Watch out – an emergency vehicle is approaching! Your Škoda will alert you

You may not yet hear a siren or see flashing blue lights, but your car can already inform you that increased attention is required – or that you should immediately make way on the road. This new feature in Škoda cars will enable emergency services and police to pass more smoothly and prevent stressful situations.

25. 2. 2026 Škoda World

The latest innovation is the Approaching Emergency Vehicle Alert. Police, fire firefighters and ambulance vehicles travelling with activated warning beacons may (though are not obliged to – this depends on the circumstances) share their location and direction of travel. This information is then immediately transmitted via a cloud-based solution to all drivers for whom it is relevant. In Škoda vehicles, the data is delivered to the Traffication application, which provides visual and, where appropriate, voice alerts.

As a result, drivers are informed about the presence of an integrated emergency system vehicle before they hear a siren or see the warning lights. The application clearly and comprehensibly communicates the distance and direction of travel of the emergency vehicle and displays a simple animation on the infotainment screen showing how to create an emergency corridor. All of this gives the driver valuable additional reaction time.

This feature reduces stress on both sides, speeds up and facilitates passage through traffic, and consequently reduces the risk of accidents, increases safety, and helps to save lives. This is one of the reasons why Euro NCAP rates it positively as part of its safety testing.

The current Traffication solution was developed by Škoda Auto in cooperation with HAAS Alert and its Safety Cloud platform. The warning is currently available in the Netherlands and parts of the United Kingdom, withadditional regions to follow; the Czech police will join next, and Škoda vehicles will be the first to support the feature in Belgium.

Improving assistance systems with the help of drivers

Škoda Auto has joined the Data for Road Safety (DFRS) initiative, which focuses on sharing anonymized information about local traffic risks. This initiative includes leading car manufacturers, national transport infrastructure authorities, and traffic data providers. The shared data includes, for example, information about accidents, broken-down vehicles, sudden deterioration in visibility, or slippery road surfaces—situations that pose an increased risk to drivers.

Thanks to the real-time exchange of this information, Škoda Auto can, via the Traffication application, expand the number of warnings about hazardous situations along a route. Relevant data is also made available to road infrastructure operators and emergency services, enabling faster responses – such as securing an accident scene or removing an obstacle from the road. DFRS operates as a shared platform that makes this data accessible in compliance with privacy protection rules. Preserving the anonymity of individual drivers does not prevent the shared data from contributing to safer and smoother traffic flow.