‘Lane assist’ – how do I switch it off?

Got a modernish Skoda sitting outside (see the ‘signs of getting older’ thread). Has a feature which tries to stop you using the steering wheel when you cross the centre line of the road.

It’s apparently a ‘safety feature’, and if you switch it off, it turns back on next time you’re in the car.

Now I can see this is very helpful if you’re prone to falling asleep at the wheel after a long lunch, or sending Snapchats on the M4, but I don’t do those things, and I like doing stuff like pulling round parked cars or swerving to avoid small children without having the car working against me.

Is there any way of doing away with it? Can a dealer do it for me at the next service?

It’s a proper PITA. I’ve got a 2021 Octavia and we are surrounded by tiny country lanes and it just can’t cope with them. I turn it off by reflex now. But as you say, it defaults back to on when you get in.

A while back someone posted a link to a YouTube video of someone switching it off in another VAG car –  a Passat I think, so perhaps also possible in a Skoda. It involved laptops and OBD readers and special software. Too much faff for me.

Pretty sure the dealer won’t do it for liability/warranty reasons.

I think you can turn off the memory function for lots of the assistance features using VCDS (special software and ££ cable needed, risk of bricking the car with no warranty support if you get it wrong) – maybe try the Briskoda forum to see if there’s anyone localish who can help?

Pfft. Presumably their stats show that lazy, inattentive drivers who want to grab stuff out of the passenger footwell at 80mph are more of a problem…

Yeah, unfortunately it’s a lease, so sticking cables in and messing with its brain is probably not a good idea!

https://obdeleven.com/en/supported-vehicles?brand=skoda

20+ Octavia lists remember lame assist setting under 1 click apps (i.e. coding the easy way).

Could be worse. I have a rental Nissan Quashqai (or whatever its called) right now that slammed the brakes on yesterday as the crash detection activated as I went through a dip in the road. good job nothing was following me!

I have a 2019 VW Tiguan which I think was one of the last Tiguans where the option was to switch it on rather than being on by default. On the Tiguan forums there has been a lot of discussion about it and from what I have read it can be switched off with the right software on a laptop connected to the car’s management system. I have used lane assist on motorways and can certainly see its benefit there but ordinary roads not so sure about.

My wife’s Polo has it on permanently and I have to say I have not really found it a problem. If you use your indicator to pull round park cars it does turn off the lane assist and if having to swerve in an emergency your reaction at the time would probably mean you would not even notice the very slight pull of the steering to keep you within the road’s lines. My wife mentioned it once or twice when she first got the car but hasn’t said anything about since. I think you’ll get use to it in time.

I don’t think that there’s an easy permanent fix but I find that the steering wheel buttons are quicker than waiting for the infotainment display to become responsive

If you use your indicator to pull round park cars it does turn off the lane assist

That’s one of the problems with lane assist. It pushes drivers towards using indicators when they’re not appropriate.

I have turned it off on my 2021 Seat as I hated it. Was easy enough to do, it was in with the adaptive cruise control and front collision settings, but mine defaults to off after selecting off and no need to constantly keep turning it off so I guess different VAG groups have different settings.

I think if it turns back on when you start the car depends when the car got it’s NCAP rating, seems it has to now for the car to get 5 stars.

I have it on my works izuzu, seems to be the quality of a Wish/alibaba purchase
I have defeated it by inserting paper triangles between the windscreen and cameras.
Brings up a dirty windscreen warning but I’d rather that than random unplanned emergency braking via an autonomous system built by the lowest cost preffered bidder.

Could be worse. I have a rental Nissan Quashqai (or whatever its called) right now that slammed the brakes on yesterday as the crash detection activated as I went through a dip in the road. good job nothing was following me!

I am so glad our Leon, despite having the radar and gubbins, only shouts a warning at you rather than the ‘bonus’ pack which also brakes. On our twisty highland roads it really struggles – we had one journey out to Oban and Luing a few weeks ago and it became hilarious how many times it BONG! BONG! at us – it was picking up the black chevron signs, trees, walls. Heck, it even bonged on the Bridge over the Atlantic as the road rears up…

I do a fair bit of driving in cycle race convoys – almost always with fleet vehicles supplied by some local dealer as part of a sponsorship package – so I’ve driven loads of variations on a theme of these auto-assist options. Having to turn everything off every time you start the engine is a pain. One dealer a couple of years ago told us that they would disable everything via a software update before we picked up the cars but that never happened, maybe because they were worried about the insurance premium or possibly the hassle of plugging in a laptop and re-coding the thing.

