Even annoying shit like media controls randomly not responding (including not being able to turn off or change volune), autopilot suddenly wanting to commit suicide, autopilot randomly shutting down, random error messages of stuff not working, random messages for things that were unchanged (child lock engaged, even though it was already engaged)
I really like the design choices, and i like the software and audio quality, but once you actually start using the car, it goes downhill fast.
I’m glad I got rid of mine. After 3 horrible Volvos and horrible shit service, i’ll never get another one even though I still think they look great.
Now driving a Mazda CX-5. Absolutely fault-free, no software issues, runs perfectly.
It shows.
I have nearly every safety feature turned off in the car because they all generate false positives at an astounding rate.
Same here (V60 2021), it skips a beat from time to time (now happy to know that I don't have problems with my brain nor ears :) ). Luckily so far I didn't have issues with the autopilot but thanks for the heads-up.
On the other hand a few months ago the radio volume got stuck for 15 minutes (couldn't even switch it off) while I was on a pass road with nowhere to stop, luckily it wasn't too loud => this made me think "ok, the media device is not directly a safety-critical subsystem, but what if the volume suddenly goes up to max, and maybe it stays there? Or if the trunk automatically opens? Etc... => tricky to define what is important from a safety perspective in a car...".
But it’s still very, very bad and I hope Subaru’s controls engineers are addressing it.
The rest of the features, however, make this the safest car I’ve driven so far. Adaptive cruise control, reverse automatic braking, and collision avoidance will make all cars safer.
I should write about it but the collision avoidance saved me from hitting a cyclist that flew out of a parking lot with a reaction time I wouldn’t be capable of.
On the other hand, we have a term for people who are always installing the latest beta updates and purchasing shiny gadgets: we call them "heatseekers". It's the heatseekers who tend to have unreliable tech and lose control of the gadgets that are supposed to make their quality of life better.
It seems pragmatic and wise to take new technology with a grain of salt. Since I have used computers and other technology for over 40 years, I have developed a good sense for what will be reliable and proven, and what should be avoided until it has been given a chance to mature. Often there are things in the latter category that can be taken up by scammers and hucksters who are eager to make a quick buck.
As always, keep in mind the adage that those who won the Gold Rush were selling the shovels and supplies. I personally enjoy selling shovels.
My FIAT Panda from the early 2000s has none of those problems. I need no updates, and every problem it has can be fixed by any car worshop, or even myself.
Relays and basic electronics that don't handle anything important, that's all it has.
It is lightweight (fuel efficient), agile in town and on dirt roads, cheap and easy to maintain.
However, the collision avoidance is excellent. It works great, never had unwanted breaking, it assists breaking in emergency, and the rear cross traffic frequently senses incoming cars we can't see.
If you had a windows 95 PC controlling the blinker, the exact same bug and symptoms would be totally expected...
Do how in 25 years have we not managed to quash this class of bugs? (Where a simple task needs to be done at a certain time, and gets delayed).
Or just don't use software. I wouldn't expect the blinker delay to use software, just a timer IC.
The main processor then tells this processor to do all timed tasks.
I'm not so sure anyone actually wants fad buzzword salad frameworks du jour driving their multi-decade lifespan appliances - not a ton of upside in your fridge running fullstack cuberentes docker react node restful AI SAAS on bay area RSUs
Clearly, it's a software issue, not a hardware issue. Hard to believe that software is really cheaper than a 555 timer. I wonder why this decision was made.
3 different controllers or software becomes an easy choice when CAN is already running everywhere
For example, an ECU that controls blinkers does it with a 555 timer, based on a "start blinking" CAN bus command. It resyncs on each new "start blinking " command. It times out after 50 blinks, if no "stop blinking" command comes.
This makes each ECU autonomous and responsible for doing "the safe thing", once it has been commanded to.
Finding all the new subtle horrible timing problems in this design is left as an exercise for the reader. :)
I tell myself it’s some component busy GCing for a bit :)
In this case, the older blinks are possibly not deallocated and slow down the processing of newer blinks. Fortunately automotive software has all sorts of watchdogs and at some point the blink watchdog must kick in and it kills the blink manager which is then restarted and it processes the blink queue in quick succession.
I understand what the marketing means. But grep your codebase and dependencies for "unsafe"... That should put paid to your fearlessness.
I think it’s more likely the Danish cops got some big fundage.
If you are in the EU, have you spoken to the consumer ombudsman (or whatever name it has)?
I’ve been at the dealer 6 times in 7 months to fix random shit on a brand new car and they managed to fix only two things: the ticking sun roof, and the charge port not opening. (Which is kinda annoying on an EV).
Some EV fans like to claim EVs are more reliable because they have less moving parts. These people obviously never owned a computer.
I bought a 60k eur car in the same building. I do expect you to waste a day finding an issue on a brand new car. If you don’t want to, don’t sell the POS cars.