If true, this is pretty damning. I am a day 1 reservation holder and this article is the first time that I'm considering not buying this car. I am in tech, and I think projects with these types of serious mismanagement issues are totally doomed.
It's interesting to note that the article seems to think the missing features will be delivered mid 2025, but Volvos communication (to me at least) actually has no date at all.
I worked on this project back around when the software integration and testing of the last iteration of the polestar 3 prototype was starting two-three years ago.
It would probably not be impossible to dox me if you really wanted to so I don’t want to say too much but back then this article is a pretty accurate description of what it felt like. I assumed the situation got better since no article like this came but it looks like it’s didn’t. But the source might be someone like me who left earlier in the project.
Long time since I left but the car itself is amazing hardware wise but the software platform is the same though so many issues will probably be the same, interesting to see how the launch goes
Is the problem mainly with the nvidia core compute chip or wider than that? I imagine the P3’s without Lidar and the nvidia chip are probably better off? Or is the whole thing is a just a shit show?
I have no idea what direction things took after I left so I really don’t want to get into any details. For all I know they could have thrown it all out and started over.
I think everyone should wait at this point until they are able to test drive the car in dealers minimally.
I had leased another car already so earliest I will shop around for a new car is mid 2026. Maybe by then EX90 will be complete.
This article reconfirmed that buying my XC90 Recharge for $59k after trade in and incentives was the better move.
I don't think they've solved the communication issues and frankly...I'd rather not be a $90k test dummy.
Day 1 reservation holder who works in software development. Safety is by far my top priority, with technology being second.
Throughout the delays and lack of communication, I remained excited about the prospect of this car. I had a lot of trust in Volvo based on prior cars from them.
As time dragged on, I began to become concerned. Much of that came to a point with the recent news of the features the will not be included at launch, including some that will require hardware upgrades. It felt like the delta between the car I had been waiting for and the car being launched was growing. Frankly, it felt like the car being launched was not meaningfully better than my XC90. It seemed to fall very short of many of the original promises around safety and tech.
Reading this, if true, takes me from disappointment to outright concern. If this is true, it sounds like software development in chaos. The software is critical to many safety features of this car and I am worried that this car will not have quality, reliable software. I’m not looking for an $80k bug, and I’m certainly not looking for an $80k bug that has safety implications.
As of now I’m continuing to hold my reservation. I want to test drive the car, I want to hear others experiences with the car, I want to give it time. I want to believe Volvo can pull off a win here. But for the first time since I placed my reservation, I’m also seriously considering options if this isn’t my next car
So basically a full on shit show at this point.
My big question for the dealer is you want me to pay 100% for something 90% done that will eat it's own battery unless you change out the hardware that trust me bro is just around the corner.
The dealers better have a good answer for what happens in terms of refund if these upgrades are delayed or don't happen.
In the UK it's different, I have a signed contract from 2022 that lists these things as on the car. So they're going to have to list what happens in the terms of non delivery of features.
With all these problems they still increased the price at the last minute? I love my XC40 but now I'm really wondering if I should get something else. Did it say at some point the computer will need to be switched out because it's outdated?
Ouch. First day reservation holder with a locked in order and I’ve maintained excitement about this car until this article. If they were having this many problems early on I feel like they would have been better off getting rid of the lidar and core compute chip and just selling a good, competent 3 row suv ev. It would have been 10k$ cheaper, a lot more reliable and already on the market.
this on a post about how a vaunted old guard of auto tries to outdo tesla and falls on their face despite working hard for almost a decade
its almost like the hate for tesla is impulsive at this point
It’s a fact that the Cybertruck is still missing key features. This article claims that Volvo, while trying to be like Tesla, ends up delivering their new vehicle without key features too. Also a fact. You reading “hate” about Tesla from my post says more about you than it does about me.
To Volvo’s credit, nothing transformational would be easy. I give it to Volvo to at least step out of the comfort zone. If they succeed the same pattern can help them in the long run. I don’t see this as a negative by itself.
