City Safety is not very City Safe if it causes possible rear ending!

 

Wow. That would really freak me out being hard stopped in the middle of an intersection. I would ask the service department to look into this further.

 

Start swerving while driving through intersections! It won't stop if the system thinks you are reacting.

 

Any suggestions out there? Has anyone else experienced this?

There have been various problems reported with City Safety although I think you are the first to report it "accidently" kicking in on you for no reason.

IMO, it was inevitable though. At some point, systems like this will just fail and not do the right thing.

So the computer does not keep track or have any log of when CitySafety activates?

 

Any service bulletins or city safety troubleshooting guides out there that could help the OP?

 

I've had it to the dealer twice: they tell me there is no problem, and the system isn't showing any error codes.

Very frustrating. This may be a new application of existing technologies, but no one wants to be a guinea pig. Have you contacted VCNA? NHTSA?

 

Every once in awhile... a few times in the past 2 weeks, it kicks in for absolutely no reason. Sometimes I might be 4 feet from the car ahead of me and BANG, it jams on the brakes.

Sounds very City-UNSAFE to me!

I'd contact NHTSA immediately. Then I'd park it until the problem is resolved.

No sense anyone getting hurt over this...

 

Mr Mitten

Can you tell me about your car? What year? What options?

 

It's a Canadian 2011 (purchased Nov 2010) XC60 , T6 AWD , Level III, Tech Package. I'm told there were absolutely NO error codes, and as a result, the computer could not be rebooted (my suggestion). Rather than parking the vehicle, when I remember, I turn OFF City Safety. But that's not a solution. I'm now closely documenting each time this happens. The dealer is looking into this as well. At this point I haven't contacted anyone beyond the dealer.

 

I had City Safety issues on my gone but not very much missed 2010 XC60 T6.

In my situation, I would frequently get error messages and it would affect the other electronic components by rendering them inoperable.

My partner had the events that you describe happen to him three times but they never happened to me while I was driving it.

We put close to 20,000 miles on it in 6 months before getting rid of it.

 

I had mine activate when I came to a small dip in the road. It must have picked up on the far side of the dip in the road when the nose of the vehicle dropped slightly. Scared the crap out of me. Haven't had any other problems.

 

I'm just fishing here...

The reason I asked was maybe it wasn't City Safety. Maybe it was Collision warning with auto brake? I'm not as familiar with the Canadian packages. You have the Volvo safety package with the adaptive cruise and lane departure etc?

Kelowna has had problems with her safety tech stuff too, and might have a similarly configured Canadian vehicle.

Maybe when they told you no codes they were only looking in city safety. Maybe they need to look at the other safety systems.

 

As far as I can tell they were only looking at City Safety on the on-board; however I don't have any other collision avoidance accessories. I think the CDN models all have emergency brake (or something) which automatically depresses the brake to the floor when it figures you're in trouble; however in the most recent occurrences, I haven't been on the brake, rather I've been accelerating.

 

Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) works when the car senses you are about to panick brake (i.e. if someone is cutting you off, your natural reaction would be to abruptly lift off the gas pedal and go toward the brake; the computer senses that and when you touch/press the brake pedal, with minimal effort you will get pretty much all the braking power through the brake pedal. In this way, you will get maximum braking through minimal effort).

 

If City Safety activates, it will display a message in the instrument cluster. Mr Mitten, did that happen in the situations you described?

 

Mr. Mitten? ;^)

I'm now feeling uneasy that one of these features could contribute to something unexpected and frighten my wife into not feeling comfortable,

Chrysler's new ad is kind of funny. It talks about cars parking and stopping themselves, and how we've seen how this turns out ... machines harvesting us (that is, The Matrix). I think their slogan is The Human Resistance.

 

Believe me - my wife isn't amused either! ELRoy - yes, each time this has happened I get the message in the cluster, reminding me (as if I didn't know) that City Safety activated.

 

How frustrating. I hope your dealer can figure things out for you.

 

I've had it go off due to the exhaust of the car in front of me on a cold day (I also have a Canadian build 2010 R-Design). Keep an eye open for lingering exhaust or steam from the sewer grates in the road next time it happens...it's just a theory at this point.

 

That was my theory for awhile too, but the most recent time it happened there wasn't anyone in front of me: no exhaust from cars, no steam from sewer grates. Another theory down the drain!

 

Maybe check the sensitivity setting of the City safety through the audio menu... (maybe that is only available with the Adaptive cruise control)?? it might be at "short", instead of "normal". mines is set at "normal".. dunno just a thought

 

If you are referring to Distance Alert, it has nothing to do with City Safety. It's a system that works with the Collision Warning and Adaptive Cruise Control.

 

Hey there Kelowna here again..

Grecian - question for Mr. Mitten and I - we have had 2 different challenges with the city safety, park assist and collision avoidance systems (I beg you indulgence about the terminology). It seems you are very familiar with these systems and I am wondering if you are able to provide a little more insight or suggestions for us to discuss with our dealers. You are great at correcting our terminology and the names of systems yet from the posts I have read, there is not much insight for us to figure out what is going on..

As you know I have had trouble with BLIS, park assist, adaptive cruise control.. My dealer did replace some modules (sorry I don't kno which exact ones) and I am fairly certain that the distance sensing is still not working for the full collision avoidance system ( when someone is slowed right down to turn and I am driving up to them from behind - before the lights and alerts would go off and occasionally the car would brake for me). Now I do not get any lights or alerts. The park assist chooses to work sometimes. BLIS randomly has a fit and flashes for no reason. And yes these have all occurred on normal sunny days without rain, dirt or anything to cause grief that I can see. BLIS - I have chaulked up to there being something in the lens tha moves on occasion. The other - I don't know..

Mr. Mitten - I am sorry you are having troubles too.. If I find anything out - I will post the remedy I was given..
However as I said you seem to be in the know and if you could provide some guidance, I am sure Mr. Mitten, I and others could benefit. Thank you.

 

Hi, Up until last night I loved my 2010XC60---I was driving on the highway going about 65mph and all of a sudden for no apparent reason
the car stopped, city safety activated. I could not believe we were not hit from behind. I have parked it and am waiting until tomorrow 5/9 to call the dealer. I have also had (not much) trouble with BLIS..lights just start flashing saying something is blocked and then stop flashing for no apparent reason. Dealer told me it is just a guide, you must always look before changing lanes...no kidding! Anyone else have either problem.

 

Inquiry to debbie290:

We had exactly the same problem with our 2011XC60 on a freeway (see #46). No anomaly was found by our Volvo garage, but the car computer was replaced. However, we can not trust that it will not happen again, thus are reluctant to pick up the car. Did your garage find any problem? What did you do at the end?

 

That's nuts...I've heard of some malfunctions in the 0-20 mph range but it's supposed to totally disable above 20 mph...sounds like a computer problem but who knows...that sucks.

 

So City Safety activated at 65mph?? WOW!

 

It's just semantics, as it isn't any less scary which system did it.

But I bet that was the Collision Warning system and not City Safety.

Troublesome the few anecdotes of issues with tech package.