Buying Travel Assist in the App ?

[NuwE]

Hey! We ordered a barebones 60 since we had a fantastic deal. However, we could not add anything to the base model and it won’t even have ACC.

I read that you can buy ACC in-app, but what about Travel Assist ? It does not seem to require more hardware than the basic lane assist so it’s truly disappointing if you can’t. I know some folks coded their Enyaq/id3/id4 to unlock it but I’m pretty sure it’d void the warranty.

What can you actually buy in the app? Would it be safe to just code TA in? (We know a VW mechanic that’d be willing to do it.)

Thanks!

[Aragorn]

Travel assist requires a capacitive touch sensor in the steering wheel, which may not be present on the base model.

On earlier cars, i think if you optioned the "drive mode selection" with the flappy paddles, they automatically provided the capacitive wheel.

My 2021 car doesnt have ACC or Travel Assist. I'm currently driving a loaner Enyaq with both, and to be honest, its very much a gimmick and i basically dont use travel assist. I've tried it a few times and its just a bit meh. It constantly nags about holding the wheel, even if your hands are on it, it gets annoyed if your not holding it tightly enough. It also kinda jiggles at the wheel making corrections which i found a bit fatiguing. You need to watch the road and hold the wheel anyway, at which point your brain is already steering the car without you really thinking about it. The ACC is nice in traffic, but even that i'm not sure its the end of the world that its missing. I guess i'll find out when i go back to my own car and revert to standard cruise.

[Skku]

I don't agree "Travel Assist" works great!

[RichR]

I use it most the time. Literally when I get out of my driveway onto the main road, as soon as it's picked up that I'm on a 60mph road I pull the stalk then step off the pedals. It's only if I'm in an area with lots of hazards (eg pedestrians or cyclists) that I turn it off and drive manually. On the open road, it's nice to have the assistance.

I don't find the gentle push of the steering wheel an issue, it's more like someone guiding me round corners not forcing it. Perhaps I naturally hold the wheel more firmly (from decades of cars without power steering maybe). Having the HUD is an advantage in that you instantly know if it's lost track of the road markings (eg when they're faint or covered in dirt) so you know that it's not going to guide you any more. I tend not to let it be in sole control of steering, but it certainly means you only have to let it guide you rather than consciously needing to steer. This combined with ACC makes for a lot less of a workload and a much more relaxing drive.

[Aragorn]

With ACC, my feet can rest on the floor and dont need to be poised on the throttle. Its a clear improvement, except that occasionally it'll go barrelling towards slower moving traffic and not brake until far too late, but at least i can easily jump on the brake in those cases. It also follows far too closely in slow moving traffic. For typical motorway use its pretty decent.

With the auto-steer, it doesnt seem to improve anything? You still need to grip onto the wheel just like you would if you were steering yourself, infact i find i have to grip it harder than normal, it also sometimes gets annoyed if i'm only holding the wheel with one hand. You seemingly need to be MORE alert than normal as it occasionally decides to veer off course because its not quite picked up the road markings etc correctly. I tried flicking it on and off during the same journey a few times and in the end felt it really wasnt adding anything.

[NuwE]

Thank you guys for your input !

Sounds like Travel Assist wouldn't be as good as our '24 Model 3 then. I heard id.3/4 owners could activate it without the capacitive steering wheel but it'd nag you to move the wheel every 15 seconds, just like in any Tesla

Did any of you bought ACC after getting the car or did you spec it that way ? I have a 50km drive each way to go to work so I really hope I can add it when it finally gets delivered !

[RichR]

I added the £915 "Assisted Drive Package Plus" option when I built the car spec back in August 2021 (that included Adaptive cruise control. Blind spot detection. Crew protect assist. Traffic jam assist, Emergency assist. Lane assist plus). Back then there was a much larger range of option packages you could chose from than the just three options you have now. I wasn't aware you could add ACC after purchase, but things have changed since I bought mine (there was no 'shop' in my car until late last year when I had the software upgraded for example).

You're right, Travel Assist is not quite as comprehensive as the Tesla system, but to me at least, I think it's one of my favourite features of the car. Really makes those six hour drives down to Cornwall to see my mum a lot less work. However it's mainly the ACC component that does that. Travel assist does mean you don't need to worry so much about drifting in your lane as it holds you pretty much dead central. Also on country roads it keeps you a nice distance from the edge of the road should your attention drift. You can take your hands off for up to a minute, and you only need to lightly rest them on the steering wheel every minute for it to confirm that you're still there. I suspect this is part of VW/Skoda/Cupra/Audi's protecting themselves from customers trying to drive hands off and then blaming the car if they crash - hence calling it 'Assist' rather than 'Self-driving' or 'Autopilot'