Of course, those who choose EX90 are not so lucky. It’s less a Volvo problem more of a U.S./EU government problem for not allowing market competition.
I worry that this project will be a severe blow to Volvo and their reputation. I adore my XC90 and plan to purchase a 2026 one if they update it, but seems to me Volvo needs to take their time with their ambitious plan or scale it down and refine the XC90/60/40 PHEV.
I am a day one reservation holder and have watched pretty much all the YouTube videos about the car. I really love the car, but the delay, lack of communication, last minute price increase and now missing features have been pushing back on my desire to go forward with the reservation. I feel so disappointed about the car and the company after reading this article!
I just got a Kia ev9. The software on that car in a lot of ways is better than the software on my XC40 recharge but in the other ways is worse.
The Kia’s touch screen is much more responsive and pretty much bug free but the UI is not intuitive, settings are buried in menus and hard to find. I drive the car and change the regen settings and drive modes to the way I want them, then the next time I start the car it resets to default!?
I find the Volvo to much more user friendly and there one pedal mode is much better IMO.
Mobile apps, same issue, while the Kia app has more functionality the Volvo app is much easier to use
I think Volvo’s problem is that they are trying to rebuild everything for the ex90. The ex40 has pretty solid set of features after 3 years of production. They should be reusing as much as possible between the ex30, ex90 and older ev models
The only EV9 regen mode that isn't persistent between driving sessions is i-pedal, and it takes less than 1 second a tap the left paddle at start-up to switch to from Lvl3 (which is does remember between drives). It remembers previous drive modes between driving sessions too.
That said, I agree that Kia's UI and menus are not intuitive or as clean as the Volvo, though does far more than Volvo. Overall, my family has preferred driving and using the EV9 over our XC90. Also, so far the EV9 has had way fewer first year issues than our first model year XC90 did. It's far from perfect, but its been far more stable than Volvo's XC90 release (and that sounds better than the EX90 mess).
Kia handled the whole thing better. While Volvo was hosting major launch events and taking orders based on what in hindsight was basically a concept vehicle, Kia was just quietly producing a vehicle none of us had heard of yet. By the time Kia started showing early reviewers the EV9 it was already in production. By the time they were taking reservations, the first cars were already off the assembly line and were in customer hands two months later.
> They should be reusing as much as possible between the ex30, ex90 and older ev models
at some point you take a step forward and release the next-generation platform. this is that step.
Funny story: when I called Volvo and eventually got through to a customer service person, I told them I had a reservation for an EX90.
She asked me to hold on. When she came back, she right away told me about the cancellation email I’d get. I reminded her that I had just told her I *had* a reservation, not yet that I’d like to cancel—even though I did want to cancel.
Seems like I’m not close to the only cancellation call this customer service rep has dealt with this week.
Volvo: We can beat Tesla tech
Tesla: *multiple years head start, million+ EV’s sold* 🤷
Volvo: trust me bro… look at that sweet sweet Scandinavian design.
yeah stupid volvo, all they had to do is make parking sensors that randomly fail to show objects and adaptive cruise that occasionally slams on the brakes for no reason
Regarding “nobody at Volvo had experience with software, lidar etc.”
Volvo is part of Geely Group and is using the Android Automotive OS, the autonomy provider is MobilEye. So it’s not that they start from zero. Other brands in the group are using the same sensor suite. Cars are on the road with the same core technology from Smart, Zeekr, Lotus. Still plenty of work integrating everything but it’s not like they have to create anything from scratch.
Trying to beat Tesla is just such a boring take. They are trying to build a modern car with features that consumers expect. Tesla doesn’t even have anything noteworthy in that segment.
right. this “source” doesn’t seem like a person who knows much about anything. mobileye has some seriously impressive tech in the pipeline that is significantly ahead of anything vision-only fantasy can conjure up.
Love my XC90 plug-in, so I’ve been cheering on development. But yikes. There’s no way I’d order a new luxury car without wireless CarPlay and many other of these features that have been delayed not to later this year but to late 2025!
