Volvo Centum is Dalton Maag's new typeface for Volvo
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The Volvo software design team isn't responsible for fixing electronics bugs, and maybe not even responsible for the presence or lack of physical buttons. They didn't even make the font - it was contracted to a design studio. I seriously doubt this effort distracted too much from fixing the other things people care about. Big companies do multiple things at once.
Or they're from people that read the headline/article.
It editorializes the motivation for this being "Safety" and thus, a lot of users are pointing out how hollow that rings or how misguided it seems when there's ways we'd much prefer they take to improve safety. For example, lack of physical buttons and the consolidation of everything into the touchscreen, which the article also acknowledges (and in turn, acknowledges that Volvo is aware people are growing more disgruntled with it).
This isn't a lack of understanding that big corporations are capable of having multiple people doing multiple things, this is us questioning if Volvo's reputation for actually caring about safety still holds true, or if their new owners with the final say in these matters (Geely) is just riding on that reputation by ignoring the much more pressing safety concerns yet knowingly cashing in on that reputation-capital by pandering to those same concerns with a font.
Does the font improve safety and is that the motivation, or not?
There are comments here like "They should instead focus on their overall software stability and usability", and spankalee is correctly pointing out that it's a false dichotomy.
I have a Volvo with Android Automotive. And I think touchscreens in cars are trash, and Android particularly so; the latency is horrendous, the rear-view camera only works 50% of the time, everything just feels like the cheapest trash Android tablet from a decade ago.
I really wish this car just had physical controls and a double-din Carplay deck from Pioneer or whatever, the experience would be so much better.
I honestly believe I'm going to get into an accident in a parking lot due to the horrendous sight lines and unreliable camera.
Looks nice but nothing outstanding or particularly legible, compared to the many fonts developed for this purpose already. I think they wanted their own identity and there's nothing wrong with that. But the "designed for safety" part feels like a gimmick to tie into their branding.
Car manufacturers change their logo or font occasionally to send a message, solidify a brand identity, of course it won't be in any way related to any of the engineering of the car.
> Android Automotive. And I think touchscreens in cars are trash, and Android particularly so; the latency is horrendous
I don't own a Volvo but I've seen the infotainment system in action on their premium cars (XC60/XC90/EX90). If I were to be in the market for a new car in that category, the infotainment and "Volvo's close relationship with Google", to quote the article, would single handedly cross Volvo out from my list.
https://news.mit.edu/2012/agelab-automobile-dashboard-fonts-...
That's a quote from either Volvo or the designer. You're right -- it doesn't explicitly say that this was a quote from Volvo; but I'd be a bit surprised if a well-known designer was just making that up without it being part of the shared vision around the work.
And if that's true, the critics are correct. Volvo should be putting in physical buttons to make safer cars. Instead, they are claiming some bullshit "early adopter" status and putting in large amounts of control and information on an unsafe touchscreen to save money.
Casually window dressing this designer work as a "safe" typeface smacks of trying to cover up shoddy mistakes, and they need to be called out for that obfuscation specifically.
No one said otherwise.
> Instead
Same false dichotomy.
> Casually window dressing this designer work as a "safe" typeface smacks of trying to cover up shoddy mistakes
To conspiracists.
And Indeed. It's not a dichotomy at all, because...
> Does the font improve safety and is that the motivation, or not?
This is the actual false dichotomy.
If the issue with usability/safety/accessibility/ergonomics/etc regarding touch screens was "I can't read the font" then maybe this POV would be on to something. But that's not the issue, and no one is confused about that. This is like putting a bandaid on your arm when your leg is broken and then acting confused when the patient asks, justifiably, "Are you even listening to me? That's not the Problem!"
Why is why the first two words I wrote (sans the quote) in that comment was "It editorializes".
This is important work and is being outsourced (so no heavy load on Volvo employees besides reviewing the work), and I believe this is as important as reducing any distractions during driving.
Ford used to have (and may still have) a cockpit/dashboard simulator where they install prototype dashboards and test their mental load by creating "unexpected hazards" in the simulation while tweaking something on the dash.
I can operate my car's controls without even looking at them and just by feeling them, while looking at the road. The dials are extremely readable, so I'm not aware that I'm checking them even. We should be targeting this over design, any day.
This is important work.
i ask because i had a SAAB 900 model from the early 80s, used, and it was like that. never needed to look away from the road...and it's been gone for 35 years now but oh how i miss its design.
