Front Assist

[Keith64]

Does anyone know if the Brake lights are activated if Front Assist decides its going to brake for you? Some twonk decided to turn left suddenly without any indication, Front assist took over (not that I wasn't aware of the situation) and braked hard for me just for a few seconds it seemed, was more worried about the car behind running in to me that the idiot in front!

[ahenners]

1 hour ago, Keith64 said:

Does anyone know if the Brake lights are activated if Front Assist decides its going to brake for you? Some twonk decided to turn left suddenly without any indication, Front assist took over (not that I wasn't aware of the situation) and braked hard for me just for a few seconds it seemed, was more worried about the car behind running in to me that the idiot in front!

 

Yes they are definitely activated. Would be a hazard to other drivers if it didn't.

 

Front assist does brake hard when it activates. Had a pretty scary moment in the wet last week through this, tyres just skidded ... 

[Keith64]

2 minutes ago, ahenners said:

 

Front assist does brake hard when it activates. Had a pretty scary moment in the wet last week through this, tyres just skidded ... 

Scared the brown stuff out of me when it did brake...

[BoxerBoy]

On 2 vehicles we’ve had several early false alarms with the front assist.

 

Flashing warning sign for a railing on the pavement or a central bollard for example.

 

Only once have I felt the brake shudder slightly.

 

I find the system quite disconcerting in the sense that I cannot easily test it. Unlike ABS that can be regularly tested.

 

I certainly don’t trust it or rely on it.

[GoneToBeemer]

12 hours ago, BoxerBoy said:

On 2 vehicles we’ve had several early false alarms with the front assist.

 

Flashing warning sign for a railing on the pavement or a central bollard for example.

 

Only once have I felt the brake shudder slightly.

 

I find the system quite disconcerting in the sense that I cannot easily test it. Unlike ABS that can be regularly tested.

 

I certainly don’t trust it or rely on it.

 

Mine completely saved me once - on the A40 coming back from a hellish day of work, lapse in concentration and stopped me from ploughing into the car in front.

 

Agree it shouldn’t be relied on, but certainly worked for me on the occasion it really needed to!

[Keith64]

23 hours ago, BoxerBoy said:

I certainly don’t trust it or rely on it.

 

I don't think I do either..not now.

[HotVRs]

I had a Octavia 63 plate lease car returned because of it, kept doing emergency braking for no reason, and setting off the warning - even including when there was once nobody at all, no people, cars, nothing in the road early on a Saturday. The almost identical replacement Octavia has been fine. Repeated tests of course found no faults at the (very helpful dealer). 

[SWBoy]

On 13/11/2017 at 23:10, BoxerBoy said:

On 2 vehicles we’ve had several early false alarms with the front assist.

 

Flashing warning sign for a railing on the pavement or a central bollard for example.

 

Only once have I felt the brake shudder slightly.

 

I find the system quite disconcerting in the sense that I cannot easily test it. Unlike ABS that can be regularly tested.

 

I certainly don’t trust it or rely on it.

What annoys me is when it flashes up the red warning when a car is turning left into a side road and you can see there is no need to do any more than slightly ease off the throttle (sometimes not even that), which forces you to unnecessarily tap the brake pedal to shut it up.

[ahenners]

2 hours ago, SWBoy said:

What annoys me is when it flashes up the red warning when a car is turning left into a side road and you can see there is no need to do any more than slightly ease off the throttle (sometimes not even that), which forces you to unnecessarily tap the brake pedal to shut it up.

 

This seems  to be the worst source of "false alarms" with the front assist in my experience. I've had it slam on the hammers a few times even though I know I won't be going into the back of someone turning left as long as I ease off or don't accelerate.

[stu83]

Same here. Annoys the hell out of me.

 

Only had it apply the brakes once, and it was pretty unnecessary.

 

Still leave it on though - it only has to work 'properly' once to pay for itself.

[Black_Sheep]

9 hours ago, SWBoy said:

What annoys me is when it flashes up the red warning when a car is turning left into a side road and you can see there is no need to do any more than slightly ease off the throttle (sometimes not even that), which forces you to unnecessarily tap the brake pedal to shut it up.

You can cancel once activated by depressing the roller switch on the right hand side of the steering wheel - no need to brake, especially as when FA is activated you will have 100% braking power as soon as you depress the brake pedal (its designed to do this to reduce braking distance).

[SWBoy]

13 hours ago, Black_Sheep said:

You can cancel once activated by depressing the roller switch on the right hand side of the steering wheel.

Didn't know that - will try that next time it happens.

 

Thnx 

[GoneToBeemer]

6 minutes ago, SWBoy said:

Didn't know that - will try that next time it happens.

 

Thnx 

 

Be very aware doing that - if your car is equipped with a system to prevent front end collisions, your insurance will know that it’s fitted to that particular model and would have something to say if it was proved it was deliberately deactivated and you had an accident!

[SWBoy]

22 minutes ago, vtec to vrs! said:

 

Be very aware doing that - if your car is equipped with a system to prevent front end collisions, your insurance will know that it’s fitted to that particular model and would have something to say if it was proved it was deliberately deactivated and you had an accident!

Given the choice between NOT running into a car turning in front and not having an accident, or being hit by the car behind because my car needlessly panic braked I know which I prefer...

 

Yes I know we live in a nanny state, but I'm "old school" .

[GoneToBeemer]

8 minutes ago, SWBoy said:

Given the choice between NOT running into a car turning in front and not having an accident, or being hit by the car behind because my car needlessly panic braked I know which I prefer...

 

Yes I know we live in a nanny state, but I'm "old school" .

 

Haha nothing wrong with that!

 

Just another way an insurer may screw you if they really wanted to!

[SWBoy]

16 minutes ago, vtec to vrs! said:

Just another way an insurer may screw you if they really wanted to!

