Skoda Rapid 2017 integrated Satnav not receiving TMC traffic messages.

[Mattnam]

It’s all over Honda forums too

[joek666]

Reading one of those recent Honda threads I see there was a reply from Honda to say Honda agreed for the service to be turned off. People with new/nearly new vehicles having functionality deactivated is absolutely shocking to be honest. Can't speak about Honda, but Skoda should immediately provide free Skoda Connect services to everyone affected. 

[Obbor]

I rang Skoda UK customer service about this and they were about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike, so I nipped up to my local Skoda dealer. I explained the problem and a nice young lady came and fiddled with the infotainment system, she had no joy, so she went and got a mechanic, excuse me, a technician who did the same with the same result and said that's the best it will be ....................unless........... you want to book it in for us to do some diagnostics,  we can look at the back end of the system and see if it can be fixed.

I think someone has already posted a comment about that and the result was money down the drain.

 

I declined the offer and said looks like I'll live with it. He then said you could always use WAZE that updates on the go, to which I replied yes, so did my Octavia till 4 weeks ago!......................

[PetrolDave]

21 hours ago, joek666 said:

Skoda should immediately provide free Skoda Connect services to everyone affected. 

That won't help those of us with older Skoda models that do not support Skoda Connect.

 

For us there is no solution I am aware of  since the only way the infotainment systems we have can get traffic data is via RDS/TMC?

[joek666]

9 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

That won't help those of us with older Skoda models that do not support Skoda Connect.

 

For us there is no solution I am aware of  since the only way the infotainment systems we have can get traffic data is via RDS/TMC?

 

Fair point. Even more reason for Skoda to sort this problem out.

 

I still find it incredulous that this service could be switched off without any advance warning or communications to vehicle owners. By comparison, the proposed end to banking cheques was widely communicated in advance and in the end it was u-turned because so many still use them for various reasons. The proposed deactivation of the analogue phone system seems to be going ahead, but not without a lot of communications and advanced warning - I believe it's supposed to take until 2025.

[PetrolDave]

4 minutes ago, joek666 said:

The proposed deactivation of the analogue phone system seems to be going ahead, but not without a lot of communications and advanced warning - I believe it's supposed to take until 2025.

And there is still no proper solution for people living in mobile not spots to have the ability to make emergency calls during a power cut if the power cut is longer than 1 hour (the time the available battery backup option lasts).

[joek666]

1 minute ago, PetrolDave said:

And there is still no proper solution for people living in mobile not spots to have the ability to make emergency calls during a power cut if the power cut is longer than 1 hour (the time the available battery backup option lasts).

 

Yes - not to go off topic too much but it's another example of a half baked idea to 'improve' things. 

[bigade1]

31 minutes ago, PetrolDave said:

That won't help those of us with older Skoda models that do not support Skoda Connect.

 

For us there is no solution I am aware of  since the only way the infotainment systems we have can get traffic data is via RDS/TMC?

 

The best and easiest solution that I can think of would be for VW/Skoda to move to an alternative RDS-TMC supplier e.g. INRIX. The only caveat being that for this solution to work the TMC tables and TMC codes contained in our existing maps would need to be changed or altered. This could be implemented easily in future maps. It maybe that the actual issue does not lie directly with the vehicle manufacturer but with the maps supplier whom I believe is a company called Here. Perhaps they deal with the RDS-TMC licence as the actual TMC data supplier details are stored in the actual map files.

Edited 25 April, 2023 by bigade1

[joek666]

6 minutes ago, bigade1 said:

 

The best and easiest solution that I can think of would be for VW/Skoda to move to an alternative RDS-TMC supplier e.g. INRIX. The only caveat being that for this solution to work the TMC tables and TMC codes contained in our existing maps would need to be changed or altered. This could be implemented easily in future maps.

 

This makes sense. Having said that, this is the description of the Trafficmaster service on Wikipedia:

 

Quote

Trafficmaster, a Teletrac Navman brand, operates a national service using local and regional radio broadcaster Global Radio to ensure reception across mainland Britain. This system uses road-side infrastructure to measure vehicle travel time between sensors placed a few miles apart, and uses number plate recognition technology. Data sources used by Teletrac Navman include Floating Vehicle data from fitted telematics devices, 8500 under-road inductance loops, over 1800 CCTV cameras, Congestion Zone charging cameras, Police control rooms plus a proprietary network of ANPR and IR sensors cameras across the road network. Teletrac Navman provide traffic data on RDS-TMC to major automotive OEM brands including VW, Audi, Skoda, Mazda, Chrysler, Honda, Seat and Vauxhall. Teletrac Navman also supply the Department for Transport with historical traffic data for modelling purposes which is used by central and local governments and their sub-contractors when analyzing road network improvement opportunities.

 

That sounds like quite a lot of infrastructure to just chuck in the bin. I would hazard a guess that all of the above infrastructure still remains, and it's just the transmission of the data via RDS-TMC that has been arbitrarily and abruptly switched off. The easiest solution would surely be to just flick the switch back on...

 

We still don't know yet if this is a case of car manufacturers deciding to stop paying Trafficmaster for the data, or Trafficmaster deciding it no longer wants to provide the data to car manufacturers.

[NigelR99]

This all sounds like when the BBC decided to turn off the BBC Red button text service because they thought no one used it. Public outcry has kept it in place. Of course if you ask a sales person in Currys they tell you it was switched off in 2012 and none of their TV support it. My wife wouldn't be without it on our modern LG TV!

[langers2k]

At a guess, Trafficmaster have turned off TMC over FM as they want to force manufactures to start using TPEG (TMC over DAB) instead. That way they only need to maintain one set of infrastructure rather than two, especially as the push to move from FM to digital services continues - even if it keeps getting pushed back.