While I use Apple CarPlay most of the time, it's navigation was good, even. With good directions and readable, clear maps.
For all the cars I have rented in the last 2-3 years, Ford still has that DNA the best.
If you say that making a font easier to read increases the safety more I think NCAP would like a word.
Yes, I say that. However, what I don't say is that we shall increase touch controls. I support more physical controls, but physical controls doesn't invalidate displays or the need for text.
See, reducing cognitive load is the aim. If I can read a road sign faster, or understand what my instrument cluster is saying in shorter time, both are equally significant wins. LCD instrument clusters are not going anywhere, and they come in variety of sizes and qualities. A boring, quickly readable cluster is always better than an exciting, but an unreadable one, so design and font choice is a factor.
Below, I noted the instrument cluster of Ford Puma Hybrid. Utterly boring, extremely easy to understand and packed with more information than most cars I have driven. It's a great experience, and font selection is at least 30% of that.
So yes, a good font is a security multiplier, and if it can look good while staying very legible, this is a great win.
DON'T ADD the road signs to the context, Volvo is not updating road signs. This is moving the goalpost/strawman.
First is a current situation in this car to change the temperature:
1. Having to look at the screen, read, find, reach to touch, read, find, touch
versus the situation with physical controls:
2. Reach without looking, press/turn
And you really say "having to look, read, find, reach to touch, read, find, touch" is better than just reaching without looking? Because this is what you say: making a font on the infotainment easier to read improves the safety more than adding physical controls.
No more questions.
1. I have cited "highway sign design" & "Germany's license plate font" as factors external to cars. I'm not moving anything except my fingers while typing this comment. Moreover, I'm not trying to win anything and we're just discussing here. Moving the goalposts would be something silly to do, if I ever attempted it.
2. No, you asked whether the clarity of the fonts contribute to the safety of the whole car, and I said "yes!", and will say again. Your question lacks a comparison relative to anything, so it stands on its own. Again, for the third time, legibility of anything inside (and around) the car is a contributor to security of it.
3. Again, citing myself, I told that we shall reduce touch controls and increase physical ones. I mean that comment is 2 days old. I can't edit it in, can I? However, by citing displays I again openly mentioned "digital instrument clusters", and displays attached to controls like climate controls' displays sitting in proximity of rotary dials most of the time. Legibility of these things are equally important as blind controls, because if your car wants your attention, you need to understand what's happening as quickly as possible.
I believe there's a clear misunderstanding going on, and I honestly don't know what to do and say, because you're stuffing words in my mouth.
I'll probably go make tea.
Happy (belated) merry Christmas and happy new year.
Please drive safe, and be attentive to road.
My question, admittedly probably not as clearly as I'd like it to be, was only related to safety of operating physical controls vs having to use touchscreen.
Any external circumstances notwithstanding.
The article and, I believe, our threat was about the safety factor physical/tactile vs primarily visual.
If I were forced to use touch screen then sure, better font is increasing safety, but at the same time replacing physical controls with touchscreen is drastically lowering the safety, which has been confirmed by a study and recently by NCAP removing stars for that.
For the purpose of this thread I don't care about external sources of information, they have NO impact on "are physical controls inside the car more conductive to safety than touchscreen?".
It was never a debate about improving necessary / mandatory interface, it was a debate whether they're a regression (from the safety perspective) or not.
Have a happy new year and don't worry, I'm attentive, I would never buy a car that forces me to take my eyes off the road to turn up the volume or temperature :)
Nitpicky, the 0 and O are difficult to distinguish. But for the application, this is not a problem. Other than entering (e.g. wifi) passwords, there are no places where one would be mistaken for the other in a passenger vehicle UI.
Yes, it's small, but "l" has a tail, and "i" is very prominent for what it is so while "I" is a column, it's an unmistakable one.
I want to see the infamous Turkish Quartet "ıiIİ" in action.
My ideal font is a san serif, in which the uppercase I had a small hint of serifs. I live in a fantasy world though, along with my Debian desktop and electric car.
I also tend to like sans serif fonts, and my personal favorite is Inter these days. On the other hand, anything technical (terminal, programming, diagrams, etc.) gets Berkeley Mono as the only choice. Sometimes diagrams and labels get DIN though, if I feel fancy that day.
I also live in a fantasy world which I spoil myself with a Debian desktop, but an ideal car for me is a hybrid one, which I'm going to get in a near-ish future.
https://usgraphics.com/catalog/FX-102
But not $75 great.
