If there’s one thing you want in any car, it’s a way of stopping. It’s even more important than horsepower, or style, or any sort of flashy gadget. Having your brake pedal do nothing isn’t good, which is why Volvo is warning drivers of select plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles to stop driving until they download the latest software update.
Alright, so the brake pedal in affected models won’t just spontaneously go soft at some point, no matter what you do. According to the recall report, this bug in brake control module programming is part of software version 3.5.14, and it only rears its ugly head under certain conditions and in models you plug into the wall.
Affected customers may experience a temporary loss of braking functionality after coasting downhill for at least 1 minute and 40 seconds with “B” drive mode for PHEV vehicles and “One Pedal Drive” mode for BEV vehicles without applying the brake pedal or (to a certain extent) the accelerator pedal. If the situation occurs, pressing the brake pedal may remove braking functionality entirely.
Well, that’s alarming. While many plug-in hybrid drivers probably aren’t motoring around in “B” all the time, people who live in areas with hills or mountains might, just like how some battery electric vehicle drivers use one-pedal mode religiously. That’s sort of how the defect was found, and NHTSA even published dashcam video of this brake failure mode actually happening.
While running into an embankment is preferable to running off the side of a cliff, this situation could’ve been prevented with software that wasn’t defective. For most of us, this is a new frontier. Brakes used to be just something you got with a car, and only something like a failed master cylinder could cause them to really go out once double-diagonal hydraulic circuitry became mandatory. There’s something uneasy about knowing that a software update can meddle with braking performance, because although it should be fine, what if it’s not?
This recall affects the 2020 to 2026 XC90 plug-in hybrid, the 2022 to 2026 XC60 plug-in hybrid, the 2023 C40, the 2023 to 2024 XC40 Recharge, the 2023 to 2025 S60 plug-in hybrid, the 2024 to 2025 V60 plug-in hybrid, and the 2025 EC40. A lot of models, and they all add up to 11,469 cars in America. While the vast majority have seen this problem rectified since the recall first dropped in June, NHTSA reports that roughly 1,000 vehicles covered under this recall still haven’t been repaired yet.
The fix is to stop driving the vehicle and download the latest over-the-air software update as soon as it’s ready. If an affected car absolutely needs to be moved, ensure that “B” mode on plug-in hybrids and one-pedal driving on battery electric vehicles isn’t selected. Given that it’s been more than a month since the recall dropped, most if not all of the remaining 1,000 or so Volvos should have an update appear as downloadable in their notification section. So, if you own an affected plug-in hybrid or battery-powered Volvo or know someone who does, check in on this recall. One download could make the roads a little bit safer.
Top graphic credit: Volvo
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Vital system using long-perfected technology with redundancies that almost always communicates a problem long before major failure that can be repaired by almost anyone and doesn’t need updates? Yeah, let’s make that dependent on software written by hacks from the profession that is held to the least account for failure outside of weather forecasters and politicians. And this is from a company that sells themselves primarily on safety! I can’t wait for everything to go steer-by-wire, too.
Volvo is a good example of everything wrong with the auto industry (in the US at least).
Not unlike VW, they have twisted their ethos and lost their way at the expense of the consumer.
They brought products to market that were like nothing Americans normally buy (e.g. the PV444). They built a reputation on practical, dependable and safe then transitioned to overpriced, oversized and overly complicated. Then moved further and further upmarket to compensate. Eventuality they became like everyone else.
Volvo has always been premium but a replacement keyfob runs like $900. It could just as easily be $80. It could just as easily be $18 (you know, a metal key).
They could have made a car more efficient and better performing by making it smaller and lighter. Instead they just loaded it with tech, tech and more tech. All of which is needlessly expensive and more likely to have these kinds of issues.
Impractical. Unreliable. Unsafe.
Bra jobbat, Volvo!
The electric XC40 is right now the center of attention because of several incidents of sudden acceleration in Norway (where it is a very popular car) which have lead to death of at least one driver and also an ongoing court case. Volvo continues to blame the drivers while independent investigation have showed at least one incident of water damage (due to a build quality issue) of the controller pcb which possibly have lead to malfunction and accidental speeding.This is not good when you have built your brand on safety..
In a Ford Escape Hybrid, if you push the brake pedal all the way to the floor, there’s a hydraulic backup to the regenerative/servo brake control. It’s really a clever way to solve the problem – if everything electric goes totally haywire, instinct is to stomp the pedal, and that action will stop the car.
Original Escape hybrid or the current one? If it’s the former there’s really no excuse because Volvo would’ve been privy to it while Ford owned them.
Acknowledging that technology has dramatically advanced in the intervening years and further acknowledging that throttle does not equal brakes, my experience with a bad TPS in (coincidentally) a 1998 Volvo XC wagon makes me very weary of any pure brake by wire arrangement. Combine that with the spotty history of some manufacturers’ software updates (I lost count of how many times the cruise control in my 2015 Ram 1500 stopped working immediately following an update), and I reckon I’ll stick with a good old fashioned pedal->pushrod->master cylinder system.
This is the same Volvo that wants to introduce software into seat belts, right?
EVs! That’s just how it goes. Complex new drivetrains that nobody knows. Maybe…it’s not too late to learn how to slow without any brakes.
Pedal moves, not working. Life about to drain…
I’m flying down the hill on this Geely train!
/just posting because RIP Ozzy
But EVs were supposed to be “so simple” that all the mechanics in the world would go out of business?
And people wonder why I have no interest at all in any of this bullshit.
Talk about burying the lede. RIP Ozzy.
Considering it’s fairly normal for me to use regen for several minutes on end coming down mountain passes, there’s a good chance I’d be dead if I had one of these vehicles with this flaw. I’ve always viewed regen as a nice backup for the miniscule chance of having a complete failure of the mechanical brakes, but I guess that only applies if software isn’t in the way to screw everything up.
Can we please get some SMVs, software minimized vehicles?
I present my ’74 Triumph Spitfire, that at the moment does not even have a radio in it.
Brakes Broke *Bam* Brick Wall
New Level of Concern: UNLOCKED! 🙂
It never occurred to me until right now that my mental process for downshifting no longer applies if there’s not engine/motor braking available, and/or if the tranny doesn’t want to respond to my commands.
Brakes should always have a hydraulic failsafe, no matter what the vehicle.
Second, what do you think this will mean to Volvo’s reputation for both active AND passive safety? IMO this is one of the biggest active safety failures imaginable.
Even a cable operated e-brake would be a major step forward in safety from this madness.
Austin Seven brakes can fail if a nut and bolt work loose, rod brakes, a niche bit of knowledge.
Brakes shouldn’t be reliant on software to function.
Yep. Definitely reinforcing why I don’t like modern cars when stuff like this happens.
Seems as though the auto industry with software defined vehicles has kidnapped and possibly murdered Captain Obvious. Someone needs to bring him back.
Captain Obvious apparently coasted downhill for 1 minute 41 seconds.
Indeed, lol
“The brakes on these Volvos might stop working.”
While I agree the altogether is superfluous and doesn’t need to be there, in my head it adds a degree of emphasis, adding power. It’s not unlike saying I’m very angry vs just angry. Is there something that makes it incorrect? Or you just don’t like the redundancy?
It’s from the movie ‘Airplane!’ 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNtyfZP8bE
Ah ok. I am clearly too short for that joke. Thanks!
“It’s an entirely different kind of flying”
I’m glad somebody posted this, and that it’s the first comment…mwuah!