Emergency brake problem - Problemas freno de emergencia

[Oscamper]

First in English, then in Spanish:

Hello, last September I took delivery of my new 2025 VW California Beach Camper Diesel.

With less than 200 km on the odometer, the van performed an emergency braking manoeuvre while going through a bend in the city at 30 km/h, with no obstacles on the road. Therefore, the Front Assist or Side Assist “made up” a collision and triggered emergency braking. At the dealership they didn’t find anything after connecting it to the diagnostic machine.

With less than 1,000 km, the same thing happened again on a straight road, also in the city, driving slowly: it braked hard for an imaginary accident. The dealership cannot give me an answer; it has already been in the workshop for 6 weeks and they don’t seem able to fix it.

After this, I started reading online forums and found this review by Damian Turner where he describes something similar: https://www.themudlife.co.uk/articl...025-volkswagen-t7-california-coast-20-ltr-tdi

Hola en el pasado mes de septiembre estrene mi nueva VW California Beach Camper 2025 Diesel.

Con menos de 200km la furgoneta frenó de emergencia en una curva en ciudad circulando a 30km/h sin ningún obstaculo en la carretera, por lo tanto el front o side assist se inventó un accidente y frenó de emergencia.

En el concesionario no vieron nada tras conectarlo a la máquina de diagnosis.

Con menos de 1000km volvió a ocurrir lo mismo en una recta, también en ciudad, circulando despacio, frenó de emergencia por un accidente imaginario.

En el concesionario no saben darme una respuesta certera, llevan ya 6 semanas en el taller y no parecen poder solucionarlo. Tras esto he empezado a leer foros por internet y he encontrado esta review de Damian Turner donde cuenta algo parecido.

 

[WelshGas]

First in English, then in Spanish:

Hello, last September I took delivery of my new 2025 VW California Beach Camper Diesel.

With less than 200 km on the odometer, the van performed an emergency braking manoeuvre while going through a bend in the city at 30 km/h, with no obstacles on the road. Therefore, the Front Assist or Side Assist “made up” a collision and triggered emergency braking. At the dealership they didn’t find anything after connecting it to the diagnostic machine.

With less than 1,000 km, the same thing happened again on a straight road, also in the city, driving slowly: it braked hard for an imaginary accident. The dealership cannot give me an answer; it has already been in the workshop for 6 weeks and they don’t seem able to fix it.

After this, I started reading online forums and found this review by Damian Turner where he describes something similar: https://www.themudlife.co.uk/articl...025-volkswagen-t7-california-coast-20-ltr-tdi

Hola en el pasado mes de septiembre estrene mi nueva VW California Beach Camper 2025 Diesel.

Con menos de 200km la furgoneta frenó de emergencia en una curva en ciudad circulando a 30km/h sin ningún obstaculo en la carretera, por lo tanto el front o side assist se inventó un accidente y frenó de emergencia.

En el concesionario no vieron nada tras conectarlo a la máquina de diagnosis.

Con menos de 1000km volvió a ocurrir lo mismo en una recta, también en ciudad, circulando despacio, frenó de emergencia por un accidente imaginario.

En el concesionario no saben darme una respuesta certera, llevan ya 6 semanas en el taller y no parecen poder solucionarlo. Tras esto he empezado a leer foros por internet y he encontrado esta review de Damian Turner donde cuenta algo parecido.

I've had it happen when a pigeon with a death wish flew across the road at low level. Probably saved its life.

 

[octy]

I've had it multiple times when in reverse, even though there is still like 30cm before the rear bumper will actually hit anything. Better safe than sorry but still, gave me a hearth attack more than twice.

 

[Tufty_B]

Sorry to hear about the trouble with the new van. It is worth noting that this is actually a common phenomenon known as "Phantom Braking," and it affects almost all modern vehicles with anti-collision tech, not just VWs.
I’ve experienced this myself on various different makes of vehicle. The sensors are often overly sensitive to shadows or roadside objects, causing the car to "play it safe."

P.S. Unless you were on an emergency break, rather than wanting to highlight an issue with the braking, you might want to correct the spelling in your thread title (Break > Brake). It will help others find this discussion when using the search function

 

[Jo B]

Like octy, we have only had that happen a few times when reversing towards small bumps in road ...bumps that we know are there and the van can easily go over, and I agree it does give you a shock when the van just suddenly stops for seemingly no reason. Our dealer did warn us it may happen when approaching speed bumps etc in the road.