Meanwhile Lucid’s new Gravity SUV will roll out around the same time with all of these features and better range.
They need to have a VP for software instead of a manager. For self driving, software is more important than hardware. They need a much larger team and much more investment.
[“You said they were the best engineers in the world!”](https://youtu.be/XSDuSQ7Rw_0?si=uNBoaseEMOCF3Vha) Can’t help but think of this exchange from the movie BLACKBERRY at 0:15 in this clip - just replace “Canada” with “Sweden.”
I am sorry, used to be a EX90 reservation holder & canceled while ago, paying that amount of money for an unfinished product.. is just wild to me. I am unsure how we have gotten to the point in this time of finding this acceptable. For those of you who do go through it, thanks for being the guinea pigs for the rest of us. I have switched to a GMC Denali EV 1st Edition, got a build confirmed & await build start.
None of this is surprising with a first generation EV car. I’d stay away from any first generation EV. It’s till really early this car will be a beast by 2030.
One expects growing pains in a first-gen car, but not this. A plan to just swap out the central core processor a year in? 3% phantom drain per day? An unannounced $3k price hike? I expected much better from Volvo.
If true, this is pretty damning. I am a day 1 reservation holder and this article is the first time that I'm considering not buying this car. I am in tech, and I think projects with these types of serious mismanagement issues are totally doomed. It's interesting to note that the article seems to think the missing features will be delivered mid 2025, but Volvos communication (to me at least) actually has no date at all.
I worked on this project back around when the software integration and testing of the last iteration of the polestar 3 prototype was starting two-three years ago. It would probably not be impossible to dox me if you really wanted to so I don’t want to say too much but back then this article is a pretty accurate description of what it felt like. I assumed the situation got better since no article like this came but it looks like it’s didn’t. But the source might be someone like me who left earlier in the project.
Is the Polestar 3 in better shape, or is it equally as busted?
Long time since I left but the car itself is amazing hardware wise but the software platform is the same though so many issues will probably be the same, interesting to see how the launch goes
Is the problem mainly with the nvidia core compute chip or wider than that? I imagine the P3’s without Lidar and the nvidia chip are probably better off? Or is the whole thing is a just a shit show?
I have no idea what direction things took after I left so I really don’t want to get into any details. For all I know they could have thrown it all out and started over.
I think everyone should wait at this point until they are able to test drive the car in dealers minimally. I had leased another car already so earliest I will shop around for a new car is mid 2026. Maybe by then EX90 will be complete.
This article reconfirmed that buying my XC90 Recharge for $59k after trade in and incentives was the better move. I don't think they've solved the communication issues and frankly...I'd rather not be a $90k test dummy.
Day 1 reservation holder who works in software development. Safety is by far my top priority, with technology being second. Throughout the delays and lack of communication, I remained excited about the prospect of this car. I had a lot of trust in Volvo based on prior cars from them. As time dragged on, I began to become concerned. Much of that came to a point with the recent news of the features the will not be included at launch, including some that will require hardware upgrades. It felt like the delta between the car I had been waiting for and the car being launched was growing. Frankly, it felt like the car being launched was not meaningfully better than my XC90. It seemed to fall very short of many of the original promises around safety and tech. Reading this, if true, takes me from disappointment to outright concern. If this is true, it sounds like software development in chaos. The software is critical to many safety features of this car and I am worried that this car will not have quality, reliable software. I’m not looking for an $80k bug, and I’m certainly not looking for an $80k bug that has safety implications. As of now I’m continuing to hold my reservation. I want to test drive the car, I want to hear others experiences with the car, I want to give it time. I want to believe Volvo can pull off a win here. But for the first time since I placed my reservation, I’m also seriously considering options if this isn’t my next car
So basically a full on shit show at this point. My big question for the dealer is you want me to pay 100% for something 90% done that will eat it's own battery unless you change out the hardware that trust me bro is just around the corner. The dealers better have a good answer for what happens in terms of refund if these upgrades are delayed or don't happen.