Yes! I use it in all my systems' terminals and it's really a great font. Also it's a great homage to the fonts I used back in the day and the era that I missed.
It also works really well for programming.
> But not $75 great.
I'll respectfully disagree on that part. :)
Merry Christmas!
When coding I use my own font (a mix of Terminus for most chars, Monaco for some symbols like the @ sign, and then a few fixes for obvious font defects).
It's very hard to find proper fonts.
Proper fonts do exist, but no font is usable in all circumstances.
1.) Go back to actual buttons/dials (with the old font, please)
2.) Fix the comically bad horrifying electronics issues the new models have.
It's a modern, almost mono, minimalist font which reduces the effort required to process it. With some tasteful design choices, it doesn't look bland, either. It's like a well-crafted machine draped in a beautiful paneling. It's as engineering as it gets, but in typography.
> forces use of touchscreen / touch controls for climate control
https://www.mycarusermanual.com/volvo/xc60/suv/2020/climate-...
Hmmmmm. Someone lies and I think it's volvo.
I'm pressing X For "doubt".
- https://safety21.cmu.edu/2025/03/11/physical-buttons-could-m... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-re... - https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/study-finds-that... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/206867/just-how-bad-are...
If Volvo wants to restore their image they should bring back a modern reinterpretation of the iconic 240, with the same level of usability, quality, and design language and absolutely no screens anywhere.
This, giant tablet that is the main interface to everything and car being a death trap in case of fire are my three dealbreakers.
Well, nazi at the helm being the fourth one.
But I'm also not sure if they're leaders in EV tech - they definitely used to be and I think Tesla broke the EV into a mainstream, made this a viable choice.
Too bad they lost a spark :/
Also crazy that there are so many fascism apologists in the hacker community nowadays, given the proudly weird, subversive, inclusive, and anti-authoritarian roots of hacker culture and computer science. Our community needs to come together to be as unwelcoming as possible to Nazis. They should not just be unwelcome but afraid- hackers can find out who they are and out them personally and professionally so they can never work in tech again.
Inclusiveness is a social contract, it does not extend to people that make harming others their purpose.
There's movies as an art form, and there's movies as a vehicle to make money (Marvel, Star Wars, etc, etc franchises, anyone?)...
Chinese. Volvo is a fully Chinese company that has some people working for them in Sweden. That does not make Volvo a Swedish carmaker. Zeekr also isn't a Swedish carmaker, despite having an R&D center in Gothenburg.
A friend recently got a steering pump for his classic Volvo 940 and instead of a European part the official Volvo dealership gave him a Chinese part. Broke in a couple of months.
The times that a Volvo would do 500,000 kilometers with basis maintenance is in the past.
They funnel all of their foreign profits through various tax shelter subsidiaries in Ireland and similar locations.
Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Netflix are all incorporated in Deleware, Apple is incorporated in California.
Volvo Cars has been bought by Geely. That is not comparable.
Volvo (Cars) doesn't just "have some people working for them" in Sweden. Volvo Personvagnar Aktiebolag was founded in, and is incorporated in, Sweden. Their HQ is in Sweden.
Zeekr was started by a Chinese company in China and has their HQ in China.
I consider it "Swedish-Chinese"
Volvo builds more cars in China than it does in Sweden.
Volvo is owned by the Chinese.
Arguably more of the design for Volvo cars is done in China. It depends on whether you consider the visible design more important or the powertrain.
Volvo is part Swedish, but it's much more "Chinese-Swedish" than "Swedish-Chinese".
Milwaukee tools? Chinese.
You wouldn't say that many of the skyscrapers in China designed by international artists and architects weren't Chinese.
It doesn't matter who is designing the Chinese cars. They're Chinese owned and operated. That's where the buck stops.
What's to stop the Swedish portion from being downsized in the future? That call would be made in China.
2/9 on the board are Chinese (same as Swedes). The rest are westerners.
Volvo produces more cars in Sweden than Apple produces iPhones etc in the US.
But you are correct that ownership of the company is majority Chinese (Li Shufu/Geely specifically) and they can control a lot.
Apple's ownership is more muddy, since the largest owners are big institutional (US) owners - mostly representing owners from who knows where through big funds (including index funds). I think it's fair to say that Apple is owned very globally. In that sense it's not US controlled, but globally controlled.
I think Volvo is still very Swedish, including its products, but also heavily Chinese influenced (and trending up) due to market challenges.
