[katiejones741]

Last week I thought my husband was messing with my car i the garage - went out and it was running in the garage with the garage door closed - figured he walked away for a bit, thought nothing of it.

Last night I was laying on the couch and heard the f*cking thing turn on in the garage again. I ran to the door opened it and the car was on, garage door shut. Ran to the backyard where my husband was and asked if he had started (remotely) and he said absolutely not.

I called On Call and they were terribly unhelpful and kinda condescending telling me that it was impossible (clearly not the case). After speaking with them I called the service center at my dealer and have an appointment next Tuesday.

I have the remote start option on my Volvo App, but do NOT have any start/stop times scheduled.

Has anyone else experienced this? Im going nuts searching online...

 

[KnnNike]

Does your husband have the app installed? I don't understand when you say you don't have the remote start option on your app...either that means the iOS app doesn't do remote start (I'm on Android) or else you do have the option. I'm pretty sure you can't dictate individual features to turn off in the app.

Not that any of this is necessarily connected. I would think your dealer could pull telemetry data if you can tell them what time the car started up, and see where the start command came from (e.g., ignition switch vs. the app).

 

[katiejones741]

Does your husband have the app installed? I don't understand when you say you don't have the remote start option on your app...either that means the iOS app doesn't do remote start (I'm on Android) or else you do have the option. I'm pretty sure you can't dictate individual features to turn off in the app.

Not that any of this is necessarily connected. I would think your dealer could pull telemetry data if you can tell them what time the car started up, and see where the start command came from (e.g., ignition switch vs. the app).

we both have the app installed - and we both have the remote start option. i think the language that i used in my OG post was confusing.

yeah - i want them to look at the data and see how it turned on. I took video, so i have the time that the car started.

 

[MrSo0h0o]

Last week I thought my husband was messing with my car i the garage - went out and it was running in the garage with the garage door closed - figured he walked away for a bit, thought nothing of it.

Last night I was laying on the couch and heard the f*cking thing turn on in the garage again. I ran to the door opened it and the car was on, garage door shut. Ran to the backyard where my husband was and asked if he had started (remotely) and he said absolutely not.

I called On Call and they were terribly unhelpful and kinda condescending telling me that it was impossible (clearly not the case). After speaking with them I called the service center at my dealer and have an appointment next Tuesday.

I have the remote start option on my Volvo App, but do NOT have any start/stop times scheduled.

Has anyone else experienced this? Im going nuts searching online...

Any chance you have kids or maybe even you or your husband who accidentally swiped over to the widget section on your iphone and remotely started it that way? I know sometimes when I hold my phone I can end up turning on the camera or flashlight, so I could possibly see accidentally swiping over to the widget section and landing your finger on the "start vehicle" option.

If not, I would definitely try and get Volvo On Call to pull records of your remote start to see if it coincides with the mystery starts.

 

[Tech]

Any request from the app should show up in a log we can access and it will say who requested the start. PM me your VIN and the dates and times and I can take a look.

 

[katiejones741]

Any request from the app should show up I'm a log we can access and it will say who requested the start. PM me your VIN and the dates and times and I can take a look.

sent you a message!

 

[SilverStreak177]

Imo, if it's really that easy to start your car by accident from your phone, Volvo needs to take a look at it ASAP and remove that feature and option for a widget to interact with the car that way.
Otherwise, no matter how safe the cars are on the inside, they could very well be lethal on the outside for yourself, your family, or anyone else in the house.

 

[katiejones741]

Imo, if it's really that easy to start your car by accident from your phone, Volvo needs to take a look at it ASAP and remove that feature and option for a widget to interact with the car that way.
Otherwise, no matter how safe the cars are on the inside, they could very well be lethal on the outside for yourself, your family, or anyone else in the house.

so true. so true. i was freaked, given that the garage door was open. i know the remote start only lets the vehicle run for 10 min at a time, but man....not great...

