Thanks for this! I’m experiencing all of the same gripes with the UI, sounds, buttons, mirrors, forgetting fob, system failure messages, Tesla message, HUD thinking the speed limit is 70 mph in an 25 mph, etc. It’s kind of relieving to know how many of these same issues you’re experiencing, as it likely means a fix will be coming.

About the seatbelt warning in the third row and the screens turning off, I haven’t experienced anything like that. However, my driver’s side window does not want to close all the way, I often need to open it and try again until it closes.

 

What does your warranty say?

 

Thanks for saving me from creating a huge post.

I am at a couple thousand miles in after a road trip I did the day after I got the car, so I have pretty deep experience with almost every feature at this point.

I share most of the issues you have mentioned, except, thankfully, I didn't get any system errors (propulsion warning, etc.) so far.

Let me add a few to your list:

• 3 times in 2k miles, the sound has totally cut off after the car has been started. No music or radio apps are audible even if you see they are playing, and the volume is up. If you engage the turn signal, the turn tick sound doesn't occur either so it's a systematic problem and not just a music playback issue. It's fixed by either the 45 second long-press or the next time the car is started.
  
  
• One time, and one time only, the car failed to automatically engage the headlights after day turned into night while I was driving. This was by far the biggest issue I have faced so far. I parked at a rest stop and tried all sorts of settings to turn on the main beams but it didn't happen. Pulling the left stalk to engage high beams showed the high beam icon in the dashboard, but high beams were not engaged. The DRL was on throughout this experience. My kids were sleeping on the back seat, so I left the car with kids and wife inside, locked it (which it didn't allow me to at first due to people being detected inside, but I overrode that), and walked away for a minute. Came back, unlocked, and still no luck. I ended up driving with just my DRL on and no headlights for the rest of my journey on the freeway at night because I really needed to get to the destination which was 30 minutes away. I was quite annoyed with Volvo during this time. Thankfully my tail lights were on so people could see me, but it was nerve wracking for me.
  
  Of course, after I unloaded the kids and put them in bed at our destination and came back to the car about 45 minutes later, everything worked and I haven't had this problem ever since. So, here's a tip to others -- if this ever happens, completely exit the vehicle and lock it, perhaps walk away for 15 minutes so its fully shut down, and then go back to it to hopefully reset it.
  
  The 45-second-long press did not fix this (I must have done it at least 10 times that night).
  
  
• We are an Android household, and the digital key doesn't work on Android. My wife and I find it a few steps backwards to be fumbling around with the credit card size key card (we're used to walking into our cars with keys in pocket for years with our '17 xc90 and '21 x5). As a result, only I drive it because my seat settings etc. are currently set. Without the digital key and with a single key tag - which keeps getting removed from my profile anyway - the car is not ready for basic 2-driver scenarios. I personally consider the key card as an emergency/backup item and can't imagine they expect someone to physically use it on a daily basis. They should have provided two key tags; and I will request a second one.
  
  
• Auto-lock when walking away does not function and is grayed out in the 'off' position in the menu.
  My muscle memory has been to either walk away and have the car auto lock consistently (x5) or reach into the key fob in my pocket from afar and press the lock button without even taking it out (xc90) as I walk away. I'm just about starting to remember to touch the handle after getting out of the car (which means I have to stick around till my wife unloads the kid on her side and/or uses the trunk, etc.) since I cannot lock it from afar unless I pull up the Volvo app. Conversely, if we're in a shop or something, and my wife needs to go out to the car which is parked right outside bring something, I need to unlock the car from the app - which I've done while being on a Teams work call on the phone a couple of time. It makes me miss having a simple lock and unlock button on the fob. Perhaps this issue goes away when the digital keys start working for us but it's pretty annoying at the moment.
  
  
• I may be in the minority here, but I used to use the park assist pilot on our '17 xc90 to back into a parking spot outside the condo on a daily basis. Although park assist pilot is mentioned in the user manual, I did not find any way to engage it. I think the feature is currently absent, probably pending Lidar enablement but that's just a guess. Obviously, manually parking is not a problem, and the split rear+top view makes it much nicer compared to our xc90 which did one or the other, but still it was a surprise to not find it.
  
