Hi guys.

 

New to the forum.

 

Looking for some help with ACC.

 

2019 Kodiaq Edition is my most recent acquisition and the first car I've ever had with ACC (I had a motorbike with ACC and quickly got rid of it because it's useless, arguably dangerous on a motorbike, but that's another topic).

 

I just can't get on with it on a car either!  I thought I'd love it, but the fact it won't undertake, and more so the fact that it doesn't anticipate slowing traffic further ahead than just the car in front, I find (from a taxi driver's perspective) it doesn't give as smooth and comfortable passenger experience as I can give myself by anticipating the slowing in traffic and lifting off the throttle before everyone else in front of me has when I see 5 or 6 cars ahead that the traffic is building up, I find the ACC quite jerky in comparison to the ride I can deliver manually.  But I do like to use cruise control a lot, both on motorway and on 30mph roads.

 

I've tried playing with the distance setting but close, medium, far, doesn't matter, still just gets on my nerves and I'm longing to have old fashioned cruise control.

 

Is there a way of disabling the adaptive part of the cruise control so I can just use the CC in the old fashioned way?

 

There's nothing on the stalk and I've gone all though the menus and can't find a way of being able to use CC without the adaptive part.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Travis

Edited 29 January, 20251 yr by TravisBickle007

52 minutes ago, TravisBickle007 said:

Hi guys.

 

New to the forum.

 

Looking for some help with ACC.

 

2019 Kodiaq Edition is my most recent acquisition and the first car I've ever had with ACC (I had a motorbike with ACC and quickly got rid of it because it's useless, arguably dangerous on a motorbike, but that's another topic).

 

I just can't get on with it on a car either!  I thought I'd love it, but the fact it won't undertake, and more so the fact that it doesn't anticipate slowing traffic further ahead than just the car in front, I find (from a taxi driver's perspective) it doesn't give as smooth and comfortable passenger experience as I can give myself by anticipating the slowing in traffic and lifting off the throttle before everyone else in front of me has when I see 5 or 6 cars ahead that the traffic is building up, I find the ACC quite jerky in comparison to the ride I can deliver manually.  But I do like to use cruise control a lot, both on motorway and on 30mph roads.

 

I've tried playing with the distance setting but close, medium, far, doesn't matter, still just gets on my nerves and I'm longing to have old fashioned cruise control.

 

Is there a way of disabling the adaptive part of the cruise control so I can just use the CC in the old fashioned way?

 

There's nothing on the stalk and I've gone all though the menus and can't find a way of being able to use CC without the adaptive part.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Travis

 

I have ACC on our Karoq. Spent extra specifying it and wish I hadn't wasted my money. You can turn the adaptive part off and essentially use it as a normal cruise control, although I can't tell you how as I did it 2-3 years ago. It still controls the distance from the car in front and applies brakes to prevent overspeeding down hills.

I'm wondering if it needs to be at the dealer or with VCDS?

38 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

It still controls the distance from the car in front

 

Errr, that’s the whole point of ACC. If it is still doing that, then you haven’t disabled it! ‘Normal’ cruise control will just maintain a constant speed until told not to (either by the driver or by hitting something in front of it).

 

1 hour ago, TravisBickle007 said:

I find the ACC quite jerky in comparison to the ride I can deliver manually.

 

What driving mode do you use regularly? Have you tried Eco, or at least Individual with the ACC set to Eco? It’s pretty smooth then, IMHO - unlike Sport, where it will go speeding up to the car in the front before braking.

 

1 hour ago, TravisBickle007 said:

the fact that it doesn't anticipate slowing traffic further ahead than just the car in front

 

How do you expect it to do that? You can see the traffic and make the distinction between the different cars etc.… the radar is essentially looking for the nearest ‘thing’ and controlling the distance to that.