 

I've no idea if the MIB headunits support TPEG or not 😕

 

Interesting thread here about TMC and related settings, it might be possible to create a suitable config file to add to the SD card to get it working again: https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/index.php?threads/enabling-tmc-in-the-uk-is-it-possible.386243/page-2

[NigelR99]

My MIB2 unit supports DAB and that is what I use, somewhere I read that the device uses a second tuner and always picks up the FM transmission for TMC even if you are on DAB. 

[joek666]

3 hours ago, NigelR99 said:

My MIB2 unit supports DAB and that is what I use, somewhere I read that the device uses a second tuner and always picks up the FM transmission for TMC even if you are on DAB. 

 

Same, and yes I believe that's how TMC works, it's constantly receiving the updates, even if you're not listening to the radio at all.

 

3 hours ago, langers2k said:

At a guess, Trafficmaster have turned off TMC over FM as they want to force manufactures to start using TPEG (TMC over DAB) instead. That way they only need to maintain one set of infrastructure rather than two, especially as the push to move from FM to digital services continues - even if it keeps getting pushed back.

 

I've no idea if the MIB headunits support TPEG or not 😕

 

Interesting thread here about TMC and related settings, it might be possible to create a suitable config file to add to the SD card to get it working again: https://www.golfmk7.com/forums/index.php?threads/enabling-tmc-in-the-uk-is-it-possible.386243/page-2

 

Thank you, very interesting. Can't claim to understand everything in the thread you linked to but I get the gist. It may be that Skoda could fix this issue if they rolled out an update to either allow reception of TMC over DAB, or alternatively switched vehicles over to INRIX.

[bigade1]

14 hours ago, langers2k said:

I've no idea if the MIB headunits support TPEG or not 😕

 

I assume the answer is no because I've already tried enabling TPEG on my Amundsen MIB2 using VCDS. Unfortunately it came up with an error message stating that it was out of the range of the controller and it therefore refused to accept the adaptation. I'm surmising that the unit hasn't got the necessary hardware to support it.

[langers2k]

6 minutes ago, bigade1 said:

I assume the answer is no

 

Hard to say!

 

I did some light googling last night:

- I found a linkedin profile of a software engineer who had listed working on various MIB versions and implementing TPEG on them

- Reports of TPEG over mobile data working on MIB in other regions (via the Skoda/VW LTE Carstick or WiFi hotspot)

- Inbuilt support for something called "freeDAB-TPEG", not sure which EU regions it covers

- Using INRIX for TMC in other regions

 

Nothing concrete but it does appear VAG have done at least some TPEG work on these units so it's a plausible thing. I've just not sure if it's a firmware, map data or configuration change to get it working

 

18 minutes ago, bigade1 said:

I've already tried enabling TPEG on my Amundsen MIB2 using VCDS

 

I'd be interested to know what you tried to change.

[bigade1]

1 hour ago, langers2k said:

I'd be interested to know what you tried to change.

 

I tried to change the 5F value ENG 109862-ENG 126994-Vehicle_configuration-TPEG_availability from OFF to On.

[Mattnam]

I've dropped an email to the Skoda UK MD, perhaps a few more along this theme would help move things along?

 

Dear Mr Bowden,

 

I am writing to you as myself and pretty much every owner of a Skoda(and other VAG vehicles) have been hit with an issue wherein the TMC function within the built-in sattelite navigaion has ceased to function. Despite numerous approaches via Skoda Customer Services we seem to be no closer to getting an official response regarding this. In fact the stock answer from Customer Services is to take the vehicle into a dealership for diagnosis, despite this being an external issue (in fact my local Skoda dealership checked and are also affected, including their own personal vehicles and have confirmed there is nothing they can do).

 

The issue appears to be that Trafficmaster, who provided the servers to VAG and also Honda, Chrysler, Fiat and Vauxhall, stopped transmitting RDS-TMC data in the UK (in their words, as it was unsupported). This has effectively cripped the Dynamic Routing function of the in-built sattelite navigation as the system is no longer able to pick up information on potential traffic issues on the route selected. This in turn will result in more vehicles stuck in traffic and the subsequent knock-on effect to the environment.

 

The other RDS-TMS supplier in the UK (INRIX) have confirmed they are still transmitting data but it appears that there would have to be some kind of firmware/map update to allow Skoda vehicles to use this (and, one would assume a licence agreement between Skoda and INRIX).

 

I would appreciate it if you could arrange for someone to provide a definitive statement on what is going to be done to resolve this issue for what will be be affecting tens of thousands of Skoda users currently.

 

For information, my particular vehicle is a Skoda Superb SE Business, Registration *********. But I would encourage you to review the BriSkoda forum online, specifically the following thread: https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/512443-tmc-traffic-events-no-longer-being-receivedfirmware-update-required/page/8/

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

[Scalachris]

I have just come across this topic as the online current traffic situation (inc. the green line down the side, etc.) has suddenly stopped working in our 1969 Scala.  I checked that our licence from Skoda Connect was still current (yes, 6 months still to go), and phoned our local Skoda dealer, Yeomans of Exeter.  The person in Service who answered the phone did not know of any problems, but another of their team said that they had a similar case last week.  They said it was a software problem, and I have to take it in to them for 4 hours in a fortninght's time.  I sincerely hope that I will not get charged for anything, particularly as we have purchased an extended warranty.....

[Rapidd]

My local dealer said my 66 Rapid required a firmware update. Cost £99 , still no. TMC

 

[Obbor]

Did you get your money back?