Hi all,

I've had my mk4.5 Octavia vRS for almost 3 weeks and while I find it to be a great car overall, there's some things that are a bit annoying.

Lane assist: I understand what it's trying to do but the implementation seems flawed so it's a good thing it's easy to switch off. I had forgotten to turn it off today though and while driving down a road which is wide enough for two cars but only if you stick to the edge of the road, the lane assist kept trying to push me closer to the centre. This is rather unnerving at 60mph with cars going in the other direction.

Speed limit warnings: I'm surprised at how often the car is wrong about the current speed limit and I'm sometimes baffled as to where it has sourced the incorrect speed limit. Again, it's a good thing it can be disabled easily because while the sound it makes when you "exceed" the speed limit is better than some other cars, it would definitely get annoying eventually.

Front assist: In the 785 or so miles I've driven this car in the last 3 weeks, this has been triggered around 6 times. Once was yesterday while driving into a parking space, when it suddenly slammed on the brakes really hard, even though there was probably about 2 feet of space in front of the car after which there was a soft hedge. I've often pulled right up to the hedge in my other cars, so the back end of the car doesn't block the pavement. Anyway, today I got beeped at loudly with the accompanying "collision" graphic on the virtual cockpit no less than 3 times in a single journey. Once was perhaps justified because the car in front of me suddenly braked quite hard, though if anything the warning did briefly break my focus because it was unexpected. The other two times were both when driving around right hand bends. In one case there was a van parked in a lay-by half way around the bend and in the other, a car was turning into a left hand junction. I experienced similar in a Mazda 3 courtesy car a few years ago and I suppose it's just a limitation of the tech.

As far as I understand I can just turn front assist off, unlike lane assist and speed limit warnings which have to be turned off every time you start the car.

The other strange thing I've noticed is that birds seem to not see this car until the very last minute or sometimes not at all. I've hit (and killed) two pigeons already, because they flew right in front of the windscreen. It would have been 4 had I not slowed right down for 2 of them. I've had this happen only once before, when I was learning to drive 14 years ago! I've also had a fairly large number of birds just swoop right across in front of me.

Has anybody else experienced this? Is it because the car is quiet or because it's using some kind of radar/lidar or similar which is confusing the birds?

Purely circumstantial re the birds. The car isn't quiet compared to a hybrid or EV, and none of the safety systems would have an impact on birds. The car doesn't have LiDAR, and the radar used in cars is hilariously low-powered compared to anything in aviation, let alone military. There are plenty of birds flying around Portsmouth with no issue, despite there being one or two SAMPSON radars nearby.

Regarding everything else, it's just a new car. I test drove a Mk4 and then bought my 2020 Mk3.5. The TSR was disabled within the first week of ownership! I don't use any of the lane keep/assist, except when on the motorway. I've had no emergency braking activations in two years, but that said, I did get a warning last week out of the blue. I use the ACC system all the time.

The birds either like (or dislike) Skoda's just the same as any other brand.

The rest of it is just tech that you'll get used to. The speed at which you approach a potential collision obstacle, whether forward or in reverse, determines the collision warning and braking trigger - it's a fine tolerance.

I've found the speed warning to be off at times. M4 J5- 7 westbound stands out. Complains loudly that it's a 50mph zone. It's like a hangover from some roadworks a few years ago.

Pigeons are monumentally stupid and will place a crumb in the road over their survival.

Edited 1 May1 May by darrenw

I blindfold the lane assist camera with some self adhesive vinyl (middle of the windscreen near the rear view mirror). This has the side effect of the front assist complaining that it is compromised, which reminds me to disable that if I haven't already. I plan to try and blindfold the front assist radar with an aluminium sheet retained by some spongy double sided tape (after painting it with black metallic paint) - hopefully that will sufficient.

1 minute ago, avi4tor said:

I blindfold the lane assist camera with some self adhesive vinyl (middle of the windscreen near the rear view mirror). This has the side effect of the front assist complaining that it is compromised, which reminds me to disable that if I haven't already. I plan to try and blindfold the front assist radar with an aluminium sheet retained by some spongy double sided tape (after painting it with black metallic paint) - hopefully that will sufficient.

I've just taken to switching it all off when I get in the car. Slightly annoying but oh well...

23 hours ago, davegr said:

Hi all,

I've had my mk4.5 Octavia vRS for almost 3 weeks and while I find it to be a great car overall, there's some things that are a bit annoying.

Lane assist: I understand what it's trying to do but the implementation seems flawed so it's a good thing it's easy to switch off. I had forgotten to turn it off today though and while driving down a road which is wide enough for two cars but only if you stick to the edge of the road, the lane assist kept trying to push me closer to the centre. This is rather unnerving at 60mph with cars going in the other direction.

Speed limit warnings: I'm surprised at how often the car is wrong about the current speed limit and I'm sometimes baffled as to where it has sourced the incorrect speed limit. Again, it's a good thing it can be disabled easily because while the sound it makes when you "exceed" the speed limit is better than some other cars, it would definitely get annoying eventually.

Lane Assist I'll normally remember to turn off within a mile or two of leaving home as it struggles on the single track country lanes near our village and sometimes seems to pull you into the nearside verge / hedge (somewhat alarming the first time it does that).