  
• When I search for nearby chargers, it never shows tesla ncas superchargers for some reason. I have to search for tesla superchargers explicitly, at which points it correctly shows compatible and incompatible superchargers in the search results.
  
  
• When on very long freeway drives, I was used to seeing the green 'steering assist active' indicator on the HUD on our '17 xc90. That way, there's a constant easy to see visual indicator of what control the car has. Unfortunately, the EX90 has NO indication of any sort for cruise control / steering assist, etc. in the HUD which is a step back for me. The HUD only shows the speed, speed limit, and turn arrows if navigation is active -- and nothing else so far that I found, which is less information than what the xc90 showed (and FAR less than the X5 which pretty much replicates the dashboard - including the map - in the HUD hah!)
  
  
• Since the car is new, friends want to check it out and adjust my seat setting when they get in. This gets saved immediately so I lose my preferences. You must remember to switch to a guest profile before someone else hops in to avoid this. Just handing the fob to a friend to let them go around the block will screw it up for you. I miss the xc90's option to recall my saved setting, and to not auto-save settings unless manually committed to the profile. I am taller, and often find my seat adjusted when I give cars to valets who may be shorter. With every other car, I could manually recall my saved seat memory. I haven't given this car to a valet yet but am prepared to be annoyed if I find they adjusted the seat after I forgot to switch manually to a guest profile (which I will undoubtedly forget because who does that).
  
  
• I was happy to find the front view camera is wide angle and it allows you to 'look around corners' when driving out of blind alleys. Well, in LA, such blind alleys are common and I use the camera button on the X5 frequently which immediately defaults to the front wide view to look for pedestrians etc. before inching forward. On the EX90, pressing the camera button defaults to the top or top+rear view. You need to manually select the front view which may take two taps (first one to bring the camera selection menu, and second to select the front camera). Even at this point the front view is obscured by the camera selection menu, so you must click one more time to dismiss the menu.
  
  As a result, to "quickly" engage the front wide-angle camera you need 4 clicks (camera icon + engage camera menus + select front + press somewhere to disengage camera menu) making it too slow to be useful. It's such low hanging fruit to just default to front view when the camera icon is first pressed.. You really only need the rear camera when the car is in reverse, and the 360 camera is engaged at all times regardless, so there's really no reason not to do this.

I don't want to sound like I only had negative experiences -- on the positive side, it drives great, the quietness of the cabin is fantastic, the B&W is very enjoyable. The AAOS is snappy and as I'm already an Android user, things seem very natural to me. The massage feature was great - its real solid massage actuators I think and not just some air pockets that fill up. The "nanny" systems are generally pretty accurate although I know most people are not a fan of that. It alerts me about being distracted or tired when I'm genuinely distracted or tired heh. The other day we were crawling at 5mph on an empty residential street looking at house numbers to find our destination and the car complained my eyes were not on the road which I found both, true and amusing

But this is an issues thread so I'll stick to the issues.

I agree -- the software issues are a pretty big downer. I have resolved to be patient because I went in knowing there would be missing features and such, but that is contingent on a robust cadence of software updates and proper patch notes as mentioned by @jgentry above.

 

I'm gonna need another bucket of 🍿

 

You have listed most of what Polestar 3 owners have listed in forums and on social media. Sorry to say it, but anyone who knows Volvo could have seen this from a mile away. I hope you gain confidence in the $95k car. Otherwise I’d rid my hands of it.

 

I'm sorry to hear that people are experiencing issues with their new car but these things are to be expected with a new-generation vehicle, especially now when Volvo is writing all of the software by itself. Things will get better, but at least a year or two will pass before most concerns are addressed.

The EX90 is one of the first software-defined cars in the world so Volvo is basically breaking the ice with it. No legacy vehicle manufacturer has this type of car in their lineup.

 

I agree it is a huge task, but they revealed the car two years ago and then it was already years into development. Lets just hope they will take all they learnt and make the SPA3 cars on time without many problems when they go on sale. If they learnt from their mistakes and SPA3 is a hit, then I think they have an edge in the future, then they will not be far behind Tesla when it comes to software defined cars. Not many can do this, VW paid billions to Rivian in part to gain their knowledge with the same things.