My local garage (independent place) remapped his own software to remove all of that so it’s clearly possible but probably not recommended. I can imagine it coming back to bite you in any insurance claim…

I have a 2021 Octavia and it is pretty much instinct to press the steering wheel buttons at the start of every drive. Like Blokeuptheroad I live on rural roads and it is out of its depth and tries to pull me in to the verge. There are generally no lines down the middle of the road so it often ‘reads’ the lines where the tarmac laying joins as the middle of the road.

Also used to have a qashqai that hated going through single lane cattle grids. There was a recall to fix the problem but I never trusted it so used to crawl through them much to the bemusement of drivers behind me.

With modern car safety features it baffles me why so many people drive so close behind cars on the motorway.

That’s one of the problems with lane assist. It pushes drivers towards using indicators when they’re not appropriate.

Another victim of the IAM mythology, which is less after safety and more about “making progress” while looking cool. It’s not like you’re going to wear them out. Whether or not you need indicators is a judgement call, but ultimately unless it’s going to confuse someone, just use them.

A lease company is never going to look at the software coding for lane assist. Just turn it off if you don’t want it. Arguably the bigger issue might be your insurer, because I wouldn’t want to be a part of the conversation that begins with “So, tell us why you permanently deactivated a safety feature of the car that might have avoided [accident]?”

These days – particularly on motorways – with active lane guidance on newer cars, not using indicators just shows everyone that you’re driving the poverty-spec model.

Could be worse. I have a rental Nissan Quashqai (or whatever its called) right now that slammed the brakes on yesterday as the crash detection activated as I went through a dip in the road. good job nothing was following me!

I had that the other day, doing about 30mph and the car suddenly screamed and stood itself on its nose because the wind picked up a crisp packet in the road.

Also used to have a qashqai that hated going through single lane cattle grids.

The idea of this makes me giggle. ‘Nooo dad, don’t make me go through there!’

What if you indicate and then move? Does it still do whatever it is doing to annoy you?

“Poverty spec model”

Lol – can’t believe people still use that phrase

I reckon paying extra to remove these stupid features is going to be the new badge removal

What if you indicate and then move? Does it still do whatever it is doing to annoy you?

No.

I do tend to indicate if there is anyone around to be advised by it. But not always when weaving in and out of parked cars in town. Or trying to drive in a straight line on country lanes.

I’m not convinced you’ll automatically physically override it in all emergency situations eg a pedestrian stepping off the pavement, generally I won’t yank the wheel hard to avoid, I’ll flick it to give me a couple of feet movement without potentially losing control.

What if you indicate and then move? Does it still do whatever it is doing to annoy you?

No, indicating tells the car that you intend to cross the lines so it’ll disable the Lane Assist thing until you stop indicating.

Also used to have a qashqai that hated going through single lane cattle grids.

Fairly sure it was one of these I had driving through narrow country lanes to get to Race Start and because the lanes were really only 1.8 cars wide but still had dashed lines down the middle of them, the car would not shut up.
Bleep! Bleep! You’re across the lines!!

Yes, the other option would be piling you into the hedge you stupid car, now be quiet.

“Poverty spec model”

A lot of cars now, especially the upper end models that come with all sorts of optional extras, actually build the cars identically. It’s cheaper to build every model in the range with the same functions and then turn these features on or off via software.

not using indicators just shows everyone that you’re driving the poverty-spec model.

Wow. Perhaps they don’t give a toss what people who sneer at ‘poverty’ think.  I haven’t done IAM but I have done RoSPA advanced training and test on a motorcycle. Very similar I think as in both are based on the police driving manual ‘Roadcraft’ with tests examined by Police Class one drivers. Nothing to do with looking cool (I drive a Skoda FFS)!

You are taught to give an indication if it will provide information about your intentions to others. This might mean you don’t do it if there are no other vehicles around because you are paying attention to your surroundings and not driving on autopilot.

Another victim of the IAM mythology, which is less after safety and more about “making progress” while looking cool.

That’s not the IAM I’m familiar with – it was/is the absolute opposite of cool. And yes, it is about safety. Many (not all) folk won’t pay as muchg attention to their surroundings if they automatically indicate each time, whether its needed or not. By putting a pre-indicate check in place, that encourages folk to check their surroundings and not operate on autopilot.

Are folk saying they indicate when changing lanes on a deserted motorway at 11pm at night?

I’m very glad I can’t afford a more modern vehicle that has all this shite built into it.

