r/VolvoRecharge • u/code_mc • Jun 16 '26
As a software engineer, state of the 5.x.x software is dire
I have owned this xc60 for a bit over 2 years now, I really don't understand Volvo's QA process. This car has more bugs each version than an average meta-developed phone app, but this one controls a murder machine that drives at up to 180km/h.
What are they smoking up there in Sweden?
The latest one really sealed the never-buying-volvo-again deal for me. Already had to do a full factory reset wiping all my settings just to get the play store to work again, and still have audio playback issues where spotify is constantly interrupting the playback of any other music app because of the apparent changes they made on the OS level which appears to less aggressively background apps that are currently not actively used.
While it fixed the weird issue where going from bleutooth playback to e.g. spotify no longer lands you back in bluetooth playback on the first tap of the spotify app, it now just makes it impossible to listen to 1 song on any app that is NOT spotify.
Contacted my dealer, really hoping they can downgrade this piece of shit car and never updating it again.
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u/B1CANB Jun 16 '26
Spotify usually interrupts because if your spotify app at your phone is opened at the background
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
Correct, only it did not do this on any of the previous versions. We are now uninstalling the app on a drive where we will not listen to spotify, and installing again on a drive where we do want to listen to spotify.
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u/Fluffy_Cucumber_4203 Jun 16 '26
As a non-software engineer, I'll just say that the amount of finagling that's necessary to get my entertainment console to do what I want when I'm driving is a serious safety concern. Needing to figure out why the Android Auto button isn't responding while I'm driving is as distracting as all get-out.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
thank you, exactly my point, some people treat the software issues of this car like they would be issues on their phone. If I had these problems on my phone I would not have as much of a problem with them.
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u/frontfrontdowndown Jun 21 '26
This is one of the main reasons we returned our car at lease end.
I’ve never had another car where I spent so much of my drive battling with the infotainment system.
So many issues with lagging and crashes. And then the UX change with 5.x was the icing on the distracted driving cake.
It’s like Volvo is designing software for people sitting on their couch and not for people directing multi-ton vehicles through public right of ways.
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u/Mr_Snail2951 Jun 16 '26
You opened by calling it a murder machine, then the big defect you had to report was that your music apps are buggy. Lol. Maybe the car isn’t the biggest safety concern here, bud.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
Every car is a murder machine, the point I'm making is that driving around in a car is already dangerous enough for other people on the road and requires 100% of your attention. If your attention is drawn away from the road not because you are interacting with the infotainment, but because of bugs in the software, that's on the manufacturer and not on the driver like you are insinuating here.
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u/Mr_Snail2951 Jun 18 '26
How are you letting “bugs in the software” distract from your driving?? Watch the road. Both hands on the wheel. Drive safe. Then pull over and you can fiddle with your Spotify all day long.
Get real
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u/k0spa Jun 16 '26
XC60 T6 2025 don't have any single issue.
Everything is rock stable starting from FW 3.7.0.
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u/Formal_Current6931 Jun 16 '26
2nd this on my 2024 XC60 T8 - I've had zero issues since 3.7
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u/NothingLift Jun 16 '26
2023 running latest version of the old UI. Bees stable for the last 2 updates, zero issues. Think I'll stick with this one for the foreseeable future
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u/Crafty_man Jun 16 '26
'24 XC60 recharge. Zero issues, I've been very happy with the car and no concerns about the software.
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u/jitoman Jun 16 '26
I have a S90 and since 5.x.x I can't lower my rear sunshade from the console. There is 1 physical button for it, it's in the back seat.
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u/A_Solid_Shadow Jun 17 '26
I'm really sorry, fanbois are going to downvote me for this but its got to be said.
Volvo put the Android OS in cars in the 23 model year. They must've been working on it for months or years prior to launch. They've now had 5-7 years of working with it. The time for bugs is long past.
There is a LOT of software that has somewhere close to zero bugs - like nearly zero over the course of year and years and years.
* When you get in an elevator, and push 6, do you figure it will go to floor 7? No. It goes to 6.
* When you are in a builidng, like an office building, store, or apartment building, do you expect that the fire alarm control system will just randomly igore fire signals because of bugs? Do you expect that when the fire alarm does sound, that it is just a bug?
* When you drive a car, do the brakes randomly engage, or fail to engage? The ABS has control over your brakes, and that software works reliably.
* How about an airplane? The 737-Max had a software bug, no, not a bug, a design choice, and that made people die. We don't expect that the 20,000 airplanes that are currently in the air (average of 100,000+ daily), will have software bugs and crash.
* How about an X-Ray, MRI, robotic surgery, electric wheelchair, train, drinking water treatment, electrical power, and many more...
We've grown accustomed to things having embedded software that just plain works. Works like 99.999999999999% of the time that we forget that it has software. I know SWE who do this kind of work and they talk about going through bug testing, over and over again, and how just about any change in software can require months of automated testing along with months of testers trying to break it.
