Volvo recalls all of its 72K EX30 cars due to software bug that obscures speedometer

Volvo has announced a recall of every single EX30, nearly 72k in all, and it's all because of a relatively minor software error. In a statement released today, the Sweden-based car manufacturer says EX30 vehicles can accidentally throw up a "test screen" on the center monitor, obscuring the normal driving statistics shown …

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Mitsubishi Spare Star 2018 model (called Mirage in US for why ???? does anyone know why ????). Classical analogue speedometer + RPM. AC with actual dials, you can use them blindly since they don't change function depending on "context". And you can touch them without accidentally activate something you did not want to activate. Reliable A to B car, not a single glitch yet. Of course there is software in that vehicle too, but not dialed up to eleven just 'cause marketing propaganda department says so.

An entertainment system blocking a speedometer with a useless message - insanity!

[David 132]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

It’s a long-standing Volvo tradition to have random sh1t obscuring the screen.

My XC70 is obsessed with telling me which seatbelts have been used, or when it’s connected via Bluetooth to my phone - even if I’m reversing at the time. Yes, thanks Volvo, being told that you have connected, just like the 500+ times before, to my phone, is WAY more important than me being able to see my back-up camera…

[DS999]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

My car (2021 Audi A5) has a digital dashboard, but it is well defined what part of it contains info related to the entertainment system. There are a few layouts you can choose from, the one I use has a tach and selected gear on the left (along with gas gauge) and speedometer on the right. In the middle it show info related to the entertainment system like radio station, or what is streaming on your phone, plus a few icons above like whether your phone is paired. It is not touch sensitive.

Are there really cars that have the main dashboard display touch sensitive? I'd have to lean forward quite a bit to touch that, and the steering wheel is in the way. Seems like giving people any reason to touch that would be a huge safety issue!

[tip pc]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Are there really cars that have the main dashboard display touch sensitive? I'd have to lean forward quite a bit to touch that, and the steering wheel is in the way. Seems like giving people any reason to touch that would be a huge safety issue!

are you referring to the screen behind the steering wheel?

the touchscreens are the ones between the 2 front occupants.

there is a pic here that shows the ex30 has no dashboard behind the steering wheel.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/the-volvo-ex30s-interior-is-the-ikea-take-on-teslas-playbook/

[werdsmith]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Like a Tesla, or a classic MINI or Morris Minor from the late 1950s. Or a Mk1 Toyota Yaris. And some other cars. Not "unlike almost every other car".

[Mike 137]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

"Seems like giving people any reason to touch that would be a huge safety issue

A centre screen console is already a huge safety issue, touch sensitive or not. It takes much longer (and is more distracting) to locate and interpret 'instruments' on a screen out of driving line of sight than it does to glance down briefly from view ahead. And then there's the problem of losing the lot if a sceen fault occurs (as happened to mate of mine while driving).

However this is just another (albeit dangerous) example of ergonomics having been dismissed from product design, the most basic example being the ridiculous 4 way plus centre click plus rotate control on the back of most digital camera that does dozens of different things depending on the "mode" you've set. Not only is it positioned where it's difficult to reach except by a thumb (which is imprecise), it's also too small and fiddly to manipulate at all without looking at it. The traditional film camera had fewer "functions" (but all the essential ones) but the control for each did just one thing and was positioned and implemented so one could keep shooting while adjusting it. There are dozens of other examples, the general trend of which seems to be [1] that 'styling' , developer convenience and production cost take precedence over usability (and indeed in some cases safety).

[Martin an gof]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

And then there's the problem of losing the lot if a sceen fault occurs (as happened to mate of mine while driving).

I gather that even in all-digital fly-by-wire aircraft where normally all instrumentation is on electronic displays, there is always (?) a completely separate artificial horizon / compass, altimeter and air speed indicator which basically just need power to work.

M.

[David 132]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

> And then there's the problem of losing the lot if a screen fault occurs (as happened to mate of mine while driving).

As happened on my wife’s LR Discovery. The infotainment system is Windows (CE?) based, which should have been our first warning (honestly… British luxury car, using Windows, bought second-hand… has any car had so many red flags around it since the Locomotive Act of 1865?) - anyway, it failed recently, and BSOD’ed continuously. So not only did we lose backup camera, radio, satnav, car settings, and more, but we also had the distraction of a large central touchscreen flashing blue, rebooting, flashing blue, rebooting… oh, joy.

