Enyaq refused to drive over this speed bump

[Goaty]

Just parked in Westfield Shepherds Bush and the Enyaq refused to drive over this speed bump.

Three times, it slammed the brakes on (first time it did it, I thought I’d hit something, or something had just hit me).

I was only driving 1 or 2 mph. Couldn’t really have gone any slower! The driver behind me must have thought I was crazy!


It did eventually let me, but really bizarre. There was no ‘collision’ warning on the dash.

Auto Hold was Off.

Anyone else has something like this before?

[Vasarolli]

Ha! Had something similar, sudden brake at a similar speed bump, but thought it was due to the pedestrians a bit further away that the car (over) reacted. Slow speed... but I could go over the bump after the pedestrians crossed (wondering why I braked so heavily).
My case it did not have a metal top as yours, just black/yellow plastic/rubber whatever it is made of. But height about similar, have to almost stop to get the car over it so that it feels comfortable.

[Goaty]

Did it again on 2 or 3 other speed bumps on the way out. It really slams the brakes on hard - much more violently than an auto-hold stop.

I’ll have to report it to Skoda somehow.

[Vasarolli]

Yeah, emergency brake, had it once also when parking and car evaluated that I was reversing too fast and the car behind was too close. I was pressing the brake pedal, but the car was faster.

Bit surreal as the pedal moves away and car stopped even I am basically not touching the pedal.

I never had that issue in the same parking hall, but not sure if I went the same route again since.

[Vasarolli]

Tested today, no issues with the same speed bump. Magic

[Goaty]

Tested today, no issues with the same speed bump. Magic

Do you mean you went to Westfield ? For me, it was as if I’d just hit an invisible wall, or a force field!

This happened on 3 or 4 speed bumps, the same as the one in my photo. The Enyaq must have interpreted it as a tree / log / person lying across the road.

Reassuring (slightly) to know that the emergency system ‘works’ but it absolutely should not react this way to a speed bump which I was barely crawling over. If someone had been right behind me and hit my car, they’d have blamed me for braking suddenly for no reason.

Looking again at the photo, this may even be the mark left by my tyres when it first slammed on the brakes without warning.

I’m going to try and contact Skoda UK about it this week.
I wonder if VW iD’s react the same way ?

[Vasarolli]

Sorry, i just went to the same bump I had something similar with. In Finland

[Bferry70]

I had a similar incident yesterday when I was reversing of my brother in laws drive. The drive is fairly steep before it meets the road, when it evens out. I was going very slowing, making sure I didn't hit his gates, before the car decided to slam on the brakes! A bit disconcerting. This is the second time it has done it - the first being when I used the Park Assist for the first time. The car was doing a great job of reverse parking in to a space before it decided to slam on the brakes and stop. I thought it had hit the park next to me! Is this normal?

[Goaty]

/\ that sounds more like the way Auto-Hold behaves sometimes, if it’s activated, when reversing. I usually disable Auto-Hold when reversing and prefer the ‘creep’ which is characteristic of automatic vehicles.

[RichR]

I think all forward collision mitigation systems stand a chance of being fooled at some point, and the sensible thing to do is err on the side of caution and brake. At least the system in the Enyaq only very rarely brakes unnecessarily - not like the mid-2000 VW and Volvos which were well known for just suddenly slamming on at 60mph for no apparent reason (obviously there would have been something that the car interpreted as a potential collision, but the driver didn't). My friend's VW Golf once decided to stop because a cow in a field moved quickly towards a fence at the side of the road: radar sees a large object moving into the path of the car and predicts a collision. It couldn't know there was a barely visible wire fence, so did what it the only thing it could sensibly do, which is slow the car to prevent a collision.

The Enyaq uses a combination of the radar and camera, so it's less prone than radar or camera only systems, but it's going to get it wrong occasionally, just like humans do. If you didn't know that fields usually have fences then you'd probably have worried about that cow too and at least slowed down to see what it did for example. Similarly when you're overtaking parked cars so driving on the wrong side of the road, the car can't assume that oncoming traffic is going to stop and wait for you, so you get the occasional 'brake!' warning in that situation (though granted, it doesn't usually stop itself.

However, I guess it should be easier to override, perhaps release and reapply the accelerator pedal? I'm not sure, but I think there is a speed below which it will stop the car straight away (ie it assumes you're manoeuvring to park or turn round), rather than giving a warning that you can override with the accelerator.