 

A lot of what you've listed are things we Polestar 3 owners have been experiencing as well. (And no surprise that both vehicles are having the same issues)

The attached list of bugs, missing features, and desired features is one that Polestar HQ and engineers (so presumably Volvo engineers as well) has seen and given feedback on.

 

Does the current EX90 use AAOS? Version 1.1.23?

I have AAOS version 3.3.16 on my S60 t8. I have experienced some minor software glitches over the year I’ve had it but nothing major.

I feel like with a new model from anny manufacturer you are really a beta tester. I’ve had a number of new models and have had mostly good experiences. Hopefully Volvo can update the software continuously to address some of these concerns.

 

I can’t address all your concerns, but some of them are of the “you’ll get used to it“ variety. Like the driver alert on Pilot Assist.

I got frequent warnings the first few months but now get zero, mainly because I’ve learned to just mildly steer toward the outer line, and the PA will correct it on a dynamic basis.

I don’t have walk-away auto lock. But mirror and other features are adjustable within AAOS. Seat settings are easy to set and recall.

My AAOS has Apple Car Play (requires a cord) and works flawlessly. I’m surprised a newer Volvo model wouldn’t have it, but I’ve not checked it out.

Every car has a learning curve and a minor number of annoyances. Again, hopefully some of these real issues will improve with software updates.

 

AAOS is just the building block that Volvo and Polestar then modify.

AAOS on SPA cars is different from AAOS on SPA2 or CMA.

So things might work within AAOS on one platform, but not another (yet). It's made more complicated because Volvo/Polestar are moving to use fewer modules throughout the car, which means their programming needs to be that much more thought-out.

That said, SPA and CMA are close enough that Volvo (and Polestar for the 2) retain the same software versioning. The EX90/P3 and EX30 and P4 however, require completely different software packages, and therefore have different versioning.

 

Yeah... Volvo has done everything wrong with the EX90 launch, and it really is a great car, so it's a shame that corporate types are so dense sometimes. I didn't even make it all the way through the lists ya'll have made. I do know the buttons are not intended to be backlit, which i realize is probably one of the smaller complaints there, but it caught my eye and it was specified in one of the publications from Volvo. It's at least being recognized as a common enough question that Volvo felt compelled to say it's not a planned change. The dealer indeed should have taught you the reset feature, it might have been forgotten, or so new that sales person or delivery person hadn't learned it yet. I know I have shown it even on test drives (because the screen was dark as OP described). This car is plagued with software issues though, and it marks a decade of Volvo model launches without Apple Car play at launch. Confusing and impressive accomplishment. The good bit is that being mostly software related issues, it can all be fixed. It simply shouldn't be on the market not working, but AAOS started that way too and even then I liked it better than sensus for what it could be, and now I'm un-apagogically a fan of AAOS (other than Volvo not giving pricing on data).

 

I do want to point out that I agree with this quote as well:

I would probably have a list just as long if I listed everything that I liked about this car.

Apart from the one major headlight issue, I am able to overlook the quirks for all the positives of the car, and as such am enjoying ownership with the knowledge that it's mostly fixable over time as @DFrantz said. I am fully aware that I am a Beta tester but needed a car at this point in time and am still happy to be in a Volvo.

Thanks for the organized list @nbvolks ! I hope as more owners voice things, Volvo will keep the pace up on fixing things.

 

As far as the walk up unlock/walk away lock goes-that’s a mixed blessing on any car. Cars will unlock and lock repeatedly if you have fob in your pocket and you walk back and forth in the garage lets say and you are anywhere near the car.

 

I believe that with any Android based system there is some risk of instability so I can see resetting once in a while - this has been the case with all of the AAOS vehicles. Annoying but solvable. It's actually a big reason why the Volvos don't get recommended ratings from Consumer Reports.

We're finding weird errors coming up on our test drive and showroom EX90s. Our lead technician seems to think that they are caused by communication errors between a couple of the different computers in there, so it's software ... still.

In contrast, the EX30s have proved 100% reliable. Our showroom and test drive cars have not had problems, and all of the ones I have delivered personally are trouble free so far. So there is hope they are going to get this right.

