I am interested to buy a Karoq with Travel Assist - my question is if it can work like this:

a) I think it mentions that speed restriction signs would be recognized. What I like to know: If I switch it on and approaching a village will it recognize and reduce from 60 to 30 - and then if a 20 sign comes up reduce to that? then at a 30 sign will it speed up again etc? This kind of situation happens all the time where I live

b) somewhere I read some systems also take note of gps data like road bends - so would it slow down if you approach a bend or a roundabout?

I know as driver you still have to pay attention anyway but I could imagine it would reduce stress if it could deal with these kind of situations without having to break and then enable the cruise control again.

I read somewhere that in the current models the camera has been upgraded, so wondering if it means this more "intelligent" form of cruise control is now possible?

Thanks for your help - my first question posted here, I hope I have not overlooked an earlier post by somebody else

Claus

For my MY21 Karoq, I find the Travel Assist feature does no more that the Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Assist do anyway. (Note, my Lane Assist only gives a gentle nudge into the centre of a lane, and the Adaptive Cruise Control doesn't reduce speed as you approach corners unlike the version fitted to newer models such as the Octavia (I think).)

 

I have Traffic Sign Recognition in my car, which in theory displays the current speed limit on the digital instrument panel. However it gets confused when I pass junctions where the speed limit refers to the other road, or when the sign is hidden by overgrown trees and bushes. When I first got my car, it also seemed to be reacting to speed limit information on the map database, as it would occasionally switch to the metric equivalent as if the map data was wrongly coded.  (For instance I could be driving down a street with a 30 limit, and it would suddenly display 50 instead! And this happened regularly at the same place each time.) I haven't seen this for months, so has probably been cured by either a system software update or navigation database update. 

 

My car's menu system lets me set up the Traffic Sign Recognition system to give an audible warning if I exceed the current speed limit (as seen by the car's software) but I turned that off because there were too many false alarms. I certainly wouldn't trust it to brake or accelerate to what it believes to be the correct speed!

 

I seldom use the cruise control, but use the Speed Limiter function instead. That lets me change the maximum speed as required by flicking a stalk in 5 mph increments as the limits change, and spend less time scrutinising the speedometer. 

 

Another problem is that many people have found they get warning messages saying the Travel Assist is not available - even when it is not being used. I used to get this regularly, with the warning only going when I stopped and restarted the engine, but an update to the system software and change of steering wheel seems to have cured the problem for me. Others though find they still get the warnings several times a day, and apparently VAG are no longer changing steering wheels to solve the problem Instead (in Germany at least) owners are being told that there will be another software update where owners will be given the choice of disconnecting the Travel Assist and Emergency Assist, or putting up with the false warnings!  

 

You seem to be seeing Travel Assist as a halfway step to an autonomous car. My experience is that the hardware and software is nowhere near that functionality, and won't be for years. Especially as the system can't cope with hidden speed limit signs, and those referring to adjacent roads. Mine even ignores half the overhead signs on motorways!

 

Chris

I'm not sure that the info about Travel Assist is very different from the Adaptive Cruise on my Karoq. The car generally knows the correct speed limit. If you set my car to a 50mph cruise on a 60mph road the car will happily go along at 50mph. When I reach a 30 limit the car will brake, often quite uncomfortably to 30mph before the sign, often starting to brake before the signs become visible. When it then goes to 20 the car slows to 20, then as the limit increases the speed invreases. Infortunately at the start of the next 60 limit stretch it will speed up to 60 mph, not the 50 mpg that I had previously set. It will also give warnings of approaching bends and slow, uncomfortably and rather late, to the speed it warns about. Note the caveat that as my car is manual there has to be intervention to change gear, a DSG car will change gear.

 

From what I've experienced the car can pick up its limit info from two sources, the signs and the internal maps. It seems to be OK most of the time. There is one peice of road that does confuse it. I use one stretch of 70mph dual carriageway with a 70 limiy. There is a slip road and right at the start of the slip road there are 40 limit signs. Despite me wanting to carry on down the 70 road the car, in its wisdom decides that I need to slow to 40 and slams the brakes on, which I consider somewhat dangerous.