I think the automatic braking is my least favourite feature on my Superb. I do want to leave it on most of the time "just in case" it is ever needed, which is fortunate because you cannot permanently turn it off. But it is far too sensitive and erratic for me to be comfortable with it.

Here are some places where it has fired off for me:

1. Reversing into a parking bay with a footpath that ran across the back of the bays. The path was separated from the parking bays with a fence, I was edging back slowly, and was still more than 3m away from the path when a pedestrian walking along it set off the automated braking.

2. Going up a curved ramp on a multi storey car park. This time going forwards at walking speed. I think it was the raised kerbs on the narrow ramp that triggered the brakes. The driver behind me was not at all pleased that I appeared to brake check him on the ramp.

3. Backing into my garage at home. I need to remember to turn off the automated braking every time or the car will never let me into my own garage. It is a little tight through the doorway with only 20cm to spare on each side, but (unless the car is going to jump sideways) there is no chance of actually hitting it when reversing in a straight line. However, the brakes always come on if I forgot to disable them.

4. Today's example must win a prize! It happened while slowly reversing at 2-3mph along a shared drive with at least 2m clear on either side of the car and over 15m clear behind. The paved drive is surrounded by houses on either side and garages at the end, so nothing like bushes or tall grass to set it off. The brakes fired, so I checked surrounding in case I had missed something. It was all clear so I started to reverse ... and the brakes fired again, and then again. The only thing that was moving behind the car was the vapour coming from my exhaust in the cold air. I wonder if the camera saw this and decided to brake in order to protect the vapour from being injured?

Now, these false alarms would be annoying but acceptable if they were just warnings. My Mk3 Superb did just that, leaving plenty of time for me to brake manually and decide whether it was safe to proceed. But instead we get violent braking (I can think of no better word) whenever the car decides there is the remotest possibility of hitting something. My back and neck are still sore from this morning's event; perhaps that is why Skoda decided to put massagers into the chairs?

Some future software update might fix this behaviour, but I really don't expect that Skoda will ever do anything about it. I suspect instead that their designers and programmers are all high fiving each other about all the wonderful safety features they have built into the cars.

What examples of unexpected slow-speed manoeuvre braking have you experienced with your car?

My main problem with them is when reversing with a trailer attached. Because I have a dealer fit tow bar which isn’t coded, the brakes “don’t know the caravan is there,” and so keep applying. I have rooted around in the menus to turn them off for this manoeuvre but can’t find a way of doing it. How did you do it!?!

Hi @oxonpunter

I don't have a tow bar, so I'm not sure if there are additional steps needed in your case.

The setting for temporarily turning off the manoeuvre braking is available in the parking menu on my car. My mental checklist before reversing into my garage is:

1. Turn off Auto Hold. I prefer the 'auto creep' for very slow speed reversing. And I really don't want to have to dab the accelerator to release auto hold and have the car lurch within the confined space of the garage if I need to make minor adjustments to my position.

2. Select reverse gear. The camera and the parking menu appears on the infotainment screen.

3. Open 'Settings' from the bottom of the menu on the screen, and turn off 'Manoeuvre Braking'.

4. Re-select camera from the screen menu to hide the settings screen.

5. Reverse into the garage, remembering to fold in the wing mirrors just before they reach the doorway. They will fit if extended, but there is less than an inch on either side so I don't risk it. 😉

Steps 2 and 3 there are the ones that you want. You can also get to the setting from the Park Assist screen if you need to turn it off when you are not reversing. I checked the online manual and I cannot see this setting documented anywhere.

Remember the setting is not permanent; the auto braking will re-engage whenever you start the engine.

After some more digging through the online manual, I found that the setting is briefly shown in the braking assists video at about 1:00.

That video describes the braking as "abrupt", which I think is a little mild for what it actually does.