 

1 hour ago, TravisBickle007 said:

it won't undertake

 

You shouldn’t be undertaking… but ignoring that, you can flick the stalk or blip the accelerator when the icon comes up on the dash showing the traffic to your right. A 2019 Edition should have Traffic Jam Assist, so should happily move in a queue, even if the lane to the right isn’t (at low speeds, obviously).

 

17 minutes ago, TravisBickle007 said:

I'm wondering if it needs to be at the dealer or with VCDS?

 

A dealer won’t be able to do anything with it - but it’s possible to code something so the driving assistant menu has an option to switch between ACC and normal cruise control. Certainly seen this as a thing with OBDeleven, so assume you can do the same with VCDS.

 

19 minutes ago, Yogi-Bear said:

What driving mode do you use regularly? Have you tried Eco, or at least Individual with the ACC set to Eco? It’s pretty smooth then, IMHO - unlike Sport, where it will go speeding up to the car in the front before braking.

To be fair, it is usually in sport mode or normal mode.  I find the gear change and pickup quite laggy on normal mode which is why I started using sport, I've had it remapped which has improved the lag and gear change latency, but it's still not great.  Sport seems to keep it at a higher rev for longer, so is more responsive and quicker to change gear when required.  But yeah, I see your point that is definitely worth experimenting with!

 

22 minutes ago, Yogi-Bear said:

How do you expect it to do that? You can see the traffic and make the distinction between the different cars etc.… the radar is essentially looking for the nearest ‘thing’ and controlling the distance to that.

I don't expect it to do that!  Merely stating the fact that it doesn't.  It's obvious, really, that it'll only go on what's directly in front of it, doesn't make it any less frustrating when I spotted 10 seconds ago that we need to slow down and unnecessary braking is applied late.  But it also seems that it MUST do its best to maintain the selected distance from the car in front at all times so seems to speed up and brake needlessly harshly in order to maintain that exact given distance.  If it had some sort of acceptable variance in distance that it could operate between minimum and maximum, and accelerate and brake smoothly between that variance, it would be an improvement on the way it works currently, but yeah as you said above trying it in eco mode might help, I'll give that a try!  Having done IAM recently it's become second nature to almost never need to use the brake because looking multiple vehicles ahead, anticipating traffic slowing down, and adjusting throttle use to reduce speed before brakes are even needed, has become second nature.

 

25 minutes ago, Yogi-Bear said:

You shouldn’t be undertaking

Sometimes it's necessary to.  There's only so long you can wait patiently at a safe distance behind someone hogging the outside lane, even after a couple of short polite flashes to remind the driver in front that there's someone behind them.  I do a lot of very late and very early hours in my job, the number of people half asleep at the wheel is truly staggering and alarming!  Eventually, you will have to perform an undertake to make any progress.  I never used to flash as a rule, just wait behind patiently for a while and then go straight to the undertake.  But my IAM observer pointed out it's perfectly acceptable and reasonable to flash someone up, if done in the right manner, as flashing is intended to alert someone of your presence, if they're hogging the outside lane (and have been for some time), it's reasonable to assume they don't know you're behind them.  So if, after a couple of polite flashes from a safe distance, they persist in lane hogging, I'm going for the undertake as briskly as possible to minimise the amount of time spent in the 'danger zone'.

 

27 minutes ago, Yogi-Bear said:

you can flick the stalk or blip the accelerator when the icon comes up on the dash showing the traffic to your right

Yep I get that, it's still a minor inconvenience and annoyance.

39 minutes ago, Yogi-Bear said:

A dealer won’t be able to do anything with it - but it’s possible to code something so the driving assistant menu has an option to switch between ACC and normal cruise control. Certainly seen this as a thing with OBDeleven, so assume you can do the same with VCDS.

That's reassuring.  A friend has VCDS so we'll have a dig through that and see what can be done.