But if you don't have an accident because you stopped Front Assist causing an accident, then there's no involvement of the insurer?

[ahenners]

1 hour ago, vtec to vrs! said:

 

Be very aware doing that - if your car is equipped with a system to prevent front end collisions, your insurance will know that it’s fitted to that particular model and would have something to say if it was proved it was deliberately deactivated and you had an accident!

 

Do you have anything to back this up? Are there documented cases of insurance companies refusing claims etc. on these grounds?

 

Front assist was an option on the pre-facelift (and not an overly common one) so I'm not sure how my insurance would even know I had it (they've never asked me) short of examining my damaged/wrecked car. Even after finding out I have it, it would take some deep interrogation to work out whether it was disabled or not at the time of accident and whether it was a contributory factor to the accident. Unless the payout is large it doesn't seem practical for them to go to this extent.

 

There is nothing in the terms of my cover either that specifically address the disabling of safety features or front assist. Presumably disabling things like ESC would have no effect either...

Edited 16 November, 2017 by ahenners

[GoneToBeemer]

Just now, ahenners said:

 

Do you have anything to back this up? Are there documented cases of insurance companies refusing claims etc. on these grounds?

 

Front assist was an option on the pre-facelift (and not an overly common one) so I'm not sure how my insurance would even know I had it (they've never asked me) short of examining my damaged/wrecked car. Even after finding out I have it, it would take some deep interrogation to work out whether it was disabled or not. Unless the payout is large it doesn't seem practical for them to go to this extent.

 

There is nothing in the terms of my cover either that specifically address the disabling of safety features or front assist. Presumably disabling things like ESC would have no effect either...

 

As far as I was aware, cars that had the feature fitted from factory sat in lower insurance groups than cars that didn’t - don’t work in the industry, was just something I had heard.

 

If it was fitted as a factory option, you would have had to declare that to the insurance would you not? Whenever I’ve had options fitted to the car they were always declared when asked to do so when getting insurance. Without doing that then any options you had paid for wouldn’t be replaced if damaged.

 

Happy to be corrected, was more of just a watch out that insurers are becoming increasingly savvy in finding reasons to challenge claims in general.

[SWBoy]

3 minutes ago, vtec to vrs! said:

If it was fitted as a factory option, you would have had to declare that to the insurance would you not?

I've never been asked by any insurer in the 40 years I've owned a car what factory fitted options are fitted (only what modifications have been made) - and even if I was asked when we bought the car second hand I wouldn't have known if Front Assist was fitted.

[GoneToBeemer]

1 minute ago, SWBoy said:

I've never been asked by any insurer in the 40 years I've owned a car what factory fitted options are fitted (only what modifications have been made) - and even if I was asked when we bought the car second hand I wouldn't have known if Front Assist was fitted.

 

Really? Every insurance quote I’ve ever got I’ve always been asked about factory fit options!

[Black_Sheep]

1 hour ago, vtec to vrs! said:

 

Be very aware doing that - if your car is equipped with a system to prevent front end collisions, your insurance will know that it’s fitted to that particular model and would have something to say if it was proved it was deliberately deactivated and you had an accident!

 

Pressing the right hand scrolling button just cancels the FA warning after it has been triggered. This is a reset, not switching off.

 

In terms of the insurance, my company tried to charge me extra for having it as it was an optional extra! Only receive a discount if the whole of the model range has it fitted as standard, like on Mk7 Golf.

[ahenners]

23 minutes ago, vtec to vrs! said:

 

As far as I was aware, cars that had the feature fitted from factory sat in lower insurance groups than cars that didn’t - don’t work in the industry, was just something I had heard.

 

If it was fitted as a factory option, you would have had to declare that to the insurance would you not? Whenever I’ve had options fitted to the car they were always declared when asked to do so when getting insurance. Without doing that then any options you had paid for wouldn’t be replaced if damaged.

 

Happy to be corrected, was more of just a watch out that insurers are becoming increasingly savvy in finding reasons to challenge claims in general.

 

It only lowers the insurance group if fitted to the model as standard across the range of trim levels. Insurers can't do this on a per individual car basis as it's difficult to find out which cars have options and which don't.

 

I've never had to declare factory fitted options, I've only ever had to declare anything not fitted at factory. My current insurer wasn't interested if it came on the car from factory. Hopefully I won't need to find out but if my front end gets caved in, I'm assuming they will replace my front radar despite not making a note that it has it. It would be harder for them not to as the car is coded expecting this kit to be there and working.

Edited 16 November, 2017 by ahenners

[SWBoy]

16 hours ago, ahenners said:

I've never had to declare factory fitted options, I've only ever had to declare anything not fitted at factory. My current insurer wasn't interested if it came on the car from factory.

That's my experience too - with the additional comment that NO insurer I've been with for the last 40 years has ever asked about factory fitted options (and I've ordered some very fully loaded cars in the past).

[WaHoo]

This might be a stupid question but I have a 66 plate pre facelift Octavia vrs which has the front assist fitted. I have once or twice had the red warning in the dash come on so does that mean that I have autonomous braking too? I've never felt it...

[ahenners]

9 hours ago, WaHoo said:

This might be a stupid question but I have a 66 plate pre facelift Octavia vrs which has the front assist fitted. I have once or twice had the red warning in the dash come on so does that mean that I have autonomous braking too? I've never felt it...

 

Yeah you have the emergency autonomous braking too. Perhaps you acknowledged it by dabbing the brake or pressing the right hand roller switch on the steering wheel? 

 

Sometimes it just warns but doesn't brake. Depends how fast you were going too, above a certain speed it doesn't brake but still flashes up the warning - had it do this on the motorway but on slower roads I've had it brake hard.

Edited 18 November, 2017 by ahenners