It used to happen quite a lot on an electric car we had, as you say, for no reason at all, it would jam the breaks on, or steer you away from an imaginary accident, including on the motorway . As more software updates for the car came through the issue did improve with time but in the early days it ironically felt safer to driver the car with the automatic safety features turned off

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[The Little Red Cali]

Happened a few times on our Cali and frequently on our Volvo. Quite normal. Happened to me on a bend the first time, I think it got confused with the road markings.

 

[Wannabecamperman]

As others have said this can happen occasionally with the collision avoidance sensors reading shadows as small children, etc.

The most recent time I recall is when moving forwards to line up a reverse parking and not wearing a seatbelt as only repositioning the cars, I was thrown forwards and actually hit my head on the sun visor. It gave me a jolt I can tell you, and this was only at @5 mph, with plenty of room to the car in front!

 

[Blanco]

I'd live with the inconvence of occasionally having the van brake unexpectedly. Had this with our Volvo EV approaching bends and parked vehicles at the side of the road. Drove me nuts and I nearly switched the thing off until wondering how the insurance company would respond if we had an accident. Was glad I hadn't when following a car that signalled to turn left, started turning and promptly then decided they really wanted to turn right .. the emergency braking system reacted faster than I could. Might be a nuisance a lot of the time, but there will always be the once when you're truly grateful for it.

 

[Adam8374]

M previous car was vw Arteon, with pretty much same assist systems as my current 2025 Cali. I did 150k km in the Arteon and now 6k km in the new Cali. Never experienced phantom braking, but it did save my ass few times.


PS: not considering the parking braking-that one is quite sensitive and especially grass can trigger it when not necessary. It's not pleasant, but I don't consider it dangerous.

 

[vbk1975]

First in English, then in Spanish:

Hello, last September I took delivery of my new 2025 VW California Beach Camper Diesel.

With less than 200 km on the odometer, the van performed an emergency braking manoeuvre while going through a bend in the city at 30 km/h, with no obstacles on the road. Therefore, the Front Assist or Side Assist “made up” a collision and triggered emergency braking. At the dealership they didn’t find anything after connecting it to the diagnostic machine.

With less than 1,000 km, the same thing happened again on a straight road, also in the city, driving slowly: it braked hard for an imaginary accident. The dealership cannot give me an answer; it has already been in the workshop for 6 weeks and they don’t seem able to fix it.

After this, I started reading online forums and found this review by Damian Turner where he describes something similar: https://www.themudlife.co.uk/articl...025-volkswagen-t7-california-coast-20-ltr-tdi

Hola en el pasado mes de septiembre estrene mi nueva VW California Beach Camper 2025 Diesel.

Con menos de 200km la furgoneta frenó de emergencia en una curva en ciudad circulando a 30km/h sin ningún obstaculo en la carretera, por lo tanto el front o side assist se inventó un accidente y frenó de emergencia.

En el concesionario no vieron nada tras conectarlo a la máquina de diagnosis.

Con menos de 1000km volvió a ocurrir lo mismo en una recta, también en ciudad, circulando despacio, frenó de emergencia por un accidente imaginario.

En el concesionario no saben darme una respuesta certera, llevan ya 6 semanas en el taller y no parecen poder solucionarlo. Tras esto he empezado a leer foros por internet y he encontrado esta review de Damian Turner donde cuenta algo parecido.

The AEB function uses the forward camera and the forward Radar (commonly considered the ACC radar) data to determine if there is an object. The alignment of the forward radar is important as the radar is sensitive to metallic objects and too low or too high can pick up on manhole covers, tramlines and to high and it can pick up on road furniture. Generically the front radar mounting bracket has adjustment screws for up/down and left/right and a software calibration. These will be set at build with a target. However it is possible that this alignment is out. I would definitely be asking the dealer to check the alignment, which there will be a workshop procedure after a sensor replacement or a bodywork repair. The same is also true for the camera when a windscreen gets replaced, but the effects tend to be less obvious as the misalignment is due to small windscreen differences and bonding of screen. The camera either directly or indirectly uses the camera images to identify an object and thus the alignment is more about Field of View (ie being able to see the correct areas ) than correct determination.