Sorry, I get confused by some of the acronyms used. I was referring to the type of CC which adjusts to the speed limit which the car obtains from either the satnav or the road signs and slow you down for bends. I could set a 50mph cruise on a 60mph road, then the cruise reset at 30mph through a village, then went back up to 60mpg rather than 50mph on reaching the 60mph signs. I don't want the car to tell me what the cruise should be set at, I wish it to set it to what I want. Also braking for bends was too harsh and uncomfortably fast.

 

I am happy with how my car is set, whatever it is called. I am happy that it keeps a good distance from the traffic in front, although I would actually prefer to not have braking on downhill sections as the application is rather crude and uncomfortable.

6 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

Also braking for bends was too harsh and uncomfortably fast

Yep I find this with my ACC also.  Last time I was following a car on a 30mph road, the car in front went round a sharp left-hand bend so went out of sight of my radar, and my car lunged forward at speed, right at the time when I should have been lifting off the throttle to slow down before the bend.

 

Highly frustrating!

 

6 minutes ago, Routemaster1461 said:

I would actually prefer to not have braking on downhill sections

Agreed.  I'd prefer to carry momentum and intervene with the brake pedal gently if necessary.  Again, if there was a wider range of allowed variance in speed it would help, but the car just brakes unnecessarily harshly in order to maintain that exact speed set.  This is not as much of an annoyance for me, though, as the ACC refusing to undertake and not 'looking beyond the car in front'.

Edited 29 January, 20251 yr by TravisBickle007

3 hours ago, TravisBickle007 said:

Last time I was following a car on a 30mph road

 

Just so you know, ACC is designed for use on motorways and dual carriageways, not slow roads with sharp bends that can cause the car in front to suddenly ‘disappear’ from the view of the radar. You’re discovering all the use-cases that ACC was never designed for and complaining that it can’t handle them.

 

Essentially, it sounds like you’re expecting ACC to be akin to autonomous driving, which it really isn’t - perhaps the full-on self-driving abilities of a Tesla would suit you better?

3 hours ago, Routemaster1461 said:

I was referring to the type of CC which adjusts to the speed limit which the car obtains from either the satnav or the road signs and slow you down for bends. I could set a 50mph cruise on a 60mph road, then the cruise reset at 30mph through a village, then went back up to 60mpg rather than 50mph on reaching the 60mph signs. I don't want the car to tell me what the cruise should be set at, I wish it to set it to what I want.

 

Yeah, I’ve no idea what that bit is / should be called. Maybe it is part of the ‘Adaptive’ bit. But I too have turned it off because it’s annoying. My particular gripe is that it seems to slow down far too early for roundabouts - really feels like it’s going to stop about 50m short.

I’m with OP regarding all the down sides of ACC.

 

It’s a constant battle. And full of unwanted surprises.

 

I play with ACC in my wife’s car, but do really enjoy my “basic” cruise in my Bear.

 

I just got home and the last stretch was on a quiet motorway.  Joined motorway, set cruise at my version of 70 mph, slid happily from lane to lane to pass, didn’t have to ask permission to cross a white line, didn’t have the brakes slamming on.

 

Love it.

 

Can’t understand why a 70 mph car way ahead of me had the brake lights come on when the road was empty.

I turned the traffic sign bit off too.  ACC is a must for me- would never go back to std CC- just too many cars on the road thesedays

25 minutes ago, BoxerBoy said:

Joined motorway, set cruise at my version of 70 mph, slid happily from lane to lane to pass, didn’t have to ask permission to cross a white line, didn’t have the brakes slamming on.

My sentiments exactly!

 

25 minutes ago, xspartx said:

I turned the traffic sign bit off too.  ACC is a must for me- would never go back to std CC- just too many cars on the road thesedays

Not intended as a dig, but if you're content to just waft along semi-aware of your surroundings and let the car do all the thinking, it's great.  Personally, I'm now hardwired to look and think ahead and the lack of ACC's ability to replicate smooth throttle and brake control through anticipation of events 6 cars ahead, just does my head in!