A lease company is never going to look at the software coding for lane assist. Just turn it off if you don’t want it. Arguably the bigger issue might be your insurer, because I wouldn’t want to be a part of the conversation that begins with “So, tell us why you permanently deactivated a safety feature of the car that might have avoided [accident]?”

No, but the manufacturer will see that you’ve changed the config every time the car has an OTA update or a service.
And i’m not 100%, but i think parts of the lane change warning are now legally mandated. So if people switch it off or change the behaviour the car will fail type approval and no longer be insured or legal to use on the road.

Not sure what the manufacturer will do with the information, but if it was my decision, i’d either be bricking the car until it’s fixed. Or correcting the config file automatically.

Yeah, I can’t see it going well if I start digging around in the software.

In my 2018 Skoda the lane change feature can be turned off in the vehicle menu. The stop start is the only feature I need to turn off every time I start the car.

The auto braking actually works OK. For a start, above, I think, 21mph it doesn’t brake but just warns and primes the braking system. In 5 years I have had one false activation at around 18mph where it braked. A few faulty warnings where it picked up overhead gantries over the brow of a hill but as it only warns and doesn’t brake at those speeds not an issue.

The auto brake at at parking speed stopped me reversing into a low wall I had missed.

First day I drove it I picked it up in Great Yarmouth (bought via Drive the Deal) and drove back to Glasgow the same day. At Beattock it told me I was tired and should take a break or words to that effect. So I stopped for a coffee!

https://www.skoda-storyboard.com/en/press-releases/inspiring-safety-technology-new-skoda-superb-innovative-assistance-systems-improved-safety-comfort/attachment/su_tech_005_front_assist-2/

I’m not seeing how disabling an optional “feature” should trouble an insurer.

I had an Octavia, oh, five years ago? It had lane assist. It was annoying. I turned it off. It stayed off. Cool story bro, I know.

This creeping enshitification is irritating though. There’s absolutely no reason other than crap design as to why a car should throw away your previous settings just because you’ve got out of it (doubly so in our current Seat which has the (poorly implemented) notion of different driver profiles linked to individual keys). In my previous Honda, of course it makes total sense to disable the auto-hold on the brakes every time I restart the engine, rolling away rather than staying put when I take my foot of the brakes in a car with auto brakes is a completely logical thing to have as an enforced default.

At Beattock it told me I was tired and should take a break or words to that effect. So I stopped for a coffee!

<Rage Against the Machine intensifies>

The M74 is probably highlighted as one of the most boring motorways in the Europe on its Sat Nav, so it offers that advice regardless of how long you’ve been travelling to get there.

The M74 is probably highlighted as one of the most boring motorways in the Europe on its Sat Nav

Oh I don’t know about that. I’m not aware of any other motorways with a cock-shaped plantation of trees on a hillside overlooking the road:

mert

No, but the manufacturer will see that you’ve changed the config every time the car has an OTA update or a service.
And i’m not 100%, but i think parts of the lane change warning are now legally mandated. So if people switch it off or change the behaviour the car will fail type approval and no longer be insured or legal to use on the road.

Not sure what the manufacturer will do with the information, but if it was my decision, i’d either be bricking the car until it’s fixed. Or correcting the config file automatically.

Hmm, maybe but I’ve got an Octavia with various settings changed using OBDeleven. The car has full main dealer service history including all software updates and they have never removed or commented on the changed settings. It’s also not noted on Erwin (the online service history).

“Bricking” the car because somebody wants it to remember their lane departure settings rather than defaulting to on each time though? 🤷‍♂️

In my opinion it’s not a good enough system to leave on all the time. I use it on the motorway when it’s mainly empty, that’s it.

Example of problem it causes: on motorway roadworks it will yank the steering over trying to follow the painted-over lines instead of the catseyes showing the temporary lanes.

That’s one of the problems with lane assist. It pushes drivers towards using indicators when they’re not appropriate.

If it pushes people round here to think that overtaking parked cars (or cyclists) is a “manouvre” rather than the autopilot thing to do and anyone coming the other way must move out the way to make space then its probably a good thing.  One of my biggest frustrations in this area is streets which are just big enough for 3 cars wide and people coming towards you overtaking a parked car on their side of the road and forcing you to move over, they seem to have forgotten they are overtaking and cause chaos when the overtake meats a bus/truck.  Pretty sure it is the same people who “must get past” the cyclist.

