The Volvo EX90 is a disaster that has cost the company Billions, will ship with missing features

[Kelvn]

I’m sure the there are very smart people at Volvo considering all the factors with production releases….then some PM meets with the stakeholders and they start talking about the delays and the PM goes “okay we’ll see what we can do”. And they come up with the brilliant idea to just push out the product because stakeholders said they’re too slow.

source: I’m a PM.

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[CrazyOne]

Maybe Volvo could see if they can license software from Rivian?

Rivian needs to choose partners carefully from jurisdictions and CEOs that respect IP.

 

[Dustyshades]

That’s why I said Rivian doesn’t even plan to have CarPlay. Bidirectional was promised even before the first vehicles started shipping en masse and Rivians sensor suite was absolutely touted to the public as part of its advanced sensor suite capable in the future of some level of autonomy. Look im not knocking them at all, im just pointing out it’s not uncommon even with these vehicles to gain additional functionality over the air. Hell, my polestar 2 didn’t have what it has now when I first bought it.

I agree with your point entirely and think it’s being made into a bigger deal than it actually is. This is the same thing Rivian did. The vampire drain seems like the most serious issue, but the first Rivians shipped seemed to have comparable drain before software updates rectified the issue. Not trying to knock Rivian cause I think it’s great and I love mine. Just trying to keep an honest perspective on the topic

 

[Dustyshades]

I’m sure the there are very smart people at Volvo considering all the factors with production releases….then some PM meets with the stakeholders and they start talking about the delays and the PM goes “okay we’ll see what we can do”. And they come up with the brilliant idea to just push out the product because stakeholders said they’re too slow.

source: I’m a PM.

I would actually probably agree with the PM on all of these calls to push out via OTA later except the vampire drain issue which I think should be a launch blocking issue. But it also depends on the timelines they’re thinking they can have an OTA for the other items.

 

[michelin]

Who would actually buy it in that state? Plus an expected vampire drain of 3% per day until they come up with a software fix? I can hardly believe they’re gonna bring it to the market that way. Volvo might really damage its reputation if they do.

A colleague of mine just canceled

 

[michelin]

Yeah. Yikes.

One reason my wife wanted this car was to avoid being stressed about the state of the software - akin to the early adopter stress we had with our R1T almost 2 years ago.

Volvo being a seasoned car maker, was thought to be able to avoid that.

I may have to start the lobbying for an R2 at this point. If one has to wait until mid 2025 for the complete software features and schedule a hardware replacement, then how s00n after that does the R2 roll out?

Assuming R2 is not late, first half 2026. Do it!

EX90 is a 3 row SUV like the R1S though. Why not that one? The R2 equivalent is probably the Polestar 4 and whatever the Volvo equivalent is, though the P4 is more of a 'tall wagon' than a real offroading SUV

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

I agree with your point entirely and think it’s being made into a bigger deal than it actually is. This is the same thing Rivian did. The vampire drain seems like the most serious issue, but the first Rivians shipped seemed to have comparable drain before software updates rectified the issue. Not trying to knock Rivian cause I think it’s great and I love mine. Just trying to keep an honest perspective on the topic

I think the valid question is whether Volvo can deliver on a very ambitious schedule for updates and whether they've built the software to receive OTA updates the same way. Rivian hit the ground running with OTA right after launch and mostly hasn't missed a beat with significant feature upgrades and improvements on a regular cadence. They've had issues with one update out of the 20 or so they've pushed.

Do you trust Volvo to meet or exceed that?

 

[Count Orlok]

so the EX90 will ship without a camp kitchen?

 

[Davethadog]

I think the valid question is whether Volvo can deliver on a very ambitious schedule for updates and whether they've built the software to receive OTA updates the same way. Rivian hit the ground running with OTA right after launch and mostly hasn't missed a beat with significant feature upgrades and improvements on a regular cadence. They've had issues with one update out of the 20 or so they've pushed.

Do you trust Volvo to meet or exceed that?

I’ve had my polestar (which, granted is not a Volvo but it is the same group) for a few years and received updates that are maybe a bit more frequent than quarterly. The cadence is slower than Rivian and the growth of features is slower but I do believe they’re capable of such things. Headlight and CarPlay functionality are two big items that come to mind along with a number of other minor quality of life things.

I’d trust Volvo to come through on those things but not to iterate relentlessly the way that Rivian does. That to me is the difference between the brands that IMO is not necessarily a bad thing. There are plenty of customers that neither want nor care about frequent updates, probably chief among them Volvo many users. For a long time we purchased cars with the functionality that exists in situ and that’s it, personally I’m happy to keep it that way minus a couple of inconvenient updates along the way.

 

[SASSquatch]

My wife was waiting for EX90 she finally just got R1S. She is happier than she expected to be even though She never really loved my R1T

Ouch. I hope your R1T gets plenty of love from you to make up for only having affection from one parent.

Parents say they don't have favorites and your situation just goes to show you that's total !

 

[PBRAZ]

Shouldn't be a surprise, Volvo ranks among the lowest in terms of reliability.

How they can't deliver a light theme on their navigation in time for launch is comical. Is Jim from the art department out sick?

 

[PBRAZ]

Headlight and CarPlay functionality are two big items that come to mind along with a number of other minor quality of life things.

I could see a few people not caring about updates, but if the headlights didn't turn on when you received the vehicle, and now they do after an update, we'll that's crazy.

 

[elektrode]

Couple of other thoughts over the last day.

- no way did I expect my Rivian to get as many software upgrades as it has gotten in two years. Nearly one per month. Crazy. Just really crazy unusual. I’m used to it now, but it’s a revolution.
- No idea what software OTA updates will look like for Volvo.
- getting a planned replaced computer could be a good thing. Let’s contrast that with Rivian Gen 1 owners being SOL regarding CPU upgrades. I don’t expect a Gen 2 CPU, but is it a bad thing that Volvo knows they will replace what is there?
- My Gen 1 burns 1% to 1.5% a day in vampire drain. No path for improvement as they’ve had 2 years to tweak it and one selling point of the Gen 2 is improved drain. Rivian will eventually give up on vampire for Gen 1.
- while our Rivian has gotten far more updates than I expected, the Driver+ has not. And Gen1 owners get what they got and it’ll never get any better and the more than capable hardware we thought we had was not more than capable.
- Damn my Gen1 rocks.
- After reading this article on Volvo, and the VW news, Rivian really seems to have their shit together software wise.
- We’ve been notified we can pick our colors soon and the Volvo colors sure are boring AF.
- mid 2006 feels like a long time away for an R2. Our oldest will be ready for college and that’s the last possible moment for getting an extra vehicle. Not sure we can depend on “s00n” as a real plan.

 

[Davethadog]

I could see a few people not caring about updates, but if the headlights didn't turn on when you received the vehicle, and now they do after an update, we'll that's crazy.

They enabled the pixel functionality after it was approved by the dot.

 

[daeHelkcunK]

Rivian needs to choose partners carefully from jurisdictions and CEOs that respect IP.

Amen to that, can't be supporting Chinese owned corporations. I'm surprised Volvo can still sell cars in the US

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