyJim]

Didn't realise that the two systems differed, so accept my apologies.

No apology needed. Spoke to Škoda UK today and even they didn't know it was different on the new Superb. After confusing themselves, thinking I was mistaking BSD for ACC, they've (hopefully) now comprehended the real issue and are looking into it further.

So, once again, waiting to hear back - but at least I feel I'm making some progress now.

[blahde2]

Here's hoping it can be altered /coded out on VCDS in the same way I had to have my left hand rear fog light activated. The car didn't switch the fog light itself when I changed the infotainment system to driving on the wrong side of the road, it had to be programmed to do this.

I am "assuming" that it should be switchable so when the car detects it is in Europe by GPS, not only do your lights adjust automatically, but so does the ACC undertaking function. As I will be spending the majority of my time over in Europe this option does concern me so I will await the feedback from our VCDS gurus soon as they have theirs to play with.

I'll also have them programme my rear fogs to both come on whenever activated as that's how I like it.

[BillyJim]

Škoda UK  today - "The technicians all say it should just work normally on the continent. We're unable to progress this any further. We would appreciate your feedback when you travel abroad."

So basically "We think it should work but we just don't know so hope you can tell us".

Edited 11 November, 2015 by BillyJim

[woody3537]

So Skoda's technical department is applying the "finger's crossed it should work but hey you tell us whether or not it dose" approach to the problem. 

 

Well its down to you BillyJim to do Skoda's testing for them. Good luck for you next trip to Germany. We will all be very interested in what you discover.

[Sagalout]

So basically "We think it should work but we just don't know so hope you can tell us".

 

 

Thats the best laugh I have had in a while. If only it wasn't so important to many of us. Someone can't be bothered to find the person who knows-- methinks.

[BillyJim]

Well its down to you BillyJim to do Skoda's testing for them. Good luck for you next trip to Germany. We will all be very interested in what you discover.

5½ weeks. If anyone reading this forum goes abroad before me and can answer the question, please do.

If not, I'll update here as soon as I get internet access (20/12).

[petersky1976]

Škoda UK  today - "The technicians all say it should just work normally on the continent. We're unable to progress this any further. We would appreciate your feedback when you travel abroad."

So basically "We think it should work but we just don't know so hope you can tell us".

 

The question is what is "working normally", automatically slowing you from 80mph to 55mph every time you try to pass a HGV or allow you to pass by unimpeded?

 

Sadly, it seems they just don't know.....joke

[GuzziDibble]

Latest update.

I have just been out and tried the ACC. It definitely will not let you underpass.

I was travelling, on longest distance setting, behind a van at about 50mph. 

 

Pete

 

Been playing with mine on the twisty A3,A3m, A27 and mine will let me undertake but it seems to reach most to Luton box type vans.

 

I was undertaken by a motorbike which it ignored until it was virtually exactly in front maybe a narrow radar beam maybe a small radar target.

 

 

Bit nervous the first time I let it work!

[GuzziDibble]

If the system can tell what's ahead and what's to either side wouldn't it have to have a moving array to scan from side to side?

Or be a phased array?

[FelisBengalensis]

Likely to be a narrow spot beam with side lobes or possibly separate short range sensors in the bumper area to monitor the wider scene ahead.

I thought the latter was used as part of the auto-park system?

[petersky1976]

After emailing twice and then finally getting a call from customer services where they tried to tell me that the car would only detect vehicles directly ahead and I then explained "that's not what the manual says", I got a call back saying they were talking to the factory.

 

That was a week ago. I will advise when/if I hear back.

 

KP

[Ant1975]

Alex - any news yet?  Have you driven on the continent.  I had CC on my old Yeti which was a blessing driving through France.  Having just picked up my Superb, I had to drive from Cornwall to Yorkshire, the ACC behaved impeccably and I was v. impressed.  I also thought how I was looking forward to using it when we travel to France again next summer - now I'm a little disheartened!

[BillyJim]

Alex - any news yet?  Have you driven on the continent.  I had CC on my old Yeti which was a blessing driving through France.  Having just picked up my Superb, I had to drive from Cornwall to Yorkshire, the ACC behaved impeccably and I was v. impressed.  I also thought how I was looking forward to using it when we travel to France again next summer - now I'm a little disheartened!

I leave in five days time with a 350 mile dive through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany, so I'll have the answer posted here quite soon. I'll let Škoda know too!

 

Two of my friends have ACC on their cars, being a VW Passat and a Mercedes E350, and both have the "no undertaking" function (the Passat will be the same unit fitted to the Superb).