Mercedes A-Class has an aggressive response. I exited the motorway yesterday, no one around, so didn’t indicate. It grabbed the wheel and jerked it out of my hands as it pulled back to the right and braked. Dumb ass system could’ve easily caused a collision if someone had been following or moving into the lane I was vacating.

The whole idea does sound really dumb. Fortunately, my car doesn’t have it, but it does randomly shout at me if it thinks I am too close to something and it kills the power for a few seconds. So sometimes I can be waiting to turn right and the car coming towards me gets too close and it won’t let me move off after it has passed. Damn stupid system.

So if people switch it off or change the behaviour the car will fail type approval and no longer be insured or legal to use on the road.

AIUI on VAG cars you’re just enabling the system to remember the last settings. Once you’ve set off the car behaves the same whether you’ve disabled the system through the UI after starting the car or by having the ‘off’ state stored in memory. If you’d hacked the car’s electronics and turned off airbag activation and then had an accident where you stuck your head through the steering wheel I can see there being an argument about insurance, but if the car normally presents the driver with an option to disable a system then surely they can’t complain that system is disabled.

Another victim of the IAM mythology, which is less after safety and more about “making progress” while looking cool. It’s not like you’re going to wear them out. Whether or not you need indicators is a judgement call, but ultimately unless it’s going to confuse someone, just use them.

My point was that indicating to pass a parked car, when it’s obvious that that’s what you’re going to do, is more likely to confuse people into thinking you’re turning right. I don’t know what that has to do with ‘making progress’. If you’ve stopped behind a parked car and are going to pull out, or, you’re in a bigger vehicle that might mask the obstacle from following traffic, indicating is important.

Are folk saying they indicate when changing lanes on a deserted motorway at 11pm at night?

<pendant’s corner>If it’s actually deserted, there’s no need to change lane. IF it’s not deserted, then your indicator will provide information to someone</pendant’s corner>

My point was that indicating to pass a parked car, when it’s obvious that that’s what you’re going to do, is more likely to confuse people into thinking you’re turning right.

I wonder (playing devil’s advocate for a moment), does that distinction actually matter?

What information are we trying to convey when indicating? You’re driving along a regular street, you indicate right, what does that tell other road users beyond an intention to move in that direction so attempting an overtake is likely to be a bad idea? What’s the downside to people thinking you’re turning right when you aren’t? Undertaking I suppose, but if you’re passing a parked car (or a cyclist) then that’s unlikely.

Genuine question, have I overlooked something?

<pendant’s corner>If it’s actually deserted, there’s no need to change lane. IF it’s not deserted, then your indicator will provide information to someone</pendant’s corner>

Roadworks.
Lane merges
Junction splits

I’m not seeing how disabling an optional “feature” should trouble an insurer.

It’s not optional on new models. Facelifts and continuing production of existing models may continue under prior legislation, depending on how it’s written.

Hmm, maybe but I’ve got an Octavia with various settings changed using OBDeleven. The car has full main dealer service history including all software updates and they have never removed or commented on the changed settings. It’s also not noted on Erwin (the online service history).

Depends on what model year legislation your car was sold under. If it’s before a certain date, you should be all good. TBH, my last car was one of the very first batch in Europe to have the new system and it’s main dealer full service history would fit on one side of A4 paper.

“Bricking” the car because somebody wants it to remember their lane departure settings rather than defaulting to on each time though? 🤷‍♂️

Yes? And? What if the next user of the car is a distracted teenager? Bricking it might be excessive for all you driving gods. But a good chunk of our great motoring public shouldn’t be on the road without all the safety features turned up to 11. And also, people playing with config files is something that *can* impact a manufacturer. (Not generally in Europe thankfully. It’ll be your problem, not mine.)

In my opinion it’s not a good enough system to leave on all the time. I use it on the motorway when it’s mainly empty, that’s it.

Yes, you’re right, the earlier systems are terrible, they pick up all sorts of rubbish as lane markings. Same as the speed limit stuff, there’s a business sign near me that always triggers my Road Sign Info to tell me that it’s a 110 limit… It’s actually a 30 there.
Systems that are legally required also usually have fairly tight requirements on false warnings.

AIUI on VAG cars you’re just enabling the system to remember the last settings.

I don’t write the legislation, i just contribute as a representative of the company. The final decision is taken elsewhere.
If it says “turn feature X,Y,Z on at every new drive cycle” in the legislation, then that’s what it does. And i then need to certify that it does that. Well, technically i now tell people what, how and why to certify these days. But, y’kno.