AFAIK, that is being developed right now.
The numbers flash red only when actual “virtual braking” is being applied.
The difference between braking and slowing down can be misleading. Braking involves applying some kind of artificial force that translates into deceleration. When I mentioned slowing down (in the other forum thread) I meant only slowing down through the existing opposing forces: gravity, rolling resistance and air resistance.
PD4 uses both types.
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And the numbers flash red 100% of the time any virtual braking is being applied regardless of the strength of said brake?
PD4 modifies gravity to achieve its results?
And the numbers flash red 100% of the time any virtual braking is being applied regardless of the strength of said brake?
Yes
PD4 modifies gravity to achieve its results?
No!
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As Ole mentions Auto-Braking was listed in around September 2022 within ‘This Season on Zwift’. I read their words to mean had been implemented when actually probably meant is being worked on. Heard nothing since then.
I’ve raised this a couple of times recently (specifically in relation to downhill descending dynamics/speeds) and have been told “it’s being worked on”.
No idea of an ETA or even if/when beta testing will take place. I think this in combo with PD4 would change racing for the better.
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I just finished Tour of Watopia Stage 5 Long and PD4 worked better than expected. I started out by holding on to the lead blob for dear life and I got spit out upon the first hint of elevation. My w/kg was lower than everyone else’s so I didn’t take the drop negatively.
One thing I did observe is that it felt very easy to grab onto a single rider’s wheel. On the flip side, that same single rider had the most difficult time trying to escape from me. She had more w/kg than me overall (2.73 to my 2.6) and yet every one of her attempts at a breakaway failed. We were both a bit confused and just stuck together till the finish line.
Edit: To clarify, the power difference wasn’t because of drafting.
Overall, I was okay with the changes. Hoping folks don’t develop a cheeky strategy of slowing down (to activate autobrake on people behind you) before breaking into a sprint.
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@DavidP How does auto-braking interact with power ups, especially the van power up? For instance, if I am riding steady in a pack and activate the van or aero power up, will auto-braking apply if I start gaining speed on the riders in front of me? Will it get worse if I start dropping my power as a reaction to gaining speed to save energy?
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That’d be a fun exploit. Also wondering about unintended braking at the finish line sprint. Power is almost always declining approaching the finish, if you pass people shortly before the line while your sprint is fading are you going to get braked off the podium?
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With the new PD4 update, i am 100% certain there’s something wrong.
A robo pacer riding alone at 2.2wkg should NOT be able to catch up to a group og 6 riding at 3.0wkg
And when riding WITH the pace partner the experience has become FAR more messy.
You can hold a higher wkg and still fall back.
The messages that pops up about “let maria catch up” “catch up with maria” comes WAAAY too early.
That stuff is just extremely anoying and i will not be joining any more pace partner rides until this is fixed.
It takes away the joy of riding, and is just causing me to focus on the text at all times.
And before any of you smart-a$$es tells me to turn off the hud, that shouldn’t be needed, PD4 seems like a total miss, and i’m curious how it will affect TTT and group-rides outside pacepartner stuff.
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Hey Robert,
Thanks for your feedback.
I did a couple Pace Partner rides last week (in Makuri) and this wasn’t my experience.
The “drop zone” is dependent on the size of the group around the Pace Partner. If it’s a small group this is a really small zone. I’ve asked for this to be increased in the future.
Completely agree with your assessment that a solo 2.2 shouldn’t be able to catch a group of riders doing 3.0 and I’ll keep an eye out for other similar feedback.
Come join Constance in Watopia tomorrow on Tick Tock.
I rode today with Constance for 47.2km and 44.6km/h average (8-10 riders with a powerful guy at the front) and the actual average watts and speed from today (PD4) versus yesterday (PD3) on same route were nearly identical. Same average, 1 watt average power difference. I’m at 59kg.
I had to punch hard to get past guys ahead cruising at 3.5w/kg, but that’s my problem with my left leg still way down on strength and my maximum watts/kg being only around 8w/kg. A group of us did push the pace up getting towards LAX and got a small gap which soon turned into Constance being 13 seconds behind with only 1 or two others with Constance.
I later jumped in with the Yumi pack for an easy 8km cool-down ride, much larger group there, no obvious anomalies.
Previously big groups would catch faster groups (of less riders) in the old PD3 so you had anomalies where Yumi or Jacques group was easier/slower than Coco.
I did also try Makuri previously but I never ride those routes at all - so testing in Watopia is better and so far from the riding I’m doing, it’s okay.
No chance 
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I rode with Maria for 2 hours this morning on Country to Coastal in Makuri.
In those 120 minutes, I think I got the prompt to wait for her twice, and the prompt to catch up once. Anecdotally, catching up was a short threshold effort when oftentimes it would have been quite a bit harder under PD3.
I hard to work about 10 watts harder than usual today, but that was because I wanted to work harder and so rode the Zwift steel bike on Zwift classic wheels. I’ll ride my usual set-up tomorrow and see how that compares to PD3.
In summary, everything felt good. 
Did 45’ with Coco on Watopia’s “Volcano Circuit” earlier. Haven’t ridden much over the past couple of months and my fitness has suffered, so I was expecting the worse.
However, I was pleasantly surprised and had no major problems with sitting-in, catching back on, or drafting near the back (blobbed or strung out). Only two instances of red flashing power numbers (both disappeared in the blink of an eye with no consequence). For my riding style, and power profile, PD4 felt very similar to PD3 from a steady-state group riding perspective. Have yet to try PD4 in a race 
I was also with Maria this morning on Country to Coastal. Sometimes the pack was doing 2.8-3.0 on flats with Maria at the front. It seemed odd to me, had to work harder than usual to stay with her at times. I noticed the auto-brake but it wasn’t annoying.
I have been telling this in the main post for PD4 feedback, auto-braking is a bit too much.
Odd. I’ll try again tomorrow with my usual bike and wheels and if I have to average more than about 153 watts we’ll know something is up. 
You mean kind of like team DSM at Flanders this past weekend?
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That’s a good question. Auto-braking itself does not interact with power-ups. The rules stay the same. If your power reduces (and all the other conditions I already enumerated are met), you might be slowed down regardless of using the power-up or not.
When using the Aero I assume, it’s intended to be an “attacking” power-up so power should be increasing when using it (in most situations).
The truck power-up, if you intend to use it to “recover” and reduce your power, the rules just stay the same, your drafting increases and you might be slowed (or not) depending on all the conditions being met.
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