 

[DjRashonal]

Did you buy it used? When I sold my xc90 I removed my account from the cat, but the car still showed up in my app for a while. I could have messed with the new owners to freak them out. ¯\(ツ)/¯

 

[katiejones741]

Did you buy it used? When I sold my xc90 I removed my account from the cat, but the car still showed up in my app for a while. I could have messed with the new owners to freak them out. ¯\(ツ)/¯

No, Im the OG owner. But, when i sell it, now i plan to mess with folks....lol

 

[DFrantz]

When we connect a new customer to the car we remove the old one. Though I'll say generally this doesn't occur until the sale. So while the car is in the dealers lot you could probably play with it, but unless they don't set up a new account to the car, it would be hard to do after the sale. Though not every used car goes back to Volvo and not every sales person takes the time to set up On Call for used car sales, and not every customer wants it.

The widgets don't happen automatically right? I don't use Apple myself, but I thought you had to manually add the remote start widget if you wanted it. So Im not sure how we can expect Volvo to be at fault if we choose to add a widget and then bump it ourselves. I mean... that's sorta a personal responsibility thing, like turning the car off in the first place.

 

[katiejones741]

Any chance you have kids or maybe even you or your husband who accidentally swiped over to the widget section on your iphone and remotely started it that way? I know sometimes when I hold my phone I can end up turning on the camera or flashlight, so I could possibly see accidentally swiping over to the widget section and landing your finger on the "start vehicle" option.

If not, I would definitely try and get Volvo On Call to pull records of your remote start to see if it coincides with the mystery starts.

man oh man. i did have the widget, i went ahead and removed it and only have the app now. I wonder if by chance i accidentally swiped it - thats pretty scary.

 

[DFrantz]

How is it scary if you have a widget to remote start your car and you press it that it remote starts your car? Sorry but that's a user issue, not a design issue.

 

[SilverStreak177]

How is it scary if you have a widget to remote start your car and you press it that it remote starts your car? Sorry but that's a user issue, not a design issue.

I would say that it's irresponsible on Volvo's part to even have a widget to be able to do this in the first place. To start the car, perhaps the most important thing you can do with your car other than driving it, out on your home screen, easily touch-able by accident?
One to see the car's temp, its status, location, etc. would be normal imo, but not to actually start it.

Many apps automatically add themselves to your widgets page (not on main home screen, but a swipe away and accessible from the lock screen too).
Imo, remote starting should only be available in the app itself, behind a passcode lock (same passcode as phone for example, or with biometric authentication), or else anyone with access to your phone can start your car willy-nilly. Not smart.

 

[SilverStreak177]

It's like with the iPhone 4 —many people were holding it as they did all other mobile phones before and during that same period of time. However, this "normal" hand placement covered a crucial part of the phone's antenna system, causing a very large amount of calls to drop.

Would you say that Apple's response, basically saying "you're holding it wrong!" is justified, saying it's a user issue that they're covering the phone's antenna when there's a small line there, "clearly" visible on the edge of the phone?
Or would you say it's a design issue, meaning that the antenna shouldn't have even been placed there in the first place because it's way too easy to cover accidentally (and in this case, unknowingly tap an extremely accessible self-installing widget which starts your car)?

 

[Tech]

Then you'll inevitably have people complaining it's too many steps to start the car from the phone. We already have a thread around here of people complaining the rubber cap on the T8 charge port is too stressful to have to remove.

At a certain point people need to take responsibility and make a decision that's right for them. Don't want the widget? Don't install it. Want it? Install it and password protect your phone.

 

[SilverStreak177]

Then you'll inevitably have people complaining it's too many steps to start the car from the phone. We already have a thread around here of people complaining the rubber cap on the T8 charge port is too stressful to have to remove.

At a certain point people need to take responsibility and make a decision that's right for them. Don't want the widget? Don't install it. Want it? Install it and password protect your phone.

Sure -- but don't have it self-install as part of the original app installation then as it's doing now. Have it as something that can be turned on, not turned off.

 

[Tech]

Does it self install? Can someone confirm this? I don't have the app and haven't used it.

Either way, it still only runs for 10 minutes.

 

[SilverStreak177]

Personally don't know if it does self-install -- I only know that some apps do that. Tried installing the app, but for some reason it's not downloading and it just cancels the install by itself lol.

Edit: it takes 7 mins for a tiny idling 5hp gas engine to bring a 10,000 cu.ft. space to very unsafe carbon monoxide levels (1200ppm). Cold starts produce around 80,000 ppm CO in the first two mins of idling, obviously changing depending on the engine itself and the size of the room.

 

[skywolf]

My V90 is available to start as a widget on my iPhone. It installed with the Volvo On Call app