Hi

 

A few days ago I was driving along the LH lane of a dual carriageway towards a roundabout. The road was very quiet. There was nothing ahead of me, but there was a car in the RH lane waiting to enter the roundabout. As I approached, intending to run up inside the other car, the brakes slammed on, warning bleepers sounded, and the maxidot started flashing red. The car came almost to a standstill. Had someone been close behind there would have been an accident.

 

I was not driving fast, there was no danger of an accident.

 

I assume this was the 'Front Assistant' system kicking in ? ???

 

I assume I can turn it off in the menu system.

 

Has anyone else had such an experience?  The Front Assist could be very valuable, but it now worries me, especially if I have a tail-gater behind me?

 

Thoughts & experiences please ?

 

K

Yep, that's Front Assist at work. 

 

If the car in the outside lane was even slightly to the left thanks to poor positioning or a slight L/H curve in the road, your car can misinterpret that as something in its path and slam on the anchors. 

 

It's happened to me a few times, but false positives are inevitable i'm afraid. It's usually traffic islands directly in front of you when passing a long row of parked cars - as is the norm on many residential streets. 

 

The only alternative is to switch it off. Also check that there's not excessive grot stuck to the front face of the radar emitter. It probably won't affect it but it's worth keeping it as clean as possible. 

If you respond, by pressing the brake or moving the wheel, while it's in the preliminary stage (white 'alert' symbol in Maxi-DOT, beep) then it won't brake for you, as it presumes that you've seen whatever it is and have taken appropriate action.

 

At least, that's how it works in my Fabia! 

It doesn't work that way in the Octavia, well not in mine at any rate. I had a few strange incidents with mine over the first year or two, even happened the first time that I drove it when the red light came up on the screen suddenly with a loud beep, with absolutely nobody in front of me, just a car going in the other direction. Funnily enough it took me months to find out what the warning light represented as it wasn't in the original car manual and my Skoda dealer had no idea what it was either, well they gave me a different answer each time, none of them right unfortunately!