There's probably still some value in associating a large multi national company to a specific country and attributing it certain things due to that, but with these big companies it's becoming less so and definitely more complex. But saying that Volvo is fully Chinese and not Swedish anymore? That seems like fooling oneself.
It's got a few issues, but the thing has been a beast. Not sure how Chinese it is however.
Some smaller models at the time had a PSA (Ford/Peugeot) engine which don't come anywhere near 300k before blowing up (or simply becoming very expensive to maintain).
The latest electric EX30 model reuses the Chinese built Zeekr X design. Seems like they drive ok, but if they can get 300k remains to be seen. Haven't seen any used with more than around 50k on them.
Swedish or not is a matter of perspective at this point.
Similarly for mojang, king and dice. All founded in Sweden, main offices in Stockholm, and owned by American companies(ms, ms, and ea, respectively)
Arguably powerhouses of Swedish gaming, arguably American affiliates in Sweden.
To me a 'chinese company' is headquartered in china, has predominantly chinese employees, and the amount of its operations in china must be larger than any other single country it does business in.
The ownership of Volvo and Jaguar by Ford is interesting because it effected them differently - with Jaguar it arguably resulted in a significant improvement in quality and reduction of vehicle complexity, Volvo seemed to be less effected by its Ford period than Jag however.
> I dont know how much employee nationality matters
> has predominantly chinese employees
then why does it matter here? I was saying the exact same thing.
Volvo Group - sells trucks - publicly traded - Swedish
Volvo Cars - sells cars - not publicly traded - 100% owned by Geely (Chinese)
Volvo Cars ≠ Volvo Group
Geely owns around 79% of the shares, with the rest split up between pension funds and private equity.
So do you think iPhones built in China have terrible build quality? How about the ones made in India? I have an India-built iPhone — can’t tell a difference.
Chinese parts don’t necessarily mean low quality. It may have meant that in the past, but not anymore. People need to get over that mentality.
There’s nothing inherently magical about anywhere (be it Europe, America, India, China, or anywhere else) that guarantees things made there are of impeccable or terrible quality. If it’s built well it’s built well.
In Apple's case, even as a iOS hater (yet a user), I would still say that Apple prioritizes product quality standards at a very high level. That culture trickles down as imposed requirements from Apple to its suppliers.
That could change of course, but so far so good for the Swedish economy and fans of Scandi design.
Since Chinese tech is clearly state of the art for EV's I think Volvo could be in a good spot if they get to continue as they have so far. Win-win.
As for realiability, 500 000 km is no problem for a decent EV and Geely makes good ones. I wouldn't worry about that aspect either way.
For a giant tablet with no buttons that never belonged on a dashboard. It is common knowledge that buttons are better for drivers. For a company supposedly focused on safety, they make their cars more dangerous for drivers by installing touchscreens and removing buttons.
What is innovative here? https://www.volvocars.com/us/news/innovation/
Bought after depreciation reduced the cost by 57%...
"Welcome to your Volvo, let's get started"
"Please wait while we prepare your car!"
"Something went wrong."
If microsoft built cars (joke) (2004)
Possibly better reference:
https://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/humor/WindowsVsCars.html Comparing Microsoft Windows With Cars
"If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon"
Arch Linux car would just be a pallet of raw materials with a link to a wiki.
So you can take any typeface and trace/redraw it just fine. But you can't use the original font files unless you have proper license.
And if so, why people still even bother with all that "font licenses" stuff and such? I'd think the only reason to buy a font by now must be when design studio actually does custom work for you. And the emphasis is on "custom", because it isn't truly "for you": anyone will be effectively free to use it after you use it once anywhere.
So in same way as one would expect “its just a CRUD app” it should be trivial computing task to make a “different” copy. No unless you do some decompilation of the font which is breaking the license.
About why people bother… maybe the biggest issue typography (and lot of design in general) have is that if done right it's mostly invisible or natural. You notice typography only when it's done badly - it's very subconscious. That doesn't mean it's not ongoing topic with experts dedicating their lives to it. And for them even differences between variations of Helvetica matter. If you look around yourself you will have typography absolutely everywhere - you have probably 1000s of different fonts just in your home. You probably don't notice them but you would if our society standards were lower.
I'm afraid that legacy is long lost, Volvo is a very different company today than it used to be.
But it does exist, just isn't the same as it used to be, back in the "seat-belts is for everyone" era.
1. Press "heat controls" space on tablet. This "expands" the controls, showing steering wheel heat, seat heat, seat ventilation.
