Today I drove around 150 km on the motorway using ACC/Travel Assist, and I received the “Pay attention to the road” warning roughly 20 times.

What concerns me most is that while some warnings might be expected if I briefly glance away, others occurred unexpectedly, even when I was clearly looking ahead at the road. The behavior is similar regardless of whether I’m wearing sunglasses or not, so I don’t think that’s the main factor.

At this point, it’s becoming more distracting than helpful.

I’m trying to understand whether:

• This is normal behavior on the new Superb,

• Other owners have experienced the same,

• or whether my car might need a calibration or software update.

Car details: 2026 Škoda Superb L&K

Is your experience similar?

Mine does that sometimes but 20 times is indeed too much. I have the 2763 software version on my 2025 PHEV.

What about you?

Same version, 2763. Today, I did a 2-minute demo of the service during a drive (no assist, ACC, TA, lane assist, no glasses, nothing), and I received the warning 6 times. 6!!

No doubt, there's a problem with the eye-tracking camera or other sensors involved in deciding whether to show the warning.

I occasionally get that message, however, on straight sections of the motorway I get repeated messages to “take control of the street wheel, this is despite having both hands firmly on the wheel, it just no input needed, I Mike micro adjustments to resolve this. It drives me potty

I understand the current models have a camera in the rear view mirror. Older cars did not have this feature. So many people wont be affected.

Indeed, this is a relatively new EU requirement, and new cars have a camera in the rearview mirror to monitor the driver's attention.

.

On 11/07/2026 at 08:42, Trickiejohn said:

I occasionally get that message, however, on straight sections of the motorway I get repeated messages to “take control of the street wheel, this is despite having both hands firmly on the wheel, it just no input needed, I Mike micro adjustments to resolve this. It drives me potty

I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the steering wheel has sensors at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. If you don't hold the wheel in those positions, it is more likely to warn you to 'take over steering control'. As usual, a tiny wiggle of the wheel is usually all that is needed to remind the car that you are in control.

That’s interesting,

I normally hold the wheel at 20 past/too.

The next time I’m running cruise control, I’ll see if that makes any difference. Making the micro adjustments work, however my hold if quite firm and I find it very annoying to say the least.

It been a while…..but.

After a few tests, it does seem that 10to and 10 past generates less “take control” notifications. I have moved my seat 2 clicks forward in the hope that on my next 80+ miles trip I’ll get few, hopefully no notifications to take control 🤞

I have had this a few times when we were driving along the M90. Like you, I cruise with my hands lightly grasping, finger almost laying on the 6:30pm position of the steering wheel. So I asked my AI Assistant with which I configured the personalised settings in the car - both the question about the steering wheel, "take control" message and the earlier query about the "driver attention" warning message:

AI RESPONSE:

Yes — and I think what you are experiencing is the hands-on detection, not the camera-based driver-attention monitor.

Rosie’s Travel Assist uses a capacitive steering wheel. Škoda explicitly describes it as detecting the driver’s touch on the wheel; in principle, therefore, you should not have to provide steering torque or deliberately wiggle the wheel merely to prove you are there. �

Škoda Auto +1

I would be cautious about the claim that the sensors are specifically at particular clock positions such as 3 and 9 o’clock. I can find owners repeating that theory, including on BRISKODA, but I cannot find anything from Škoda confirming it. � Capacitive hands-on systems of this type normally use a conductive sensor mat within the steering-wheel rim, rather than two little point sensors sitting at particular locations. �

Briskoda

Justia Patents

Your observation nevertheless makes sense. If you are cruising with your hands resting lightly around the bottom of the rim, you may have relatively little skin area wrapped around the wheel. Capacitive detection can then be less reliable. Skin moisture, gloves, very light fingertip contact and the exact way the hand contacts the leather can all affect the capacitance. Other VW-group owners report exactly this sort of variation. �

Briskoda +1

So I would try a very simple experiment in Rosie:

On a suitable straight road with Travel Assist operating, keep one hand normally wrapped around the rim at about 8–9 o’clock or 3–4 o’clock. Don't deliberately make steering corrections. See whether the warning disappears entirely.

Then repeat the same stretch with your hand resting down at about 6 o’clock, as you normally sometimes drive.

If the warnings occur predominantly in the second case, I'd regard that as the capacitive detection simply being less reliable with your particular lower-hand grip — not evidence that there are discrete sensors only at 3 and 9.

And when the warning does appear, try firmly wrapping/squeezing your fingers around the rim first rather than wriggling the steering wheel. If the capacitive system is working properly, that should normally be sufficient.

One thing I would watch because Rosie is brand new: if she starts giving “take over steering” warnings while you genuinely have one or both hands properly wrapped around the rim at conventional positions, I wouldn't accept that as normal. VW-group steering wheels have had documented sensor-mat problems, so at that point I'd have West End Garage check the hands-on detection sensor/mat under warranty. �

Dot Report

So for now: I don't think you need to change any setting. I'd change your hand contact slightly and see what happens. And I wouldn't worry about using exactly 3 and 9 — somewhere around the side/lower-side of the wheel should give the capacitive system a much better signal than merely resting your hands along the bottom.

AI RESPONSE:

Yes — you remembered correctly. When we set Rosie up, I recommended changing Drowsiness Monitor → Sensitivity to Medium.

It sits within the Attention and Drowsiness Assist / driver-assistance settings. My recommendation was:

Leave the system switched on

Set Sensitivity = Medium

Only reduce it further if Rosie was repeatedly warning you despite you being alert and driving normally

The idea was to retain the genuine safety benefit without having the car become unnecessarily fussy about perfectly normal driving behaviour.

So if you followed my recommendation at the time, Medium is the setting you should currently have.

END OF AI RESPONSE.

Hope this helps? I will note how the car behaves for our first proper journey down to Southern England in a few weeks to visit our son and report back on my real-life, as opposed to AI world, reality!

Best wishes.

That makes sense. It would be strange to have sensors only at 3 and 9, but I am another person guilty of repeating this theory on Briskoda 😁

On the only occasions when I have had the warning, I have been driving on long lonely motorways with one hand at the 6 o'clock position. I don't think it was just a light resting touch, but maybe your experiments can find out more.

One thought though ... don't test it unless the road behind you is clear. There can sometimes be a very short break between the warning and the car starting to take corrective action. If grasping the wheel firmly does not clear the warning immediately, you could be braking before you - or the driver behind - know it.

... and I am the only person who finds it incredible that we have to try to reverse engineer our cars in order to work out how to use them correctly? This stuff should all be in the manual - or at least on the Skoda website - so that we can get a definitive guide. I'm always amused that there is more description in the manual on how to open and close a door (with warnings and diagrams!) than most of the driver features in the car.