[DS999]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

It takes much longer (and is more distracting) to locate and interpret 'instruments' on a screen out of driving line of sight

I'm not convinced it is any more distracting to look down and to the right than it is to look down, but who is putting "instruments" on the center console display? I can fiddle with the radio using controls on the steering wheel, answer calls / send texts with Carplay (or Android Auto for those in the other camp) so as it turns out the only reason I would ever need to touch the center console display while driving is to activate the garage door opener. At least I'm not traveling at high speed when I do, but it is still annoying.

That's a sore point for me because the identical car ordered without heated seats (which I need since it gets cold here in the winter) uses that button for the garage door opener. I've got it in the back of my mind to find out whether it would be possible to rewire the steering wheel and repurpose one of the other buttons (like the one for the built in car phone which I don't have and can't understand why they even support in 2021) for the opener. Or maybe I can hack it via my ODB-II software, though it isn't in the app's standard options so I'd have to find someone who can tell me which values to change because I'm not about to randomly change values for the steering wheel system and hope :)

[Solviva]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

My 2013 V40 has a digital instrument display, and smallish (it's the larger option) infotainment display. I've set my infotainment to show the speed in the corner, and I guess it's more a me thing (takes a long time for me to read an analogue clock such that the time one processed is no longer valid :) but I always glance at the infotainment for the speed and ignore the actual speedo.

When I first heard about this I thought "so what", assuming the instrument display existed, but discovering that IS the instrument display, well like most people I hate touch screens in cars with dynamic menus and screens. If I want the volume up or down, there's a button or knob that does that job and that job only. For heating, cooling the same, no need to look where my hand is, my hand goes roughly the right place and can feel to get the correct button. Try that on a touch screen.

Indeed who actually designs these things? (I should ask some of my former colleagues that defected to Volvo...).

[DS999]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Mine has a digital dash as I mentioned, which shows both an analog speedometer and the numeric speed. I'm surprised there are cars with digital dashes that show only an analog speedometer, especially since many people under 30 are so divorced from analog anything that they are unable to tell time on an analog clock.

[Version 1.0]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

My car electronics are the battery, headlights and taillights ... but I have a CD player too - all my electronics are working fine with no problems at all.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Turn signals? Optional. Inside light? Useless luxury. Starter? Oh please, I have crank. AC? Well, depends on the region :D.

[Stuart Castle]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

In fairness, I think modern cars should re-introduce the crank. Certainly in colder areas, and for fossil fuel cars.

[David 132]

Re: I am SO happy to have a classical speedometer

Why not for EVs? Why do you hate Mother Earth so much?

“20 minutes of cranking gets you 30 seconds of driving!”

[druck]

Idiocy

Any car with a combined instrument and entertainment display - idiocy.

Any car with a touch screen intended to be used whilst driving - idiocy of the highest order.

[Chz]

Re: Idiocy

Is why we bought a Mazda over a Volvo. One has a knob and button based interface for entertainment and maps for a screen that's at eye level on top of the dash and manual button control for HVAC. The other has a Tesla-esque "iPad in the middle of the dash console" interface for everything.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Idiocy

I had a BMW crossover (2 series?) thingy as a hire car recently. It had a knob to navigate an entertainment menu, so plus points for that. (I wouldn't buy one myself though, I dislike cars with reverse gear right next to first gear.... and it's the first hire car I've had in a few years which didn't support Android Auto, although apparently newer BMWs now have it.)

[David 132]

Re: Idiocy

Seconded, and as a lifelong Volvo fanboy it grieves me to admit it. Having everything on a large tesla-style touchscreen might save them money, but completely negates their whole “safety first” image.

I’m going to stick with my 10+-year-old XC70 till the wheels fall off it.

[heyrick]

is now available over the air

Oh my god...

[JWLong]

Who.........

......ever thought it was a good idea to put the critical cluster display on a fuck'n entertainment display in the middle of the dash should be kicked to death. And then to screw up the code that operates said display is to think going forward into the ditch is fun!

Kick'em twice while there down now!

[cyberdemon]

Re: Who.........

Ever since Tesla got away with selling a bug-ridden iPad-on-wheels and everyone copied it because it reduces the cost of having a dedicated instrument cluster in front of the steering wheel

Same reason all phones now look like iphones with no physical keypad or accessible battery / SIM let alone headphone jack or microSD slot

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who.........

Not *all* phones. Try a Fairphone sometime.

[cyberdemon]

Re: Who.........

True. Mine actually is a fairphone and it does have a replaceable battery and microSD slot at least. But even that doesn't have a headphone jack or more than three physical buttons.. It also has some occasional nasty glitches with touch input which if present on a car would definitely force a recall.

