I can confirm the Front Assist and Automatic Braking Works ...

[allycat45]

So day 2 yesterday, and took the wife out for a bit of a blast and a bit of shopping. Going along the ring road and discussing the shortsightedness of council planners who were widening the road to put a new cycle path in but not using the extra space they could also have had for an extra road lane in a stretch where it really needs it.

Suddenly a squeak from the wife, a warning tone from the GTI, a quick jolt of the brake from the GTI and then into Automatic Braking mode from the GTI. Never mind the council's shortsightedness, maybe I should have been watching the sea of brake lights coming on in front of me whilst doing 30-40 mph !

Anyhow, the car alerted me with sound and jolt and then braked for me since I didn't do it quickly enough after that. I take back all those thoughts about how that little cut out in the front valance looks awful. It almost certainly saved quite a serious shunt into the back of an Audi A6 estate.

Phew. Now I know why its cheaper to insure and safer to drive.  I wouldn't recommend you try it out (remember that video a few years ago where they did it and forgot to turn the system on?), but be assured, it is there and does work. No liability accepted of course ! NB The system IS turned on by default - you don't have to go hunting for it.

     

[Buck]

Good to know it works and your both ok and no bent metal!

[Rob916]

Shame the car following me yesterday didn't have it !     

[CraigW]

Shame the car following me yesterday didn't have it !     

That doesn't sound too good mate. How's the car?

[p3asa]

I'm confused. I thought this braking malarkey only occurred under 18mph as discussed here:

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=260077.0

Or is there another braking system in place and what's the difference between the two?

I'm also curious, if the car comes to a complete stop, does it also cut the engine?

[allycat45]

According to the manual, Front Assist provides the following (sort of in order, I guess):

• Distance warning on the instrument cluster at speeds between 37mph and 130 mph if it thinks you are too close to a car in front
• Advance Warning by a warning tone at speeds between 18mph and 130 mph if it detects a danger of collision i.e. rapid closure with whatever is ahead, I guess
• Urgent Warning by a quick jolt on the brake at speeds between 18mph and 130mph  if you fail to react to the Advance Warning above
• Automatic Braking at speeds between 3mph and 130mph if you fail to react to the Urgent Warning above
• Brake Assistance can also be given at speeds between 3mph and 130mph if you are braking but it does not think you are braking hard enough and there is a risk of collision

The City Emergency Brake function is a more short range (up to 10m ahead) function, working at speeds between 3mph and 19mph to stop you in case of a collision. I guess that the difference between the full Front Assist system above and the City Emergency Brake function is that the first happens at higher speeds and longer distances, and it warns you once, twice, three times and then starts braking. The description of the City Emergency function seems to indicate that it does not go through a three stage warning process, but just monitors and then brakes straight away if it feels it needs to, but only at low speeds up to 19mph

[AlanH]

I'm assuming in all these cases where braking is activated automatically that the rear brake lights do come on?

[p3asa]

Thanks Allycat for the description.
So did your car bring you to a halt from 30-40mph?

Maybe once I've tried it I'll be convinced but I can just see it causing all sorts of problems.

[allycat45]

I don't know about the brake lights but I would be surprised if they were not activated.

I was doing somewhere between 20 and 40 mph I guess, not sure exactly what speed. The system did not bring me to a halt - I did take control i.e. start braking myself, and the system then disengages according to the manual, but I presume that step 5 would stay in operation. I'm not keen on trying it again to test it but it's nice to know it's there

[stuart.cameron]

Does this mean it is almost impossible to rear end someone?