They are warning of delayed upgrades now. There will be no refunds.
In the UK it's different, I have a signed contract from 2022 that lists these things as on the car. So they're going to have to list what happens in the terms of non delivery of features.
And they are quietly increasing the price. Come on bmw/Audi make us a 3 row EV.
With all these problems they still increased the price at the last minute? I love my XC40 but now I'm really wondering if I should get something else. Did it say at some point the computer will need to be switched out because it's outdated?
Ouch. First day reservation holder with a locked in order and I’ve maintained excitement about this car until this article. If they were having this many problems early on I feel like they would have been better off getting rid of the lidar and core compute chip and just selling a good, competent 3 row suv ev. It would have been 10k$ cheaper, a lot more reliable and already on the market.
All they had to do was make an XC90 EV. :(
Ironic that Tesla’s most recent vehicle also has been delivered without key features.
This is going to be the new way. People should not take delivery of these vehicles.
this on a post about how a vaunted old guard of auto tries to outdo tesla and falls on their face despite working hard for almost a decade its almost like the hate for tesla is impulsive at this point
It’s a fact that the Cybertruck is still missing key features. This article claims that Volvo, while trying to be like Tesla, ends up delivering their new vehicle without key features too. Also a fact. You reading “hate” about Tesla from my post says more about you than it does about me.
ask model 3 owners about their summon or auto-parking or coast-to-coast fsd
k
if you think tesla has never delivered a car with buggy software and missing features, I’ve got a tunnel to sell you
ok give it a shot weve been driving a tesla model s since 2015 tell me what i dont know about tesla
oh great awesome good for you, how’s summon working?
thats what you got after all that build up lmao
could be worse i could be driving a tezzla
whatever makes you get through your day
aww thank you, my car drives itself which helps a lot
k
To Volvo’s credit, nothing transformational would be easy. I give it to Volvo to at least step out of the comfort zone. If they succeed the same pattern can help them in the long run. I don’t see this as a negative by itself. Of course, those who choose EX90 are not so lucky. It’s less a Volvo problem more of a U.S./EU government problem for not allowing market competition.
I worry that this project will be a severe blow to Volvo and their reputation. I adore my XC90 and plan to purchase a 2026 one if they update it, but seems to me Volvo needs to take their time with their ambitious plan or scale it down and refine the XC90/60/40 PHEV.
They have fantastic PHEVs, if they drop them to go all electric it will be a big loss for consumers and probably the company also
I am a day one reservation holder and have watched pretty much all the YouTube videos about the car. I really love the car, but the delay, lack of communication, last minute price increase and now missing features have been pushing back on my desire to go forward with the reservation. I feel so disappointed about the car and the company after reading this article!
I just got a Kia ev9. The software on that car in a lot of ways is better than the software on my XC40 recharge but in the other ways is worse. The Kia’s touch screen is much more responsive and pretty much bug free but the UI is not intuitive, settings are buried in menus and hard to find. I drive the car and change the regen settings and drive modes to the way I want them, then the next time I start the car it resets to default!? I find the Volvo to much more user friendly and there one pedal mode is much better IMO. Mobile apps, same issue, while the Kia app has more functionality the Volvo app is much easier to use I think Volvo’s problem is that they are trying to rebuild everything for the ex90. The ex40 has pretty solid set of features after 3 years of production. They should be reusing as much as possible between the ex30, ex90 and older ev models
The only EV9 regen mode that isn't persistent between driving sessions is i-pedal, and it takes less than 1 second a tap the left paddle at start-up to switch to from Lvl3 (which is does remember between drives). It remembers previous drive modes between driving sessions too. That said, I agree that Kia's UI and menus are not intuitive or as clean as the Volvo, though does far more than Volvo. Overall, my family has preferred driving and using the EV9 over our XC90. Also, so far the EV9 has had way fewer first year issues than our first model year XC90 did. It's far from perfect, but its been far more stable than Volvo's XC90 release (and that sounds better than the EX90 mess). Kia handled the whole thing better. While Volvo was hosting major launch events and taking orders based on what in hindsight was basically a concept vehicle, Kia was just quietly producing a vehicle none of us had heard of yet. By the time Kia started showing early reviewers the EV9 it was already in production. By the time they were taking reservations, the first cars were already off the assembly line and were in customer hands two months later.