(Sometimes the touch screen 'goes crazy' with random spurious input and the workaround is to immediately hit the power/lock button to reset the screen. It's a known issue with FP4 unfortunately)

Plus it still has the evil Google bootloader that prevents downgrading to an earlier version of Android by blowing an eFuse in the CPU with each new release

Still miss my old Nokia N900 with its slide-out mechanical keyboard and native Debian-based OS

[Martin an gof]

Re: Who.........

[FP4]: Sometimes the touch screen 'goes crazy'

Thanks for the heads-up. My SO has had one for about 18 months now and it seems perfectly fine, but it's good to be forewarned - it's usually my fault when something like this goes wrong. Have you tried cleaning it, or using a different case? Simply changing the case solved a similar problem with an offspring's phone a while back; the silicone was activating the touchscreen. That was a Motorola something-or-other I think.

Plus it still has the evil Google bootloader

Haven't plucked up the courage to do it to SO's phone yet (I've done it to several others though) but the FP4 can be "upgraded" to LineageOS if you like.

M.

[cyberdemon]

Re: Who.........

There's an impressively long thread on it with some anecdotal remedies but no definitive fix.

My FP4 runs the stock de-googled /e/OS and that's fine for me.. It's apparently somewhat risky to install anything custom onto the FP4, because of the bootloader eFuse issue which can deliberately brick the phone if you install an earlier version of Android than whatever later version ran on it previously.

It's probably easy enough, but the threat of a bricked device was off-putting enough for me to avoid tinkering with it. Kind of a chilling-effect for a phone that is supposed to be tinker-friendly.

[Ken Moorhouse]

...may enter a test mode during startup of the vehicle.

Shouldn't the speed of the vehicle at this point be zero?

Or are they anticipating having to perform a cold reset in the fast lane of the M1?

(Yeah, I agree it shouldn't happen at all).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: ...may enter a test mode during startup of the vehicle.

"Shouldn't the speed of the vehicle at this point be zero?

Or are they anticipating having to perform a cold reset in the fast lane of the M1?"

Isn't zero the usual speed on every lane of the M1?

[saltycupcakes]

Could be worse

I'm not a fan of digital primary instruments but props to Volvo for actually reporting the issue and recalling the vehicles, some other manufacturers whomst will not be named are not quite so responsible

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Could be worse

No.

All car manufacturers would be forced to issue a safety recall if, through their hapless coding ability, their cars were no longer capable of displaying the current speed.

Props totally undeserved in this particular case.

[ChoHag]

Re: Could be worse

> Props totally undeserved in this particular case.

But they did their job! Barely! Months after it was overdue!

[Bitsminer]

Re: Could be worse

Wife drives a Suzuki SUV, built in Japan, with Japanese parts and Japanese language display on the dash.

When it pops up a message we have no way to understand what it is saying. The idiot-lights are mostly understandable but occasionally I have to google them to get some clue.

I've been unable to get a translation app to work on the language displayed on the dash or find a manual that includes enough instructions to switch the display from Japanese to English. Or explain what the idiot-lights mean.

(I did find an English-language manual for a European-market equivalent car but of course some manual pages differ from what's actually on our car.)

(And no, we didn't have much choice in car to buy, living on a remote island. It's what it is.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wrote the software?

HaleyTek is a joint venture between Volvo Cars and ECARX

ECARX and smart Form Joint Venture to Drive Development of Intelligent Automotive Products

[Anonymous Coward]

Traffic court top excuses 2024

Judge: do you know how fast you were going before you lost control, ran those people over, jumped the railroad tracks to become airborne, crashed through a billboard, flipped the car 20 times, then crashed into the propane factory that exploded causing a core meltdown at the adjacent nuclear power plant that has left the city uninhabitable for 1,000 years?

Driver: No your honor, my dashboard read “test screen”.

Judge: Well, in that case I’m going to let you off with a warning.

[David 132]

Re: Traffic court top excuses 2024

“The fact that mid-careen, your car also wiped out a bus full of nuns and orphans carrying puppies, I consider a mitigating factor. Some of those puppies, Counsel for the Prosecution has advised me, were Nazis.”

[Neil Barnes]

Not just Volvo and not just top of the range...

Having deliberately bought a poverty spec Renault a couple of years back to avoid all the automation bollocks, I am continually amazed by the bizarre things that fit into a modern car.