If I recall correctly, it is not possible to (easily) do an ACC delete with VCDS on ACC_MQB_Conti (distance control module on MK1 Kodiaq). You look around a bit on VCDS forums, but I think it requires swapping the radar unit with a one from a car that didn't have the ACC specced.

 

However, if you want to use the normal CC mode, there's a trick you can do with the speed limiter. Just set set the speed and hold the throttle pedal, then you effectively get normal CC.

@BoxerBoy similarly, with the note that I normally signal "move right" with a 3-flash chop on dual cabbageways and may or may not signal "move left" depending on other traffic and its behaviour.

On 30/01/2025 at 21:20, Paws4Thot said:

@BoxerBoy similarly, with the note that I normally signal "move right" with a 3-flash chop on dual cabbageways and may or may not signal "move left" depending on other traffic and its behaviour.

I use indicators - on 2 wheels and 4 - less than most road users, because I don’t drive like a robot so pride myself on only indicating if there is another road user who may benefit from my indicator.

 

And that includes a dog walker at the side road I’m about to turn in.

 

Especially on a bike, you’re Gone before the dozy box drivers know your there.

 

ps - not having a dig at you in any way 

26 minutes ago, BoxerBoy said:

And that includes a dog walker at the side road I’m about to turn in.

 

Even if you are indicating you have to give way to them

On 31/01/2025 at 22:07, Stonekeeper said:

 

Even if you are indicating you have to give way to them

 

In my example I was simply informing the walker of my intention. In the absence of any other vehicles.

 

He wasn't about to cross.  That's another story.

On 29/01/2025 at 22:45, Yogi-Bear said:

Essentially, it sounds like you’re expecting ACC to be akin to autonomous driving, which it really isn’t - perhaps the full-on self-driving abilities of a Tesla would suit you better?

Just coming back to this - no, I find myself longing for the driver aids to be LESS intrusive, not more so.  I was merely pointing out some of the shortcomings of ACC that I have learned since ownership, not declaring my desire of more or better input from the car.  I've never driven a Tesla or an autonomous car but I doubt even the most advanced AI systems could anticipate braking and coasting for passenger comfort as well as a human on their A-game.

 

 

 

On 29/01/2025 at 18:45, Yogi-Bear said:

What driving mode do you use regularly? Have you tried Eco, or at least Individual with the ACC set to Eco? It’s pretty smooth then, IMHO - unlike Sport, where it will go speeding up to the car in the front before braking.

I just got back from Gatwick having played with the 'individual mode' settings as you suggested, I left everything on normal except ACC set to comfort (not on eco as you suggested, although I dare say they're probably similar???), and I have to say this has MUCH improved the comfort and unnecessary braking, on all distance settings!  Probably to the point that I would now consider that the benefits of ACC outweigh the frustrations (just tapping it into cancel when I see brake lights ahead or another vehicle indicating to change into my lane, which I was doing before anyway, it was just the harsh braking and accelerating that was frustrating me, even when distance was set to 'far' it would still accelerate and brake harshly but then also invite everyone behind you to undertake you and cut you up (thereby inducing even more unnecessary braking) just to add insult to injury).  So, thanks for the tip regarding customising the ACC setting in 'individual mode'!  I'm left wondering what the difference is between comfort and eco, however, specifically in regard to the ACC setting in 'individual mode'.

 

Google AI Overview has this to say about it:

 

When choosing between "Comfort" and "Eco" settings on a Skoda's Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), "Comfort" will prioritize a smoother driving experience with less aggressive braking and acceleration, while "Eco" will focus on maximizing fuel efficiency by making more subtle adjustments to maintain distance; essentially, "Comfort" prioritizes rider comfort while "Eco" prioritizes fuel economy.
Key points to remember:
Comfort:
Maintains a larger gap between your car and the vehicle ahead, resulting in smoother braking and acceleration.
Eco:
Maintains a smaller gap, leading to more gentle braking and acceleration to optimize fuel usage.