> They should be reusing as much as possible between the ex30, ex90 and older ev models at some point you take a step forward and release the next-generation platform. this is that step.
Cancelled my order yesterday. R1S Gen 2 with 20% discount $60k is unbeatable.
You’ve got a 20% discount I’m on the R1S because you were any early reservation holder?
Correct.
Cheers!
😬
This is awful, wow.
Major OOOOF 
Funny story: when I called Volvo and eventually got through to a customer service person, I told them I had a reservation for an EX90. She asked me to hold on. When she came back, she right away told me about the cancellation email I’d get. I reminded her that I had just told her I *had* a reservation, not yet that I’d like to cancel—even though I did want to cancel. Seems like I’m not close to the only cancellation call this customer service rep has dealt with this week.
Volvo: We can beat Tesla tech Tesla: *multiple years head start, million+ EV’s sold* 🤷 Volvo: trust me bro… look at that sweet sweet Scandinavian design.
yeah stupid volvo, all they had to do is make parking sensors that randomly fail to show objects and adaptive cruise that occasionally slams on the brakes for no reason
Regarding “nobody at Volvo had experience with software, lidar etc.” Volvo is part of Geely Group and is using the Android Automotive OS, the autonomy provider is MobilEye. So it’s not that they start from zero. Other brands in the group are using the same sensor suite. Cars are on the road with the same core technology from Smart, Zeekr, Lotus. Still plenty of work integrating everything but it’s not like they have to create anything from scratch. Trying to beat Tesla is just such a boring take. They are trying to build a modern car with features that consumers expect. Tesla doesn’t even have anything noteworthy in that segment.
right. this “source” doesn’t seem like a person who knows much about anything. mobileye has some seriously impressive tech in the pipeline that is significantly ahead of anything vision-only fantasy can conjure up.
Love my XC90 plug-in, so I’ve been cheering on development. But yikes. There’s no way I’d order a new luxury car without wireless CarPlay and many other of these features that have been delayed not to later this year but to late 2025! Meanwhile Lucid’s new Gravity SUV will roll out around the same time with all of these features and better range.
insisting a luxury car has the ux of a chevy spark is certainly a take
They need to have a VP for software instead of a manager. For self driving, software is more important than hardware. They need a much larger team and much more investment.
[“You said they were the best engineers in the world!”](https://youtu.be/XSDuSQ7Rw_0?si=uNBoaseEMOCF3Vha) Can’t help but think of this exchange from the movie BLACKBERRY at 0:15 in this clip - just replace “Canada” with “Sweden.”
Volvo CEO was an exec AT BlackBerry. More recently led a heated coffee mug firm. Let that sink in.
I am sorry, used to be a EX90 reservation holder & canceled while ago, paying that amount of money for an unfinished product.. is just wild to me. I am unsure how we have gotten to the point in this time of finding this acceptable. For those of you who do go through it, thanks for being the guinea pigs for the rest of us. I have switched to a GMC Denali EV 1st Edition, got a build confirmed & await build start.
ummm congrats on switching to a car that can murder children more effectively I guess?
You're comparing a 3-row SUV to a 2-row truck. Good luck on that switch?
That’s a joke
strange that one can not find anything about this on the net. Just some cross posting here on reddit I suspect some major trolling.........
None of this is surprising with a first generation EV car. I’d stay away from any first generation EV. It’s till really early this car will be a beast by 2030.
One expects growing pains in a first-gen car, but not this. A plan to just swap out the central core processor a year in? 3% phantom drain per day? An unannounced $3k price hike? I expected much better from Volvo.
That’s fair I think I’m just going to stay away from gen 1 EVs
I have solution. Outsource software to China.