My favourite is the occasionally big red warning flag that eats a quarter of the display and tells me urgently to stop the engine... when the car is parked. When the alternator failed recently, the system used the high-resolution display to tell me to 'Stop immediately, electrical issue' instead of, say, telling me what had actually happened. With the same high resolution display, it is capable of giving me a fuel gauge accurate to, ooh, an eighth of a tank and a temperature gauge with only four sections. Presumably, cold, warming up, meh ok, and oops too hot.

Mechanical layout is no better. Immediately behind the electric handbrake switch (electric handbrake? I know that bowden cables are a very recent and untried innovation, but what is the point of an electric handbrake? Ridiculous idea.) is a rocker switch that enables/disables the cruise control. Nowhere near any of the other cruise control, er, controls, and absolutely ideal for being knocked off by accident whenever someone leans over from their seat.

I'm driving to Italy tomorrow, in my 30-year old Fiat. It has a good chance of making it with no issues at all...

</rant>

[tiggity]

Re: Not just Volvo and not just top of the range...

Not looking forward to when we have to next get a "new" (second hand as always) car, pointless electronic tat creep seems to get worse & worse. Fortunate to have proper mechanical dial speedo (& other key meters such as RPM) and on drivers side (don't fancy looking to central console to see what speed I am doing as more of a look away from the road* than a quick glance down & back up)

* a lot of driving on country roads, where unexpected creatures dashing out in front of you not uncommon so you want eyes on the road as much as possible. Only reason I have a car is living in countryside with poor access to public transport (cheaper than city / town housing but lose out on public transport, proximity to shops, leisure centre, library, pubs (would be nice to have choice of more than the 1 vaguely local pub) etc)

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, there's more wrong with Volvo's software

I just had mine inspected after it decided to yell 'collision alert' and yank so hard on the steering wheel that I switched two lanes at once on the motorway.

What did it see?

Well, that's the big mystery. The garage found *nothing*, and the road was basically empty for the next 500 meters (an exception in itself) so if I had not have my hands firmly on the steering wheel (because their 'lane assist' is also a bunch of nannying crap that you cannot trust so it's the first thing I disable every. fucking. time. when I get into the car) I'm not sure I would have been able to correct the damn thing in time. So it must be a bumblebee or a gnat or a cloud of fairy farts - anything but the thing it's alleged to react to.

In short, instead of feeling "safe" (as the brand keeps jammering on about) I now feel very definitely very UNsafe because I cannot trust this brand new car not to do something stupid again (and no, nobody is listening because its "safe" status exists at the same cult level as Tesla's claim that FSD is somehow acceptable on a public road). Add to that all the other mandated rubbish like a speedometer that moans at you for driving over the speed limit where it's ability to detect the actual speed limit is clearly not working either and I can only recommend that you give Volvo a wide berth if you're considering to buy a new car.

By the way, it spies on everything you do and then ships that to a lot of parties. Not something it will tell you in the brochure, by the way, you'll only discover that when you receive it.

Anyway, time to park the thing. I think I'm going to have to add a decent old fashioned v8 to my garage.

[Mike 137]

Re: Oh, there's more wrong with Volvo's software

Pity about Volvo. My 30 year old Volvo still just works under my complete control.

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoever wrote this piece....

Has never worked in an agile project. This is not poorly "written" code

It's poorly "specified" code. Blame the product owners, not the devs :-)

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sweden-based car manufacturer"

Only from a marketing point of view.

[David 132]

Re: "Sweden-based car manufacturer"

About as Swedish as IKEA these days :(

[Solviva]

Re: "Sweden-based car manufacturer"

Volvo (cars) still have their HQ in car-hating Gothenburg, in the same location as one of their main factories and where most of their R&D happens. Sure Geely owns the brand and has input but on the ground it's stil very much Swedish.The recent-ish change on the interior (knobs to Ipad) could be blamed on the changing demographic of Sweden, all these touch-screen Ipad loving foreigners influencing the Swedish design hmm.

[SteveK]

I had one of these as a courtesy car a couple of months back. Car itself was fine, but I really didn't get on with the removal of traditional dashboard instruments (whether physical or screens) behind the wheel. Having the speed as a small numerical widget on a large tablet mounted centrally in the car seemed an invitation to not be looking at the road. I guess they probably offer it as an option to have head-up display on the windscreen and the Volvo dealer cheaped-out on the options list!

[Jamie Jones]

I didn't even know this was a thing until reading these comments!

Unbelievable. Shouldn't be allowed.

