Something weird occurred when I was pulling into work’s car park an hour ago. I’ve been driving my Fabia SE L about a month and it’s not happened before. Our car park at work is allowing wildflowers to grow, to help nature flourish, but they haven’t got round to trimming the car parking spaces yet. So the effect is that we’ve got lots of pretty wildflowers and they are also growing in the parking spaces.

 

Anyway, I was reversing into a parking spot and my Fabia suddenly felt like it was crunching to a halt when I was maybe three-quarters of the way back into my space. The best way I can describe it is if you were reversing at about 5mph and a child in the passenger seat suddenly pulled the handbrake on. I’ve got reverse parking sensors in my SE L but it doesn’t have a camera, so I think it’s the standard reversing pack. I think that the reverse beep made a solid beep at the same time, but I can’t be sure because my main thought at the time was that I’d reversed over a pretty large breezeblock or something and my senses were more focused on getting out and having a look.

 

I got out and had a look and there was nothing underneath my car. My heart slowed down a bit. I had a look round the sides and back. Nothing obvious. My heart went back to normal. No external damage to my month-old Fabia, thank christ.

 

The only thing I could see was what I would describe as a “sprig” of wildflowers, maybe about 20 inches high, which was slap bang at the rear of my car and lightly brushing the rear bumper. Sprouting straight out of the ground. Imagine if your mum had put a boquet of flowers in a vase and set it down into a car parking space. That sort of size. Just a sprig of wildflowers growing out of the ground, about the size of a bunch of daffodils.

 

So, had I triggered some kind of emergency stop system when I reversed into this meaningless obstacle? I kind of hope I did, because if that’s what it was then there’s nothing mechanically wrong with my car and it simply overreacted to a sensor input. Anyone else had their reverse park system suddenly decide it was gonna stop the car?

 

I should add that work is fairly quiet today. It’s a typical Monday and there were no other cars near the spot I picked. The car park is only about a third full.

Edited 20 May, 20242 yr by JFrankMiller

Exact same thing happened to me whilst reversing into my garage after 6 months of ownership

Scared the daylights out of me, as not happened previously.

After some research the auto brake whilst reversing can be turn off in info scene after going into car.

The sensors still work as before without the auto braking.

Hope this helps, no idea why it decided to activate after 6 months.

Thank you! That’s really reassuring to know! It was such an awful, sudden, halt that I thought something had malfunctioned. I will have a look at my settings screen when I get back in the car. I’m working late and it’s still in the car park, but it will be the first thing I check in a few minutes. 

8 hours ago, Bob217 said:

Exact same thing happened to me whilst reversing into my garage after 6 months of ownership

Scared the daylights out of me, as not happened previously.

After some research the auto brake whilst reversing can be turn off in info scene after going into car.

The sensors still work as before without the auto braking.

Hope this helps, no idea why it decided to activate after 6 months.

 

I found it in my infotainment screen > car settings.

 

It's called "manoeuvre braking" or something similar and I turned it off.

I had this happen to me in a pub car park reversing into a spot where the grass verge behind went up hill quite sharply.  Frightening at the time but the car is simply doing what it should and preventing you reversing into something you shouldn't.  I would leave it switched on if I were you.  A good safety feature.

20 hours ago, nbramwel said:

...I would leave it switched on if I were you.  A good safety feature.

 

I agree.

 

There's a fair amount of BRISKODA discussion about this feature where other Skoda models are concerned.

 

Unless there's a persuasive reason why the feature is a regular nuisance (say reversing into a narrow garage) the 'autonomous reversing braking' feature might save an accident.

 

On my Fabia Mk4 the feature is accessed through the infotainment screen through the VEHICLE settings, then choosing "Parking and manoeuvring", followed by "Manoeuvre braking" and selecting "Active" or not. (Images below)

 

 

Yep. That's exactly the same on my MK4 @DerekU

 

I'm still undecided about turning it back on, because it was such an awful jolt for something as innocuous as a sprig of plant life touching my back bumper which would have just retreated underneath the car.

 

But I do see the value in having it on. Hmm. Maybe I will turn it back on and be more mindful if I'm driving through shrubbery in future! 🤣

 

The main thing that's come out of this is that I was relieved it wasn't a feature and something bad hadn't happened. I guess it was worth finding out in a relatively quiet car park and not somewhere busy. 

A small child running behind the car and not being hit means every false stop is worth it.   Common is a child or big stupid child puts a bike or scooter down behind you.  Again thank goodness for technology.