 

It's actually a big reason why the Volvos don't get recommended ratings from Consumer Reports.

Because it's CR, which has a very specific demographic they're writing for. You'll see this across all of their reviews. They're not interested in tech forward, or innovative, things because their subscribers (the dwindling amount there are) skew older and are not comfortable with "them new fangled things".

Also, the EX30 is stable now, but it very much was not when it was released in Europe. There were lots of software issues with it, and that was part of what delayed it for North America, and then the tariffs delayed it further.

 

Sorry to say it, but anyone who knows Volvo could have seen this from a mile away. I hope you gain confidence in the $95k car.

A lot of what you've listed are things we Polestar 3 owners have been experiencing as well. (And no surprise that both vehicles are having the same issues)

I'm curious if Volvo did ANY testing before releasing this car.

Yeah... Volvo has done everything wrong with the EX90 launch

This car is plagued with software issues

It simply shouldn't be on the market not working

mostly fixable over time

I am fully aware that I am a Beta tester

at least a year or two will pass before most concerns are addressed.

 

AAOS is just the building block that Volvo and Polestar then modify.

AAOS on SPA cars is different from AAOS on SPA2 or CMA.

So things might work within AAOS on one platform, but not another (yet). It's made more complicated because Volvo/Polestar are moving to use fewer modules throughout the car, which means their programming needs to be that much more thought-out.

That said, SPA and CMA are close enough that Volvo (and Polestar for the 2) retain the same software versioning. The EX90/P3 and EX30 and P4 however, require completely different software packages, and therefore have different versioning.

Thanks for the explanation.

I've told clients I'd never buy a CR recommend car because it would be too boring and I don't want to accidently be associated with their subscribers.

Back in 1998 we bought a CR recommended Ford Windstar minivan.

About a year or 2 later it was downgraded to Don’t Buy.

We had a transmission leak that almost stranded us in the Lincoln Tunnel (long story), then a few years later with 150K miles on the odo it caught fire and was totaled.

So yeah take CR recommendations especially with cars with a grain of salt at least with newer vehicles.

 

Thanks for the explanation.



Back in 1998 we bought a CR recommended Ford Windstar minivan.

About a year or 2 later it was downgraded to Don’t Buy.

We had a transmission leak that almost stranded us in the Lincoln Tunnel (long story), then a few years later with 150K miles on the odo it caught fire and was totaled.

So yeah take CR recommendations especially with cars with a grain of salt at least with newer vehicles.

For a long time CR hated new Volvo models, but would turn around and rate the exact same car as a used "Best Buy". I used that logic gap to inform a fair number of potential customers about the reliability of CR opinions.

 

All of these are known by Volvo for sure, they drive and test the car everyday and has for years. It is just unfortunate that they released the car in the state it is in, but huge internal pressure to start delivering the car because they were already way way late. Some things are by design though, some things is just bad hardware solution and some things are because of Android OS and waiting for Google to solve.
All of the rest pure software ones can and probably will be fixed, but some fixes are for the software that run on the nvidia hardware and those might not come until the new hardware is rolled out some time later this year.
And the bad release notes should be fixed. I can't count the number of times my cars got updates at service and I ask what was updated and just get a shrug or some document like above with just “General stability improvements”. But in the new software driven era this should be addressed. And a public bug-list with estimates for fixes, but that will never happen.

 

My biggest concern is getting the car to be glitch free. I bought it recognizing that certain features would not be available.

Below are issues that I have had. The car went back to the dealer 2 1/2 days after I got it and again today (two days after I got it back). Frustrating is an understatement - especially because I have an error message on my dash cluster which I could not clear - and thus had no speedometer in the cluster or in the HUD.

Unfortunately, my EX90 has had various software-related glitches related to the charging pad, the feature to open the tailgate with one's foot, active highbeam not being available (even after cleaning an already clean windshield), icons on the center stack engaging a different function, driver support system fault, etc. My car is in the service department and my understanding is that some of this could be related to a problem with the profile since the car had been intended for someone else and had that person's profile embedded in the car so that it would not accept mine.