My current car is a very reliable Vectra 1997 (!) - I've owned it since 2000 and when I worked in London, I'd average 500 miles a week. It's now finally time to replace it, because whilst the engine and body are sound, piddly things keep happening, which would be fine for a car fiddler, but that's not my bag. I'm sad to see it go. I wish I could find a good home for it.

Still, at least now I know what bollocks to make sure I miss on my new car.

[Martin an gof]

Still, at least now I know what bollocks to make sure I miss on my new car.

Best of luck with that. Practically every car is a rolling computer these days, though some low end models still feature dials (albeit electrically-driven rather than cable-driven) and switches. If you happen to want to buy an electric car you really don't have any options. Even Dacia's bottom-of-the-range small electric car (list price from about £15k) comes with an odd-looking electronic dash. So much so that I'm seriously considering buying a second-hand "normal" car and getting it converted.

M.

[Jamie Jones]

Those BIG-IPAD-IN-THE-CENTRE-DASH designs are so ugly, but I'm sorta resigned to those. It's the no-gauges-in-the-dashboards that I really want to avoid... I hope I can still do that!

I'll probably be looking at 2-3 years old, that seems to be the financial sweetpoint. The one after this one will be the electric one. I don't think that the infrastructure is good enough yet, and as I currently live in a second floor flat, overnight charging isn't a possibility.

What's happened to ergonomics? I'm still longing for a capable phone that is easy to hold, and isn't a flat slab, and a decent tablet which DOESN'T have an edge to edge screen, so I can actually hold the thing without triggering all sorts of touch-actions.

And whilst I'm here, will they please stop dumbing things down! I despair at the mindset that thinks that removing configuration options improves usability - especially when a forced update changes things for the worse at the whim of some so-called designer trying to justify his paypacket.

</old man rant>

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, some of the digital instrument clusters are OK, provided they are in front of you so you don't end up with a neck problem because the speedometer isn't where it takes the least time to see it and look back on the road (and it's not just Tesla, if I recall correctly a smaller car made this mistake too). And yes, I *really* like a HUD if possible.

It's when designery types start messing around with the fundamentals that it all comes off the rails. I don't want animations that have no actual function when the dials change because it delays things, and no, do not put the display dimmer function 4 levels deep into some menu which I would have to dig through when light conditions are low (read: poor visibility). And that's just one example.

It seems perpetually impossible to find a designer who either doesn't cycle to work so he/she/it as to actually USE their own design or who gives in to the execs wanting flash over function because. it. makes. it. unsafe.

In this context I also have to address the trend for urinating indicators (yellow, and usually downwards). It literally is the second most important signal to other road users after the brake light, so why on earth would you want to delay its full visibility? OK, the joke is that it's not an issue for BMW users, but otherwise it's important information - delaying that just to make it look pretty is an irritating folly (and no, it's not more visible - binary blinking is easier to spot in poor light than a swelling on/off source of light).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the day where you get a kit which forces you to have the basics on screen and lets you make your own choices thereafter. Now THAT would be interesting.

[Henry Wertz 1]

Why is this so buggy?

This stuff being moved to being displayed electronicaly is seriously not an excuse for this.

My 1985 Chevy Celebrity was the last vehicle I owned with a cable-operated speedometer (it actually didn't have a vehllce speed sensor as such, it had a sensor attached to the back of the speedo to feed speed into the engine computer.) Everything I've had since then, the analog gauges were actually driven by one of the computers... they have never flipped out on me. I've avoided the touch screen flippery but my current car (2013 Chevy Cruze), it has an analog speedo off to the side but the digital one hasn't had messages pop up over it (well, it pops one up for about a second to say ice is possible), crashed, or acted up in any way.

I think the trouble here is it being a "infotainment" computer -- not a fan of those vehicles where they just have what appears to be a tablet duck taped to the dashboard, even if they do work right. The infotainment and the critical operations of the vehicle should, honestly, be on completely seperate busses and computers; only thing they should share is both using the vehicle 12V power.

[Mr Dogshit]

All the vehicles in Volvo's current range suck. No proper controls, just a sodding great laptop screen in the middle of the dash.

"Google built in". No, I am never, never going to drive a car with Google anything.

Not to mention all their cars are as fugly as the Fiat Multipla.

[David 132]

Agreed. But then, I liked the drawn-with-a-ruler styling of the 7xx and 9xx series Volvos, so take my opinion on design matters with a large piece of Surströmming!

[hayzoos]

In my day...

Speedometers used to be an add on device. Stewart-Warner was a well known provider of automotive instruments.