Safe driving on snow and ice

Driving in winter conditions requires exceptional attention from the driver. Škoda Storyboard brings tips on how to tackle snow-covered and icy roads with ease. Additionally, expert insights are provided from someone who tests Škoda car systems beyond the Arctic Circle.

6. 2. 2025 Lifestyle

We assume that you are already familiar with pre-drive tasks and general vehicle preparation for winter driving. If not, HERE are the details:

Just to briefly remind you, the essentials include winter tyres with adequate tread depth, a thoroughly swept body, and all windows properly scraped. Tyres and visibility are the absolute essentials. Don’t forget to use your headlights during the drive, as modern LED solutions do not produce as much heat, and thus, the discharge lamp won’t help with melting ice buildup.

In the Czech Republic, winter tyres must have a minimum tread depth of 6 mm

Take Off Your Jacket

After preparing your vehicle, it’s also important to prepare yourself for driving in winter conditions. Be sure to take off your winter jacket before getting into the car. Heavily insulated jackets can restrict your movement, which may have negative consequences in sudden road situations. When driving, you need to move freely and, after all, try doing your morning stretch in a down jacket—it won’t be easy. If you don’t have a garage, don’t despair—many Škoda cars are equipped with seat and steering wheel heating, as well as interior preheating via the My Škoda app.

You can hang your clothes on the handy loops in the rear of the car

Safe Distance

It is difficult to estimate surface traction during winter. A layer of ice may be hiding beneath the snow cover, and slushy salt-laden snow is slippery as well. You should double the usual two-second rule between you and the car in front of you during winter. Not only will you have more time to react to unexpected situations, but your car will also have a better chance of coping with the conditions.

The tricky thing about winter tyres on snow lies in the fact that while they may offer good grip during acceleration, braking requires accounting for the vehicle’s increased inertia and therefore its longer stopping distance.

Longer spacing gives you more room to manoeuvre

Look for Traction

On unsalted roads, the tyre tracks left by vehicles ahead of you may be covered in ice. Ice can be easily recognized as it often glistens. The same applies to smooth, packed snow, which also has very low traction. The reason is the hardness of these surfaces. The grooves in winter tyres cannot bite into such hard surfaces and move the car forward. In these conditions, only studded tyres work, but their use is banned in many European countries. Therefore, if the road is wide enough, try to avoid these tracks and look for areas with softer snow where winter tyres will have better traction.

Also, keep a safe distance from snow barriers piled along the roadside. Unploughed snow on the road can easily pull you into the snowbank. Rally drivers could tell you about that.

Be aware that rutted tracks may be covered in ice

Smoothness Above All

One of the essentials of safe driving on snow is smoothness, both when accelerating and braking, as well as when steering. Traction on slippery surfaces is very fragile, and you can easily lose it with hasty movements of the steering wheel or accelerator and brake pedals. Sure, the assistance systems are still watching over you, but it’s always better to avoid having them intervene at all.

Give your car clear and smooth instructions. When approaching corners, choose a lower approach speed. At higher speeds, the absence of resistance in the steering wheel may be a sign of understeer. Often, simply easing off the steering will allow the tyres to bite back into the surface and start working again.

Precise and steady steering is key in the snow

First the shoe, then the wheel

When heading to places rarely visited, such as an unploughed driveway or off-road, it doesn't hurt to get out of the car and explore the surface. You can test the firmness of the ground and snow depth on foot. There's nothing worse than getting stuck and grounding your car on the underbody protection. This situation either leads to long, exhausting digging or the need for heavy equipment to pull you out, which may not be accessible.

Also, keep your sunglasses at hand while driving. Your eyes will get used to the sunlight reflecting off the snow, but emerging from a tunnel may be a shock, and it will take some time for your vision to fully adjust.

If heavy equipment is not within reach, pulling the car out can be a problem

A word with an expert

Jáchym Frýdek
coordinator of brake regulation systems applications

How are Škoda vehicles calibrated for winter conditions?
For Škoda, fine-tuning of braking systems for winter conditions is crucial because most drivers reach the adhesion limits more frequently in these conditions. It’s all about timing. The ABS unit evaluates the situation and responds every 5 milliseconds, meaning it makes decisions faster than in a blink of an eye, which usually takes 100 milliseconds. So, by the time you blink, ABS has already evaluated the situation 20 times.

One thing is very important! For all braking systems, what you, as the driver, do is crucial. The steering wheel acts as the eyes for the ESC unit (which combines ABS, EDS, ASR, ESC, XDS systems), and it compares where you want to go according to the steering wheel with the direction the car is actually moving. It also considers how quickly you turn the steering wheel.

What exactly do you test in winter conditions?
We test around 200 standardised manoeuvres for low adhesion, measure stopping distances on snow, ice, and surfaces with extremely varying adhesion (µ-split), and many others. We also test system functionality on different winter tyre sizes and often put summer tyres on snow just to test them.

What specifics are involved in setting up for low-traction surfaces?
Stability of the car is our absolute priority when dealing with low adhesion. We set up the systems to ensure their responses are understandable for the driver and that the car doesn’t unnecessarily correct itself. For µ-split, for example, we need to adjust the braking pressure logic for each wheel and axle individually to keep the car stable in extreme conditions.

How does the car know what force to apply when making corrections?
Basic parameters are set during the development of the ESC control software. The system uses an adaptable model of the car’s behaviour, so it knows how the car will react and the system then adjusts the ESC interventions accordingly.

What progress have stability systems made in recent years?
We first used ESC in 1998 on the first-generation Octavia. Since then, stability systems have reached significant progress, especially in terms of response speed and finer regulation when controlling valve pressure distribution to the individual wheels. Experience from millions of test kilometres has helped create robust software that is crucial for the proper functioning of braking systems.

The steering wheel acts as the eyes for the ESC unit, and it compares where you want to go according to the steering wheel with the direction the car is actually moving.