The dealership mentioned that the problem with the charging pad was that it was turned off - not something that I did, but again, may have been related to the profile issue since the key cards had not yet been paired to the car and the key tag battery was very close to being dead if not already dead. All I knew is that on Day 1, the icon for the key tag was on the center stack and that my iPhone would charge and on Day 2 - nothing.

I got my car back Thursday night. Out the gate, 8n the service lane it had what I was told was a camera fault icon. The GM moved the car and it went away. On the way home the cruise control shut off on the interstate highway without warning. I just discovered myself slowing down the 45 mph for no apparent reason and when I looked at the dash, the green cruse indicator was gone.

On Friday, experienced the Driver Support System Fault (Book Service Message) twice; the wireless charging pad was off and had to be turn it back on, the sensitivity setting for the automatic wipers changed from low to medium, and when my wife pulled into the garage an exited her car, the EX90's car alarm activated. The key to the car was in a Farraday Cage box when the car alarm activated and the alarm was turned off when I approached the car with the key tag.

I also found one of the wheel cover inserts coming off.

This afternoon (Saturday), I got a communication fault message that could not be cleared from the drivers instrument cluster despite following instructions (and when that did not work, turning the car off, locking it and walking away). As a result , there was no speedometer, no green arrows for the turn signals, no headlight indicators, no windshield wiper setting, no nothing in that screen but the fault message. The center stack indicates a serious issue detected and an emergency call system fault. Also, the speed on the HUD is shown as - - and the speed limit sign is shown as 25 mph and did not change even though I drove in different speed zones - including a 55 mph speed zone on I-395.

Car is now back at the dealer with 315 miles on the odometer.

 

@OmahaJeff CR does give too much reliance on previous models of the brand when new cars come out.

@LeStar Volvo doesn't generally give the dealers any better release notes either... absolutely a challenge.

 

Also true. I actually buy the publication every year and go over it when on my winter vacation. They bold the year where they tested the car which is where they get their test score from and many of these are quite old. I appreciate the feedback that they base reliability numbers on has to do with survey feedback.

Anyway, a car that is more tech forward is likely to have more tech-related problems. If they were going by durability standards, then a lot of their findings would be upside down - like Hyundai and Kia all recommended? Really?

 

Volvo is releasing new XC60 model this year. They haven’t showed anything yet though. The salesman told me it will have new suspension and stuff and also software which after reading this thread concerns me the most. Do you think it will have the same issues? I’ve already ordered one and wondering if the same issues are awaiting me…

 

If you're referring to the EX60 then yes, most issues described here will apply to it. If you didn't make a typo and were infact referring to the XC60 facelift then no, the car won't have this many issues.

 

Level: Twin Motor, Ultra 6 seats
Exterior: Denim Blue
Interior: Cardamon
Wheels: 21-inch
Software: 1.1.23

• Had one notification of "All-wheel drive fault" when backing up when it was icy. The notification cleared a bit later on its own. No other similar faults or messages.
• Have not experienced any messages regarding keeping my hands on the steering wheel. I would be surprised that it uses some kind of visual system, versus detecting torque on the steering wheel.
• One instance where I had no volume from streaming audio and navigation apps. Did the 30-second reset button and the audio came back.
• No issue with third row seats. The vehicle was delivered with them up and I'm now driving with them down. (Unlikely they will ever be used.)
• Red light center of dash: I recall that on my previous XC90s but do not recall this on the EX90. Could be difference between Plus and Ultra.
• I have driven by quite a few radar speed signs - my speedometer is either the same or off by 1 mile from the radar.
• I am using the Volvo provided key tag and it was assigned to my profile. I don't recall it getting unlinked - will check that out. I have kept it charged.
• Power liftgate seems to be more sensitive to the foot gesture than my XC90 - sometimes it has taken me two or three motions to get it to work on the EX90.
• Have not experienced any climate system issues.
• Most of the time I am doing pre-conditioning and that is working OK as well.
• Apple: don't own any Apple devices. It has been noted that CarPlay is a future deliverable. Don't feel bad: it doesn't support Android Auto either. (They recently just released AA for other Volvo AAOS based vehicles.)
• Steering wheel buttons: the only backlight is that horizontal line. I feel I have 90% mastered where to push without looking. Yea - I think they could have done better with the steering wheel button implementation.
• Sideview mirror folding: I really like this feature and like you, I use it to know whether the vehicle is locked. When you are 100 steps away from the vehicle a lot easier to see if the mirrors are folded, than if the handles are flush.
• Turn signal: I agree 100% - maybe give us the ability to control its volume level? Too low ...
• One pedal driving: don't like / don't use
• Wireless charger: I have seen other posts about it getting turned off, to the point where I have checked mine. Its still on. Wonder if it is a profile issue?
• Key fob: my dealer put a nice lanyard on it - not something I want to connect keys to. Once the Android Wallet and UWB is supported I'll use my mobile device and not the key fob.
• Homelink: missing this functionality. Used to use all three buttons on the XC90 mirror. Wondering how this will be exposed to us in the future.
• Have not seen any message in the Volvo Cars app about Tesla Supercharger access. I had a ChargePoint account and have that setup in the Volvo app.
• Driver Journal: have not seen any issues with that, other than initially if you are going to use it you must grant it access to your location. The data shows up in the Volvo app and I actually use it for a variety of purposes.
• Release notes: sure, I wish there was more detail. But I wish the same for update notes for practically everything software based.