Both were unaware of the possible "continental" issue until I mentioned it to them, so they have contacted the respective suppliers and both got the same answer I was given by Škoda - it should work, but we're not certain and don't know how.

I've scoured the VW and Mercedes forums and found no mention of it and they've had it longer than the Superb, so I'm optimistic.

[Ant1975]

Cheers.  I wonder if VWG will pay you for your time?!

[blahde2]

Clearly for left Hand drive Superb's driving in their neck of the woods should have the same problem if they visit the Uk.

I would like to think that all this is is a software issue, and if any VCDS gurus could get a scan of a LHD Superb and compare to a RHD equivalent they might be able to spot the difference or remove the feature altogether.

Let's hope that all that's required is some minor bit changing to convert the ACC to the Octavia Version, or so it swaps which side the system classes as undertaking depending on what side of the road the lights are set to. I think it would be better to revert to the Octavia Version as the switchable system might be to difficult to programme.

I can't see it being a hardware thing, software only. Come on RossTech, let's get the coding sorted so our VCDS intelligence agents can square this oversight on Skoda's part.

Edited 15 December, 2015 by blahde2

[BillyJim]

My continental update...

ACC works perfectly without changing a thing. I deliberately left all the "UK" settings alone, despite a 2 hour Le Shuttle delay meant I sat at Folkestone twiddling my thumbs.

From the get-go on leaving the Calais terminal the ACC allowed overtaking on the left.

At the first motorway split out of Calais I took the right spur and the "no undertaking" feature cut in - correctly showing the vehicle in the lane to my left as being the "target" I was trying to undertake.

My first surprise was at my first break stop in Belgium, where I decided to change the settings to kilometres and the light "travel mode" to "driving on the right" - only to find the lights had already switched to this mode automatically.

I expected the clock to have automatically advanced an hour as I have it set to get the time from GPS. It didn't and I had to manually select the GMT+1 Timezone option.

On the German Autobahn I discovered ACC can only be set up to 160 km/h (100 mph).

With the ACC set at 160 I accelerated to 225 km/h.

On catching up with a slower car I found I simply had to take my foot off the throttle and the ACC did all the slowing/braking.

There is a 220 km/h (136 mph) ACC option for the German market, so wondering if this a software (VCDS?) setting or physically different hardware.

In summary, Škoda were right. It really does "just work".

How? Technically? Like Skoda, I don't know.

GPS would be the obvious answer, but the SE model has ACC but no SatNav, so no obvious GPS. My educated guess would be a separate GPS chip, like those used in mobile phones?

[eurotraveller]

Interesting: thanks for that.

 

How annoying with the clock; one would think that would be sorted nowadays.

 

Also, I wonder what that 225 km/h reading was in actual speed, given how much speedos still exaggerate. Probably 210-215 at the most? I keep meaning to take a separate GPS speedo on journeys to find out.

[petersky1976]

Its a little irrelevant now as BillyJim has been our guinea pig, however, I have finally heard back from Skoda UK Customer Services: 

 

I have now received a response from the ŠKODA brand and they have stated the following:

The vehicle‘s satellite navigation system will recognise that it is being driven abroad and adapt system rules accordingly.

 

So, there we go.

 

KP

[jstallan]

Slightly off topic but stil ACC related. When ACC is active and you are slowing down, do the brake lights come on ? 

[Prykey]

Slightly off topic but stil ACC related. When ACC is active and you are slowing down, do the brake lights come on ?

Not sure how you would know this

[Gizmo]

Slightly off topic but stil ACC related. When ACC is active and you are slowing down, do the brake lights come on ? 

 

Yes they do, I had also wondered this but saw them come on tonight as they reflected in the numberplate of the van behind me... who was FAR too close!

[wokwon]

Its a little irrelevant now as BillyJim has been our guinea pig, however, I have finally heard back from Skoda UK Customer Services: 

 

I have now received a response from the ŠKODA brand and they have stated the following:

The vehicle‘s satellite navigation system will recognise that it is being driven abroad and adapt system rules accordingly.

 

So, there we go.

 

KP

 

Oh good, coz here in 'straya overtaking on the left side on a multi lane road is legal.  It's actually essential, on 3 lane motorways the left lane is actually the fastest due to all the knobs sitting in the middle and right-hand lanes doing exactly the speed target.

[Leaffy]

In the car settings, you can change the vechicle to left hand drive and it works perfectly well, I can't remember the exact menu, I'll check in the morning and get back to you.

I did a lot of motorway miles on the continent no issues at all. Acc is limited to 100 mph and the radar braking worka well evwn at that speed just an FYI

Edited 20 January, 2016 by Leaffy