I hesitate to even suggest this as it seems so improbable...

 

My car has had the ACC problem that many have reported (sometimes refusing to pass a slower vehicle in the lane to my left) since I bought it in March 2020.  For this and other issues I'm in contact with Skoda UK customer relations, and in fact right now my car is at the dealer for several days for investigation and updates etc. related to this.  

 

A few weeks ago, my Customer Relations person suggested it could be useful if I kept a note of when the various issues occurred, which I started doing on November 30th.  In the following few days, the ACC and some other problems occurred frequently - for example on Dec 2nd, the ACC problem happened six times between M3 J6 and J4, and on the 4th again seven times between M4 J11 and J8/9.

 

But since then it hasn't happened once - even though I've driven a total of several hundred miles on several separate occasions, on the M3, M4, M25 and M40, using ACC at all times.

 

I don't see how it can have cured itself but it is very strange that it seems to have disappeared like this.  I also notice that there's been no discussion of the issue on these forums recently - has everyone become bored with the problem or have they, like me, not experienced it recently?

Hi, I haven’t used my car as much over the Xmas period, but mine had the issue continue through December. The garage looked at it mid December and said Skoda knew about it but had no solution, and it was linked to my Travel Assist not working!! I think total rubbish but that let them off the hook in fixing that either. Who in Skoda UK are you dealing with as I am about to raise my issue with them as its disgraceful I have Travel Assist and ACC not working (one not at all one unreliable) and there seems nothing Skoda is doing to resolve them. I will start recording where it happens because I had a strange feeling it was the same(ish) location on the A3 and M25, but I can’t be certain yet. Monday I will know more when I start commuting again!! 

Back at the beginning of December I had my E-Call module replaced and things have certainly improved since them.  The AAC is now working 95% of the time as expected, only on a couple of occasions has it misbehaved which seems to be linked to the 'Changing Settings' dialogue screen that comes up.  I'm pretty sure if I press ok to dismiss the screen that's where the issues reappears so I normally just drive and let it go away itself

 

 

I had my Mk4 vRS delivered in November '21 and have been lucky so far not to have experienced many of the problems flagged on this forum. The one that has affected me though is the ACC thinking it's driving on the other side of the road and braking when overtaking traffic. It's particularly frustrating because it's such an enjoyable car to drive otherwise.

 

Before Christmas I took it into Garland Aldershot, they took a look and declared a) that they'd not seen the issue on any other cars and b) it was now fixed. Since then it's happened a number of times so it's definitely not resolved but something a bit odd happened today...

 

Within 10 mins on a stretch of the M25 near where it meets the M23, the ACC went from working correctly, to thinking it was on the other side of the road, to working correctly again. I didn't change any settings, it did it all by itself. I don't know whether anyone else has seen this kind of behaviour but it's making me think it might be related to location services of some sort. I recently hired a new Passat for a trip to France and that automatically set the ACC to drive on the right - I assume this was done via GPS. Is it possible there's something similar on the Octavia but it's somehow getting confused and suddenly thinks Sussex = France?

 

The next test would be to find location services in the menus somewhere and disable them to see whether that has any impact but I'm curious whether anyone has already tried this.

 

 

@LenWalton - interesting that your ACC had a 'moment' the other day. Mine did yesterday, suddenly deciding that it would slow down for one car in the lane to my left after about 25 miles of perfect behaviour, and followed by a further 100+miles of perfect behaviour. Seemingly a momentary lapse 😉 This was the first occurrence of the ACC problem since early Sept '21 when I picked up the car after the KPH/MPH fix was applied.

 

If your car thought Sussex was France, then mine must have thought Newport, South Wales was in fact Nieuwpoort, Belgium 🙂

 

Does Newport have an underground moules and frites scene?

 

Interesting that both our cars had ACC wobbles yesterday. It’s probably unlikely that there’s some central VAG server  screwing with everyone’s ACC at the same time but mine was misbehaving at approx 5:30pm. 

24 minutes ago, LenWalton said:

Interesting that both our cars had ACC wobbles yesterday. It’s probably unlikely that there’s some central VAG server  screwing with everyone’s ACC at the same time but mine was misbehaving at approx 5:30pm. 

 

This will get the conspiracy theorists going - mine messed up at about 5:25pm yesterday.

 

@sneal - I blame Bill Gates.

 

I'd be interested to know how the ACC decides which side of the road it thinks it's on. Is it something local in the car? Or is there data sent to it to say it's in a country that drives on the right? I had assumed it was GPS related given my experience in the Passat but that seamlessly knew when it was in either France or the UK and set the ACC accordingly.

6 minutes ago, LenWalton said:

@sneal - I blame Bill Gates.

 

I'd be interested to know how the ACC decides which side of the road it thinks it's on. Is it something local in the car? Or is there data sent to it to say it's in a country that drives on the right? I had assumed it was GPS related given my experience in the Passat but that seamlessly knew when it was in either France or the UK and set the ACC accordingly.

 

I'm curious too. Planning a European road trip for later in the year and want ACC etc. working appropriately. Perhaps an excuse for a short break - assuming France/Covid-19 restrictions allow...

i used my sons superb on my trip to spain and back .no problem at all changed head lights and sat nav worked perfectly .apart it been out of date but thats the sons fault not skoda.