After ~18 months of ownership, the incorrect speed limit warnings generally seem to come from signs which aren't for the road you are one. For instance, if the link below works, it's the A500 through the middle of Stoke. The 30 limit is for the slip road above you, whilst the main carriageway stays at 50mph. The sign detection picks up the 30 limit and if you have adaptive cruise on, the car suddenly starts to slow down to 30mph (which is also alarming the first time it happened).

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RGfRCYgw28x4ADKn9

2 minutes ago, Chri5B said:

Lane Assist I'll normally remember to turn off within a mile or two of leaving home as it struggles on the single track country lanes near our village and sometimes seems to pull you into the nearside verge / hedge (somewhat alarming the first time it does that).

After ~18 months of ownership, the incorrect speed limit warnings generally seem to come from signs which aren't for the road you are one. For instance, if the link below works, it's the A500 through the middle of Stoke. The 30 limit is for the slip road above you, whilst the main carriageway stays at 50mph. The sign detection picks up the 30 limit and if you have adaptive cruise on, the car suddenly starts to slow down to 30mph (which is also alarming the first time it happened).

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RGfRCYgw28x4ADKn9

The fact that these things are ever alarming, even once, suggests to me that they aren't ready...

I agree with your feedback for the most part except for the birds part. 😀

Turning off lane keeping is something I do without thinking with my right thumb after pushing start and luckily for me in NZ there is no speed limit warning.

I agree the front collision thing is stupid and way too sensitive. As far as I’m aware there is non way to turn it permanently off. At least you can use shortcuts to make it easier to do but I don’t like the warning lamps that are on the dash then so tend to just put up with it.

You can disengage ACC from changing the target speed based on what TSR is reporting (at least you can on my 2023 PHEV). The setting is not well described. It's something like "speed limit prediction".

I wasn't so bothered about it reducing to 50 when passing the site of long completed motorway roadworks ( with no signs now present). It was the automatic speeding up to 70 when it had passed the site that I found alarming.

I set my ACC to 60 or 65. I think it is dangerous for this to ever get automatically raised to higher than you've chosen manually.

The link between the ACC speed target and what TSR thinks the limit is, is controlled by a setting called "speed limit preview". See https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/538558-hows-this-for-good-range-but/?do=findComment&comment=6009108

20 minutes ago, Octy-PHEV said:

The link between the ACC speed target and what TSR thinks the limit is, is controlled by a setting called "speed limit preview". See https://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/538558-hows-this-for-good-range-but/?do=findComment&comment=6009108

Useful, thanks

The bird thing is funny, and completely true for me. This is the only car I've driven where a bird has flown straight into the front bumper, and I have near misses with others daily. How strange!

No bird related issues for me but one thats crept in recently is the over-sensitivity of the parking manoeuvre braking. I rarely drive forward into spaces so the whilst the rear parking sensors can be irritating they can at least be adjusted in the settings. I can now however, count on one hand in the last month the number of times the brakes have slammed on whilst reversing. It's obviously a me thing in that I might be a bit close but I can see daylight in between vehicles in my mirrors I wish to continue but my car says no. It's then infuriating to get out and find you've not hit anything (always best to check).

The first time it did I was actually convinced I did hit something and spent a few mins checking surroundings but no.... and it's quite impressive how much force can be generated at 2mph and your head is thrown back against the head rest (even my wife has commented on it when she never has an opinion on cars...). I tried turning it off in settings, but I've since found out it doesn't save - I wish there was a way of reducing the sensitivity as it is good to have the reassurance.

I appreciate I'm going to be in the minority with this one!

3 hours ago, mork23 said:

No bird related issues for me but one thats crept in recently is the over-sensitivity of the parking manoeuvre braking. I rarely drive forward into spaces so the whilst the rear parking sensors can be irritating they can at least be adjusted in the settings. I can now however, count on one hand in the last month the number of times the brakes have slammed on whilst reversing. It's obviously a me thing in that I might be a bit close but I can see daylight in between vehicles in my mirrors I wish to continue but my car says no. It's then infuriating to get out and find you've not hit anything (always best to check).

The first time it did I was actually convinced I did hit something and spent a few mins checking surroundings but no.... and it's quite impressive how much force can be generated at 2mph and your head is thrown back against the head rest (even my wife has commented on it when she never has an opinion on cars...). I tried turning it off in settings, but I've since found out it doesn't save - I wish there was a way of reducing the sensitivity as it is good to have the reassurance.

I appreciate I'm going to be in the minority with this one!

I didn't even realise your rear parking sensors applied the brake! Unless it's model specific

I've found this to be a particular problem on single track rural roads. If I meet someone and need to reverse smartly into a passing place, there's nearly always a blade of grass there that causes the brakes to slam on (if I haven't remembered to disable that 'feature'). The other driver waiting to pass must think I'm a total wally!

6 hours ago, scotthugh3s said:

I didn't even realise your rear parking sensors applied the brake! Unless it's model specific

vRS 4.5? 😉

Mid-cycle facelift of the 4th generation Octavia!

13 hours ago, scotthugh3s said:

I didn't even realise your rear parking sensors applied the brake! Unless it's model specific

They do, but I've worked out it's more speed related than proximity alone. Back up to an obstacle too quickly and the 'emergency' stop will happen.

1 hour ago, SouthernComfort said:

They do, but I've worked out it's more speed related than proximity alone. Back up to an obstacle too quickly and the 'emergency' stop will happen.

Yep, gave me a hell of a fright the first time it happened. Thought I’d hit something 😂