It is difficult to determine if some of your issues are specific use case things, either with your vehicle and / or the way things are setup - versus outright EX90 flaws or problems (that all drivers / owners will experience).

As an EX90 owner I signed up knowing full well that this is an entirely new platform and there are bound to be issues, some that may in fact take time to resolve.

 

These cars will have a lot of software issues. Problems/messages come and go after key cycles. Gonna be normal. You should see the act of power it takes to get half these car’s pdi’d or even into the shop. Half the cars come in ok. Half of them have to be pushed in and fixed, or remote takeover. Eventually software will be better but since i work on em i know how to deal with them better

 

Have you tried getting one to wake up and move when it's in Delivery Mode? That's a fun way to spend 15 minutes.

Still want one, though... glutton for punishment.

 

^^You have a lot of experience with the brand Wayne…

 

Y'all bought junk.
Take it back.
Go get get yourself a real reliable XC90. 08-2011 V8 or if you want SPA maybe a 19-21 T6 AWD. Spend less time worrying or at the service center.

 

What does your warranty say?

 

Holy smokes, this is INSANITY, no one should ever have any sort of list THIS long with major issues immediately after buying a new car. However, IMO it's always best to avoid the "brand new platform" or version of any car so the bugs can be worked out, it's honestly more frustrating than buying a car with 100K and seeing it has all sorts of issues, it's new, it shouldn't have any!

This might start to bury volvo and has had negative impacts on other automotive manufacturers and I'm not sure any of their problem lists were this large and this significant.

I'd argue that the headlight issue alone not coming on at all warrants a safety recall!

I would never be the one to test any brand new car functionality especially one so technically advanced as this, until it was fully tested by the masses for awhile. Reading this thread is making me like our 2017 XC90 even more, although it does have some minor annoyances, everything still works as it should for the most part.

 

Wow, what a great public service message.
I had not heard the term "software-defined car". A rolling video game with a body wrapped around it instead of a plastic case. Technology gone haywire.
Volvo ought to be offering full refunds on this piece of electronics, untested and nonfunctional.
My 2007 XC70 has met its soulmate....warning systems gone haywire, providing constant warnings for things that aren't happening, from loose fuel filler cap to Major System Failure.
Is this Chinese influence?

 

Wow, what a great public service message.
I had not heard the term "software-defined car". A rolling video game with a body wrapped around it instead of a plastic case. Technology gone haywire.
Volvo ought to be offering full refunds on this piece of electronics, untested and nonfunctional.
My 2007 XC70 has met its soulmate....warning systems gone haywire, providing constant warnings for things that aren't happening, from loose fuel filler cap to Major System Failure.
Is this Chinese influence?

I think you just coined a new term! "POE"! Piece of Electronics! instead of POS, which it seems like.

 

There is not more software in Volvo than any other car. What is new and big is the one computer owned by Volvo for everything, meaning they also have to do everything in-house. Like Tesla, Rivian and many Chinese do and also other Europeans.

 

Which other European or US OEMs have a core computing system owned and developed by the OEMs and all electronic hardware and software in house?