On 06/01/2022 at 11:52, alancha said:

... since I bought it in March 2020.

I hope it's obvious I meant March 2021!  

On 08/01/2022 at 19:36, LenWalton said:

Within 10 mins on a stretch of the M25 near where it meets the M23, the ACC went from working correctly, to thinking it was on the other side of the road, to working correctly again. I didn't change any settings, it did it all by itself. I don't know whether anyone else has seen this kind of behaviour but it's making me think it might be related to location services of some sort. I recently hired a new Passat for a trip to France and that automatically set the ACC to drive on the right - I assume this was done via GPS. Is it possible there's something similar on the Octavia but it's somehow getting confused and suddenly thinks Sussex = France?

 

The next test would be to find location services in the menus somewhere and disable them to see whether that has any impact but I'm curious whether anyone has already tried this.

 

 

So, this does seem a very plausible explanation for the ACC problem - I mean the car being confused about which side of the road we're driving on.  I and others have discussed this and I felt it may explain several otherwise seemingly unrelated problems as I described here:  

 

So, I got my car back from several days at the dealer.  They told me they'd done two software updates:  one to fix the SOS Emergency Call problem (which was only a minor irritation anyway) and the "pop-pop" sound from the speakers when the car loses it's internet connection (which was an even more minor thing). I see the software level shown on the Infotainment has been updated to 1803, whereas it was previously 1788, so clearly something has been done.

 

Anyway, the most interesting thing they told me was they had a technical bulletin from Skoda admitting the existence of the ACC problem and saying they were working on a fix that will be out by Week 25 (i.e. almost the end of June).  Considering now long the problem has been around and reported by so many people, this does seem unreasonably slow but at least they're admitting the problem exists, which no-one in Skoda has officially admitted to me up till now.

 

As an aside, they lent me a Superb iV, which was interesting as it's the first hybrid car I've ever driven (and the first Superb I'd driven).  The Superb seemed very soft - suspension and steering - even in Sport mode, so not really my cup of tea at all.  However, when I got mine back this morning (Octavia vRS petrol), I was blown away by the performance and the responsiveness of the car - just reminding me how much I like my car even despite the software issues.

Interesting news re the fix, thanks for the update. Also good to know they've accepted there is a problem, hopefully this will now filter down to my dealer who seemed unaware of the issue (which given the number of complaints on Skoda, VW and Seat forums seems surprising).

 

It's always nice to spend time in something a little less 'good' to appreciate the car better. I've also got the petrol vRS estate and, when I took it in before Christmas, they gave me a boggo Fabia. My vRS felt soooo good when I got back into it.

I have just taken delivery of a Mk4, a 1.5DSG SEL model, with ACC and Travel Assist.  I had the problem of slowing down when overtaking a slower vehicle on the left, and I noticed at the time that the speed limit indication in the Navigation screen was showing 110, which is the metric equivalent of the 70mph limit on the dual carriageway.  So I wonder if the car had assumed that as the speed limit display was "continental" that I was driving on the right as in France, Germany etc., and not letting me "undertake" a vehicle in a faster lane.

 

I also noted that the ACC was limiting me to 68mph (=110kph) although I was fairly sure that I had set 70mph.

 

The speed limit display problem is intermittent and so far I haven't covered enough miles to try to work out when it is happening.  It is not just on dual carriageways, I have noted a limit indication of 90 when on a single carriageway road with a 40mph limit.

 

I've also had a problem with at least one setting not being retained in the memory - the speed limit warning which I set to 5mph over the limit, but which reverts to the exact limit the next time I drive.

1 hour ago, AJK said:

 

...I noticed at the time that the speed limit indication in the Navigation screen was showing 110, which is the metric equivalent of the 70mph limit on the dual carriageway.  So I wonder if the car had assumed that as the speed limit display was "continental" that I was driving on the right as in France, Germany etc., and not letting me "undertake" a vehicle in a faster lane.

 

 

 

Yes - I don't have Travel Assist so I haven't seen this particular issue, but many others have.  You may already have found it but there's a very long thread on the subject here: 

 

5 hours ago, AJK said:

I've also had a problem with at least one setting not being retained in the memory - the speed limit warning which I set to 5mph over the limit, but which reverts to the exact limit the next time I drive.

I use that setting and on my vehicle it is retained so it is not one of those annoying "revert by design" settings such as A/C Sync, or Auto start/stop, or driving mode, or lane guidance...

16 hours ago, AJK said:

I have just taken delivery of a Mk4, a 1.5DSG SEL model, with ACC and Travel Assist.  I had the problem of slowing down when overtaking a slower vehicle on the left, and I noticed at the time that the speed limit indication in the Navigation screen was showing 110, which is the metric equivalent of the 70mph limit on the dual carriageway.  So I wonder if the car had assumed that as the speed limit display was "continental" that I was driving on the right as in France, Germany etc., and not letting me "undertake" a vehicle in a faster lane.

 

I also noted that the ACC was limiting me to 68mph (=110kph) although I was fairly sure that I had set 70mph.

