Volvo EX90: Computer Replacement for Software Issues

A brand-new computer system may not bring Greer back into a Volvo showroom anytime quickly. Yet it’s a very first step in the best direction for the EX90, and ought to a minimum of prevent way too many even more buyers from feeling refused. It’s additionally delivering through on Volvo’s assurance to maintain EX90s current, an agent informed InsideEVs via e-mail.

“One of the service representatives told me, ‘When you got this auto, you recognized it was new, and you require to be person with it,'” Greer claimed. “And I asked him, gosh, we paid just under $90,000 for the auto. Is Volvo mosting likely to endure my lease settlements? He didn’t have a solution to that.”.

EX90 Owner Concerns

On Monday morning, I spoke to a Volvo EX90 owner that reported a list of concerns with her 2025 EX90: malfunctioning phone-as-a-key performance, a useless keyfob, a keycard that hardly ever functioned promptly, constant phone link issues, infomercial glitches and mistake messages. I was amazed not since I had not heard of these sort of issues, however since I experienced them myself over a year back at the EX90 initial drive once more. At the time, Volvo said software program solutions loomed.

Aurori states that Volvo will share additional information on the computer upgrade shortly. However if you’re an owner of a damaged EX90, you ought to currently have an email about it in your inbox. The one-time upgrade will certainly be readily available for free from your local Volvo dealership.

Volvo’s Solution: Computer Replacement

After reading about Greer’s ordeal and plenty of other comparable experiences on the internet, I’m not surprised to hear Volvo is simply dumping its first-generation SDV computer system completely. The firm has actually had more than a year to repair these issues and, if a software program repair were simple, it would certainly have been done. Having currently botched its initial effort at an electric flagship, and with toll problems drinking business’s fundamentals, the brand currently has to strike a crowning achievement with the upcoming EX60 if it wants to regain its electrical mojo.

SDVs use plenty of benefits over commonly created automobiles, including far better software application function assimilation, lower production costs and in theory unlimited upgradeability. Yet every one of these benefits come alongside one major danger: If you can’t develop first-rate hardware and software to power the system, your consumers are going to suffer.

Benefits of SDV Architecture

Take it from Greer. The 64-year-old Minnesotan got her EX90 after possessing a 2021 XC90 for four years and enjoying it. She states that after experiencing a lot of issues with phone connectivity and Google Assistant assistance, she began tracking exactly how typically it stopped working.

Offered Volvo’s track record as a reliable and safe car manufacturer, I have to imagine its owners really felt particularly amazed by the number of concerns with the EX90.

Greer’s EX90 Experience

The concern is whether doing so will win back the depend on of customers that have actually been rejected by their EX90 concerns. Given Volvo’s track record as a risk-free and trusted automaker, I have to picture its proprietors felt particularly shocked by the number of issues with the EX90.

That was an essential marketing factor for the EX90, which has actually been marketed as the first European software-defined vehicle (SDV) on sale in the united state, possibly together with its close mechanical loved one, the Polestar 3. (While that cars and truck has seen comparable problems, according to owner reports, they appear to be much less extensive, and Polestar has not revealed any type of computer system substitutes.).

On Monday morning, I talked to a Volvo EX90 proprietor that reported a litany of problems with her 2025 EX90: malfunctioning phone-as-a-key capability, an ineffective keyfob, a keycard that seldom worked rapidly, consistent phone link issues, infomercial glitches and mistake messages. To resolve them, Volvo announced on Tuesday that it will certainly replace the main computer of every 2025 EX90 with the brand-new one from the 2026 EX90. Greer tipped me off that Volvo would certainly be changing the computer in her 2025 EX90, and the business later confirmed that the substitute system is coming to all EX90s. Hopes of fast development towards that objective were partially dashed by the number of software program problems in the preliminary EX90, forcing Volvo to allot more resources toward fixing existing software application concerns, not simply concentrating on future renovations.

Updating existing EX90 computers to the 2026 version’s Nvidia system– which I expect to see in future Volvos– implies that the business can concentrate on developing software application for that system, rather than needing to keep upgrading devices with mistaken hardware.

“I say without overestimation that this car is a dumpster fire inside a train wreck,” InsideEVs reader and EX90 owner Sally Greer informed me by means of email. Greer tipped me off that Volvo would be replacing the computer system in her 2025 EX90, and the firm later verified that the substitute device is pertaining to all EX90s. The brand-new computer is a Nvidia Drive AGX Orin-based core computer with over 500 TOPS (Trillion Procedures Per Secondly) of power, which Volvo claims will assist power its independent driving aspirations.

“Relating to the computer system upgrade, Volvo Cars aims to improve our platforms and items as soon as it is technically feasible– according to our assurance to continuously enhance our cars,” Volvo agent Sophia Durr Aurori said via email. “Our ambition is that, as quickly as we have improvements to offer our consumers, we want them to take advantage of them. “.

“So of the 95 drives I have actually had since August 27, my phone and Google Aide have functioned 22 times. So I can’t be in touch with the outside world,” Greer informed me over the phone. CarPlay, she claimed, “just doesn’t work.” Whether cordless or wired, it’s effectively linked regarding 10 times considering that she got the car, she estimates.

To solve them, Volvo announced on Tuesday that it will certainly replace the central computer system of every 2025 EX90 with the brand-new one from the 2026 EX90. It’s an implied admission that the company can not solve the EX90’s issues while concurrently launching its next-generation software-defined cars, and that it’s simpler to replace the original computer system than to develop bug-free software for it.

Software Problems Delay Autonomous Driving

The EX90 already had a LIDAR sensing unit and a wide electronic camera selection, though the previous sensing unit is not currently made use of in any driver-assistance reasoning. The hope is to at some point allow autonomous driving with LIDAR, radar and video cameras collaborating. But hopes of fast progress towards that objective were partly rushed by the variety of software problems in the first EX90, compeling Volvo to allocate more resources toward fixing existing software application concerns, not simply focusing on future enhancements.

“The phone as a secret does not work. It’s not dependable and I surrendered using it,” she said, which is in line with my experience on the initial drive. “I do have a [crucial] fob, which hasn’t worked because the first day. So I depend on the key card completely.”.

Yet if it’s drizzling, Greer claims she typically has to hold the card up to the door sensor for 60-90 seconds. Usually, she claims, it’s even more like 40 secs. She likewise defined a harrowing circumstance where the EX90 limited its power outcome as she was merging onto the highway, with the car rejecting to speed up previous 40 miles per hour with the throttle pinned.