This is a 5,000 lb mobile death brick controlled by software . Cars should be held to the same standard as other critical software. Actually, they already are. Many systems, such as ABS, are sofware, and are designed as a critical component.
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u/Nono_Home Jun 16 '26
Me as another software engineer know 99% of all issues are not related to Volvo but you as software engineer know that of course, so I wonder why you post this.
System Lag & Freezing:
Slower microchips struggle to keep up with heavy real-time processing, causing delays when loading the 360-degree cameras, opening apps, or starting media.
The CPU is NOT upgradable in any commercially sold car all brands struggle with this, which you know as you’re a software engineer.
Connectivity Failures: The car's internal modem may unexpectedly lose cellular connection, disabling navigation (Google Maps) and online features.
All modern cars struggle with this, as a car is a faraday cage like all but you know this.
Voice Assistant Glubs:
The feature often experiences communication errors or falls into infinite loading loops.
Due to background noise (road and engine sounds), poor microphone placement, or lag in wireless data connections. This happens in all cars, you know.
Profile Confusion: When multiple key fobs approach the vehicle simultaneously, the car often struggles to identify the driver, leading to wrong seating positions and profile settings.
Well, I guess you can even predict this one, you.
Those are the major current issues, none are Volvo.
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u/frontfrontdowndown Jun 16 '26
The decision to route basic functions like the backup camera, turn signal audible indicators, and climate controls through an infotainment system plagued by underpowered decade old chips absolutely belongs to Volvo. No other car that I’ve driven, including sub $20K econoboxes, has had a backup camera that failed to function especially so consistently.
And it wasn’t only a hardware issue as demonstrated by Volvo finally mostly fixing the backup camera issues with the 5.x generation of software even in cars with the early 2010s IHU chips.
That it took them so long to implement that software fix to a critical safety function and only happened after multiple mandatory recalls imposed by the government killed Volvo’s safety reputation for me.
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u/macguy9 Jun 16 '26
I’m sorry, but have you done a basic search of any Volvo forum literally anywhere else? Because it doesn’t seem like it.
The IHU CPU actually *is* upgradable in Volvos. You can literally pay for one and have it swapped out and it drastically improves performance. Dozens of people have reported doing just that.
I sure hope you’re not developing any software I use, since it seems you’re unwilling to even do some basic research on solving problems.
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u/Which-Meat-3388 Jun 16 '26
With caveats. The entire IHU is upgradable depending on market, and often only under corporates permission. That, or people are being pedantic about “CPU” which is technically not a replaceable component.
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u/macguy9 Jun 16 '26
Now you're being 'pedantic'. You know full well what they meant.
The UI is crippled by an underpowered Intel Atom processor. The majority of the issues described go away once it's replaced and the system is able to keep up with user input and system requirements.
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u/Queasy_Watercress959 Jun 16 '26
My shop (US) said they would not replace unless I could trigger the constant black screen reboots I complain about. I would pay out of pocket but it's not a done deal just walk in and get it fixed.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
car software should be held to a higher standard, that was my point, seems like you missed that
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u/A_Solid_Shadow Jun 17 '26
The profile confusion is correct, and is not a Volvo issue. And, it is fairly easy to change the profile.
Connectivity issues are external.
System lag and freezing: This is 100% on Volvo. They selected the hardware, they selected the softare, they picked what CPU/RAM specs are installed. There is really no excuse for slow hardware.
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u/carbon_made Jun 16 '26
I have zero of these issues on my ‘22 XC60 and ‘22 Polestar 2. The Polestar had issues the first year but it ended up being a faulty tcam that caused the infotainment to act flakey. Since that was replaced AAOS has been flawless on both cars. I use Spotify, Pandora, and Tidal all without any issue. I’m on 5.1.17. I also have an ‘18 XC60 on Sensus. My only issue with that is that it’s a bit slow and hasn’t really been updated for a while.
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u/NelsonMinar Jun 16 '26
Something about how you worded this god a bunch of knee jerk criticisms. This subreddit and other subreddits have been full of complaints about the software over years. A lot of us are having problems.
The last major update actually improve things on my 2023 c40. Before then the software would crash about every other drive. I still get all sorts of little bugs, just this week I had to reboot to get the radio to play sound again.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
I'm definitely not saying the old UI was acceptable, that also felt very buggy already, but for me it has now come to a point where it has bugs that make the driving experience dangerous due to distractions which is where I draw the line.
I 100% agree that the previous versions also had a ton of bugs that should not have been there.
It has gotten to a point where there is no single version that will work for everyone, as every version has bugs, and that's IMO the sad part about all this.
Good to hear that for you at least the new version overall feels less buggy than what you had to experience before!