 

The speed limit display problem is intermittent and so far I haven't covered enough miles to try to work out when it is happening.  It is not just on dual carriageways, I have noted a limit indication of 90 when on a single carriageway road with a 40mph limit.

 

I've also had a problem with at least one setting not being retained in the memory - the speed limit warning which I set to 5mph over the limit, but which reverts to the exact limit the next time I drive.

Have had this problem for a year.  If you have the system activated, and “speed limit preview” turned on, the car will adjust the ACC automatically to match the speed read by the road sign recognition.  Often, this is too slow as it is reading in kph, but occasionally it does the opposite…setting the speed automatically to 90mph or 110mph and zooming away as the signs are read in kph, but the car wants to travel in mph.  
 

 

Edited 11 January, 20224 yr by Pete

On 08/01/2022 at 19:36, LenWalton said:

I had my Mk4 vRS delivered in November '21 and have been lucky so far not to have experienced many of the problems flagged on this forum. The one that has affected me though is the ACC thinking it's driving on the other side of the road and braking when overtaking traffic. It's particularly frustrating because it's such an enjoyable car to drive otherwise.

 

Before Christmas I took it into Garland Aldershot, they took a look and declared a) that they'd not seen the issue on any other cars and b) it was now fixed. Since then it's happened a number of times so it's definitely not resolved but something a bit odd happened today...

 

Within 10 mins on a stretch of the M25 near where it meets the M23, the ACC went from working correctly, to thinking it was on the other side of the road, to working correctly again. I didn't change any settings, it did it all by itself. I don't know whether anyone else has seen this kind of behaviour but it's making me think it might be related to location services of some sort. I recently hired a new Passat for a trip to France and that automatically set the ACC to drive on the right - I assume this was done via GPS. Is it possible there's something similar on the Octavia but it's somehow getting confused and suddenly thinks Sussex = France?

 

The next test would be to find location services in the menus somewhere and disable them to see whether that has any impact but I'm curious whether anyone has already tried this.

 

 

Mine does that most of the time on long journeys, its fine then thinks its on the other side of the road and then can sometimes 'fix' itself and work fine for a bit. Some of the time if I turn ACC off and on it 'fixes' it until it decide to have a wobble again. This morning it was all over the pace coming up the A3 and the M25.... I agree it feels like a location issue where it thinks its jumped to Europe. I have Skoda UK reporting back on my car as it has no Travel assist at all working and ACC intermittent. No idea why they are related, in fact i don't think they are, just an excuse for Skoda not to fix the travel assist! Skoda UK and my dealer have acknowledged the issue with ACC but as previous.... no date for a fix... and pretty much no interest, even though my car 'brake tested' a car on the M3 last month and I rang the police to explain, in case it was deemed as my driving as soooo many people have dashcams now! Sad because I like the car but the software is dangerous. 

I have only had my car one day but following one 250 mile round trip I learnt that during the day or when the motorway was lit the car thought I was in Europe, when the motorway was dark it thought I was in the UK I went past cars on my left without an issue. I also learnt that the car that lane assist will work when it wants to work and will repeatedly tell you to get in lane if you are on a stretch of road with narrow lanes such as those on the A3 near Wimbledon plus my car has no idea that cars are next to it even though I paid for the blind spot detection.

Edited 16 January, 20224 yr by ScottieJ

What I would suggest that you do is get your printed order/invoice and make arrangements for the car to be returned to the dealer for them to activate it FOC as you're either paying or have paid for it as part of the sales contract. 

Quick update on mine:  on Friday afternoon we drove on the M4 J11 to J7 followed by the M40 J2 to J1, and then in the evening the M25 J16 to J12 and then M3 J2 to J6.  The ACC problem occurred several times on the M4 mostly between J11 and J10, so it definitely hasn't gone away, but it then worked perfectly for the rest of the round trip.  Interestingly, that stretch of the M4 has proved particularly troublesome previously, so I agree with some others who feel it may be location dependent to some extent at least.

 

One other thing I noticed on the M4 after I'd moved into Lane 1 just before exiting:  I was going faster than a car in the middle lane and ACC was going to allow me to pass it on the left, which it's not supposed to do.  I have seen this before and it does support the theory that the car is confused about which side of the road we drive on in the UK, as others have observed.

To add my latest, I drove up the A3 from Portsmouth, round M25 and up M40 last nigh (arriving around 0200 so all in the dark. ACC worked fine on A3 (usually it goes wrong half way up), but failed for the whole of the M25 (A3 to M40), and was fine again up the M40.... all very bizarre. As noted above Lane assist was a bit erratic, and never picked up the solid white line on the left on the motorways. I am due a call from Skoda UK on my car but doubt there will be anything new. 

Today I drove from Bournemouth to St Albans.  On starting the car the system seemed to switch off and restart, user “Guest”.  Had the inside lane tracking for 1 hour until we stopped at Services.  Switched on and selected “Me” as had set up my own settings.  The inside lane issue was no more, and aac was tracking correctly the outside lane vehicle when appropriate.

 

All in all I LOVE my Octavia.   Peter.