I'm thinking of replacing my ageing Ford Fiesta, with maybe a Polo or Fabia Estate. One of the things I want is the best available collision warning and avoidance functionality in this price bracket,

 

I've noticed that the Fabia manual says "The system does not respond to crossing or oncoming objects."

 

The Polo manual says "Predictive Pedestrian Protection with City Emergency Braking, alerting you if it detects vehicles or pedestrians at the edge of the road or on the carriageway" and has a picture of someone crossing the road in front of a Polo.

 

Does this mean that the Fabia implementation of Front Assist is a bit behind the Polo's in technical terms, or is it just a matter of wording?

 

See:

Page 192 of Fabia manual at https://manual.skoda-auto.com/004/en-com/Model/Fabia_NJ

Page 15 of Polo Brochure at https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/polo

Hi,

 

The Fabia's system is older than the one on Polo, meaning previous generation, and does not alert of pedestrians. The Polo is better on this one.

The Fabia system is the first-gen Front Assist, the Polo has the newer one. The Ibiza also has the newer system with pedestrian detection. 

On 13/07/2019 at 04:37, HatchbackBuyer10 said:

One of the things I want is the best available collision warning and avoidance functionality in this price bracket,

 

Update the nut behind the steering wheel is your best bet. 😉

 

Thanks AG Falco

So far the emergency braking has been closer to causing accidents than saving anything for me. It jammed its brakes on once when passing some bollards either side of the lane I was in just for a fraction of a second, person behind wasn't too happy. Also someone was turning right infront of me and it was obvious they'd be gone before I was too near but skoda said nope. Sure it's worth it in an actually dangerous situation but it's surely not perfect

There's statistical evidence that it works, and insurers are reducing rates for cars with it!

 

If the insurers are reducing rates for cars having it, then it must reduce the likelyhood of crashes. They wouldn't reduce rates if it didn't!

Mine works great so far... not sure on the polo but on other vag cars depends on the trim level if it gets the pedestrian detect which is operated via the camera in the rear view mirror often equipped cars come with lane assist and sign recognition. 

Edited 20 July, 20196 yr by Dannyboy85

Nope, the pedestrian detection uses the radar system. No Polos or Ibizas have cameras- but they all have pedestrian detection, as seen in the EuroNCAP video.

 

 

Cars with the camera do use it too, but it's supplementary to the radar. It increases the computer's authority for braking, but I can't remember the figures!

The wife complains about her automatic braking system (2018 Fabia SE Estate), it's left her in the overtaking lane of the motorway almost stopped twice now, just because someone changed lanes a little close.  Really all was needed was a lift of the accelerator to widen the gap, but the emergency assist threw out the anchors totally unnessecarily.  Once she nearly got rammed from behind by a hero in a HiLux who barely got slowed in time.

 

In over 3 years now of driving cars with Front Assist (2016 Fabia, now 2019 Ibiza), it's never braked unnecessarily. Beeped plenty of times when it didn't need to, but it's never braked unnecessarily. 

Her Fabia (2018) is much more likely to brake pointlessly than the newer system in my Ibiza (2019).  Haven't had a cheep out of the Ibiza, Fabia has even complained when overtaking a slow moving car with plenty of room.