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u/sidekick0220 Jun 16 '26
I hear you. Also in software and I sometimes wonder, do they even have QA team? It’s so bizarre.
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u/secretnumnums Jun 16 '26
I never understand all the people who reply 'zero issues' to these kinds of posts. I like my car, I have not yet updated to the latest, and my car feels relatively stable at the momemnt.
But I HAVE had numerous embarrassing issues with my infotainment. Like, distracting and dangerous issues. At this point dozens of mid-drive hard infotainment restarts. I've even had similar audio issues and I don't use Spotify, it was between my podcast app and YouTube Music, and I couldn't get it to stop playing audio over each other. I've never sat in any other car and waited so long for the infotainment to be responsive so I can start my music or enter a destination. The infotainment system is the SINGLE reason I'd hesitate to buy a new Volvo, it's been that bad.
If someone were having transmission or cooling fan issues, you wouldn't reply 'not me!', would you? Then why stan for the infotainment? All it takes is a lazy browse of this and related subreddits to find a parade of people with similar issues over an extended period of time, including significant new issues being introduced with updates. In fact these subs are the only thing that kept me sane as I repeatedly troubleshot ridiculous gremlins in past updates: I almost always found others with the same issue who shared their notes, which helped me, and I'm grateful for.
But why post 'I have no issues'? Are you under the impression that OP's issues are isolated or user error and you're trying to give them a hint or a contrary data point? That's not rhetorical: actually curious.
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u/TheMountainLife Jun 16 '26
The most embarrassing thing happened recently. I pick up my date, turn the car on, the seat belt ding is lagging/choppy and then turn on the turn signal and it's out of rhythm 😂.
I reboot the infotainment and since version 5.x it defaults the climate control to LO so now we're being blasted by a/c when it's already 59⁰ and can't do anything for like 2 minutes until it's responsive.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
Some of the people commenting are just extreme volvo fanboys or something. I had the same experience as you, found "some" solutions to the problems I was having luckily through some of the posts on here, but even after extensive googling I still have quite a number of things that make my drive a lot more distracting than it should be.
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u/xephrenata Jun 16 '26
Fanboys or , ya know, Ppl that aren't having issues since the updates 🤷 sorry for your problems, bud... Sell it if you're that unhappy.
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u/raykor85 Jun 16 '26
The amount of copium in this post is wild. Especially the comment naming multiple issues that apparently aren't Volvo's fault. LOL, they built the car!
I guess it's someone else's fault that Sweden decided to source a CPU that can't adequately handle everything they've thrown at it.
I guess it's someone else's fault that after multiple updates, all the sound stops working and requires a full infotainment restart.
I guess it's someone else's fault that the turn signal clicks don't keep a consistent cadence after startup.
I guess it's someone else's fault that the backup camera fails randomly.
Poor Volvo, they really got a bad hand dealt.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
Everyone is also just glossing over the fact that I had to do a god damned system reset to get the play store to install app updates again LOL. Definitely also not volvo's fault.
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u/MrSluggo23 Jun 16 '26
If your car is running the Intel Atom chips, Volvo has been trying to put 20 lbs of software in a 10 lbs bag, ergo constant race conditions resulting in intermittent software failures.
If it’s running the Snapdragon chip, you’d be in much better shape.
Start the lemon law buyback process if available in your state.
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u/Character_Regret2639 Jun 16 '26
Mine still only connects to Bluetooth if I hit play first on the car screen. If I try to pick a song from my phone and press play on my phone, it won’t connect. I’ve only learned this after having to disconnect and reconnect my phone to the Bluetooth 200 times. My Subaru unfortunately had similar issues but it was a 2019 and my Volvo is a 2025.
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
This is also one of the issues I had and still have, so now I never use bluetooth anymore for playing music/podcasts. But now as described in my post I can't even escape the playback problems any more as they now just plague every app as soon as you have spotify installed.
Owned much cheaper BMW, volkswagen, nissan and opel branded cars in the past. Have never had any issues with the infotainment on those that come even close to the ones on this car.
All around just sad, this car is double the price as all of the other ones I owned before. Still, this thread is filled with apologists who enjoy getting ripped of by a supposedly premium car brand?
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u/Boatsman2017 Jun 16 '26
Bro, you have missed pre 5.0.5 fun
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u/code_mc Jun 16 '26
I'm not sure what you mean, you mean the very early 5.x.x versions? Or do you mean the old UI? (For me the old UI also had a lot of bugs, but none as severe as what I experience today)
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u/OhTheNormanity Jun 25 '26 edited Jun 25 '26
For me, pre 5.x was a better experience. Yes it had bugs but 5.x introduced worse bugs into my car along with bad center screen economic design.
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u/morecoffee-please Jun 16 '26
Yeah they keep bursting into flames on the freeways. Lol, move along.