 

Seems to contradict itself somewhat.

 

Presumably, while individual mode is set, using the gear lever to tap in and out of sport won't override the ACC being set to comfort/eco?

 

Last question - is there a way to make the car start in individual mode every time you get in it?

Edited 5 February, 20251 yr by TravisBickle007

1 hour ago, TravisBickle007 said:

Last question - is there a way to make the car start in individual mode every time you get in it?

 

I don't believe so. A common complaint.

1 hour ago, TravisBickle007 said:

Presumably, while individual mode is set, using the gear lever to tap in and out of sport won't override the ACC being set to comfort/eco?

 

Not sure, tbh. I was under the impression it just changes the throttle/gearbox to sport (and the stupid noise maker in the vRS)… but I may be wrong.

 

In any case, surely if you’re tapping into sport it’s so you can mash the throttle, which would override the ACC anyway?

 

Glad the tip helped and you’ve found some way to make it work (better) for you.

On 30/01/2025 at 20:23, BoxerBoy said:

Can’t understand why a 70 mph car way ahead of me had the brake lights come on when the road was empty.

 

ACC going downhill?

On 05/02/2025 at 12:42, SimonB68 said:

 

I don't believe so. A common complaint.

there is for a car pre-facelift. My 2018 stays in individual mode.

On 05/02/2025 at 13:02, Stonekeeper said:

 

ACC going downhill?

Absolutely.

 

On 05/02/2025 at 11:12, TravisBickle007 said:

....

 

Last question - is there a way to make the car start in individual mode every time you get in it?

so, let's go through some of this:
 - first, the experience with the slow ACC stuff is not as good as it is with the high level. So the cruise which can work up to 210 or 240 has better far sight than the stuff to 160 (which is what is normally built in). The system can only "see" a relatively limited distance (if you think in terms of m/s, 100km/h or 60mph is about 28m/s, so 2 seconds of view is around 60m. 5 seconds conversely around 150m. My Kodiaq will see stuff relatively early, but the way it deals with it - yes, similar to your experiences. The higher level stuff will warn nicely way earlier - I had an incident in Germany the other week at 190 km/h where the system warned me when I'd already started to move but it was very much aware of the surroundings. No Cruise on, but the sensors worked way better in that car than the Kodiaq or the VW or the Seat I'd had a few weeks earlier. At 200km/h, that 5 seconds of view needs to be 300m+ and correspondingly more accurate and snappy in decision making.  My Kodiaq is per default set to the shortest distance unless it's an A road where I know I can't overtake.

 

But: the connection between ACC and the speed limit it detects with traffic sign recognition is specifically something else. This is a setting on some of the more modern cars, and to be honest, I've driven it probably 10k kms and it is, without a doubt, terrible in all implementations. Audi, Skoda, Seat, Volvo, Volkswagen - awful. They will see the wrong signs, stand on the brakes on a motorway... bleh, no, thanks. I like the notifications, but I've had situations where google maps and the car are both wrong despite having just driven past the new limit sign.

 

There probably is a way to code the system to allow you to have a three-way decision: ACC, normal Cruise or Limiter, but it's not documented for the Kodiaq. I have a good idea how to do this, I am just absolutely not in a position to test this right now. It involves changing some long coding and hoping that will work. 

 

Personally on give-and-take backroads, I will set the limiter to limit +5km/h and then drive to the road. Brakes won't affect it and you can push through the limiter if you push the pedal to the floor, at least in my car.

On 20/02/2025 at 23:04, brettikivi said:

There probably is a way to code the system to allow you to have a three-way decision: ACC, normal Cruise or Limiter, but it's not documented for the Kodiaq. I have a good idea how to do this, I am just absolutely not in a position to test this right now. It involves changing some long coding and hoping that will work. 

 

 

 

Only for cars 2020 and onwards. Unfortunately the coding did not work on my 2019 Kodiaq.