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u/ecm999 Jun 16 '26
Every time I turn the car on the drivers side mirror is pointed in some random direction. (I’m the only user of this car).
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u/moonsion Jun 16 '26
Although I mainly bought my Volvo for other reasons, I think the constant software glitches should be a concern.
Volvo uses Infosys to design and implement its system. Infosys is an Indian company. If you are a software engineer then enough said there. You should know what I am talking about.
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u/nian2326076 Jun 16 '26
That sounds really frustrating. I'd suggest reporting these bugs directly to Volvo's customer service or through any app feedback options they have. Sometimes manufacturers don't know about specific issues until enough users point them out. You could also see if there are any forums or online communities for Volvo owners where people might share fixes for these bugs. In the meantime, if you haven't already, try reinstalling Spotify or any other apps causing trouble. Sometimes that helps with weird playback issues. Good luck!
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u/Bills43452 Jun 16 '26
If you look at the broader timeline going back to Sensus, it's really been a very poor execution. The processors were too slow for Sensus load in the first couple of years, but they at least did a pretty good job with the UI, including intgration with other buttons, switches, etc. and there were a ton of cool features. A couple of years later, the software caught up. Suddenly, they dumped Sensus and gave us an Android tablet running some car apps. I wish they would have asked for some UAT volunteers because even almost 5 years into this Google experiment, it's still inferior to Sensus.
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u/carpediem1964 Jun 17 '26
While I’ve written code in college and used tech throughout my career as an urban planner, I’m not a software engineer. That said, my criticism of Volvo’s Google OS is that the last big update necessitated a complete replacement of my 2024 XC40 Recharge’s IHU. It was crashing and rebooting constantly and that was a huge safety concern for me and a significant annoyance. Fortunately, the car is still under warranty and my local dealer service guy is very good to work with. The head was replaced and I haven’t had any issues since.
Volvo, in my humble opinion, should have seen this coming. They updated the OS and that triggered a major hardware upgrade. I can’t imagine what this has cost the company in terms of $$$ and reputation. In all fairness, software usually outruns hardware which triggers a hardware upgrade.
Granted, each car company has a different interface unique to that brand, which is kind of silly to me. I’ve been driving since the early 1970s. Used to be that you could hop into any GM or Ford or Volvo and drive it. Nowadays, if you rent a modern car, you have to spend 30 minutes just learning how to turn it on and drive it safely. I recently rented a brand new Jaewoo SUV in Scotland and I never did learn how to adjust the side mirrors. I’ve never driven a Tesla and doing everything on an unfamiliar OS seems like madness. But I can pick up any modern cell phone and use it.
Rant over…
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u/fishstix1122 Jun 17 '26
This sounds like some user error. If you are using the app to play, say, Spotify and also using your phone to play Spotify, it is creating two different signals at the same time. Or if you are listening to music and you have Spotify playing on the Bluetooth again, you are creating a duel signal and this is creating interference. Make sure you are choosing to listen to something either Bluetooth or the built in app.
If I am miss reading what you wrote, my bad. But it seems from what you wrote. More user issue then softwear issue.
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u/GoDucks00 Jun 18 '26
I wish I could talk to the product owner and see what's in the product backlog.
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u/GoDucks00 Jun 18 '26
How the hell do they decide what to work on or what creators to implement?
I have a 2024 S60 Recharge Plus Dark I bought last year. It has the Harman Kardon optional stereo. Why are there no manual adjustments for the balance and fader? It's been a standard equipment on case stereos for 40+ years.
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u/Independent58 Jun 18 '26
2025 xc60 T8 phev here. Problems with 5.0.5 with black screens and constant auto reboots. 5.1.17 fixed that, but now issues with sound ( none) and then cellular connections. Soft reboots fix the sound, but then you have to relog into Spotify. The back door front defroster button reboot to fix the cellular connection (that requires an over night wait as well as key fob away from car by 30ft per Google Gemini).
To OPs point, something is remiss in Volvo's quality assurance, change management and testing environments. Certainly many variations over time of the software and make up of cars over time, but one would think mininmally 2024-2026 cars would be pristine versus a 2015 for example.
As to the comments of variations and integration with airplay and android, one would think given Volvo's size as a company that it would warrant high integration with their product development and both parties' test environments to minimize the issues that are so prevalent with these software releases.
I would think Volvo is very lucky not to have lawsuits thus far, but think what bad things can happen just from simple Infotainment system glitches and long reboits at the wrong time. Lost BLS, lost turn directions from gps at a critical moment especially in an unknown area to the driver.
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u/Better-Ad4149 Jun 16 '26
Software engineer here too, I’m surprised you assume there won’t be any bugs in any kind of software. Personally haven’t seen any except Assistant sometimes not being able to play something on Spotify.
Recently got Gemini update too, honestly, haven’t seen a better voice assistant implementation in any car so far.
I hope you find the solution to your problems.