2. Press "seat heat" once to be on High (and more presses to get to Medium, Low or back to Off)
Wish it was a button. Buttons are much better for this sort of thing.
In this video, the Volvo controls are identical to Polestar, and, again, require at least two presses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D29Nm-fwsHQ
While it's great to have a choice to do so, I personally detest voice controls (which require a button press, and a memorized phrase.)
I would still like to have a button-only option, of course.
https://www.volvocars.com/intl/media/press-releases/5ABB4F35...
Competing on top speed is very very stupid
You’re a BMW driver aren’t you?
They say:
>The problem with speeding is that above certain speeds, in-car safety technology and smart infrastructure design are no longer enough to avoid severe injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident.
And, frankly, they're right: you cannot engineer your way out of the laws of physics.
I'm doubtful.
My issue is that Volvo initially proposed that all cars made in Europe be limited to 180 or below. And when their idea was rejected, they started to claim safety.
Requesting that all car mfgs limit their top speeds is 100% compatible with an earnest desire for increased road safety.
Volvo is technically capable of making a car that drives 250 kph. That was the top speed of the Volvo 850 T-5R way back in 1995, so its a bold claim to suggest that lowering their top speeds is because they're incapable.
But "250 without issues" is easy to achieve under perfect conditions, but it is far from safe. The driver only has to sneeze at that speed, or hit a puddle of oil or some debris dropped by another car, and it is game over. They're right that safety tech won't save you at those speeds.
Volvo doesn't want anyone dying in their cars, regardless of whether its the driver's fault. Nobody needs to drive that fast and "people who will drive at >180 on the autobahn" is not a common enough use case worldwide to be worth optimizing for.
They're not talking about reliability, but rather what will happen to _you_ in an accident at the speeds in question.
The forces involved on the bag of meat go up exponentially with speed. How much can your aorta handle before it rips open?
Give me buttons, not a font.
Despite my frustrations with their shop, they have been very good about keeping me in a revolving door of 2025 and 2026 loaner cars, especially the XC40 and XC60. Despite the occasional glitched audio or freezing bugs, I think they really have done a good job with the Android Automotive integration. It's nice having it logged in and able to see my Google Maps search history, but without having to actually have my phone on me or plugged in for CarPlay. For example, if another family member borrows the car and all that stuff just works for them too without them having to separately configure their phone.
I would be nervous about how well it all will be supported over the long term, especially once these cars are >4yrs old and off lease. But at that point you can always fall back to projection.
There’s a big speedometer top right (it’s right-hand drive), an indicator of the driving mode (manual, cruise-control, pilot assist), and the rest is basically map/navigation. No gears, no RPM, no oil temp, no cryptic warning lights.
Steering wheel controls for music, calls, speed control, etc are fine, but the voice control over music, navigation and climate are so good I barely use them: “hey google, make it a bit cooler in here” or “hey google, let’s go to xxx” both work basically flawlessly.
The issue I've had with the Volvo has been that the software is pretty bad. Sometimes the sound just... doesn't come on unless you reboot the system, which is really bad because it turns out that the turn signal clicks play through the stereo rather than being a discrete component. Similarly, I would say about half the time I drive the car it doesn't tilt the side mirrors down when I back up (as I have set in the settings). In my mind, these software issues, while they don't render the car impossible to drive or anything, are completely unacceptable for a car that costs $60,000. They really need to do better.
Issues I encountered: - The schedule for AC charging moves by 1 hour when DST changes. So someone thought let's ignore daylight saving times for that. - The app randomly says "could not start heating/cooling", but still started it. - The last few times, AC schedule and power limit were ignored by the car (so charged 16 A but the car said only 14 A allowed) - Randomly, the AC schedule is in a random timezone (like 7-9h lff), but just for one day. - Sound sometimes does not work, like at all. Reboot the center display helps, but takes a couple of minutes.
Most days, it feels like they don't drive their own cars.
Regardless, I think the font is somewhat nice.
I'm still on a AAOS 2.x release from 2023 and will not upgrade at this point.
This one is really bad because it turns out that the turn signal clicks play through the sound system. So when this bug happens, you lose a key bit of feedback from the car until you pull over and restart the system.
For anyone needing some pub quiz trivia, a lower case g has the top half which is called the bowl, the bit top right is called the ear, then the bottom is called a loop tail when it's closed, or just a tail when it's open, and is joined by a link.
Is it more cost-effective? Is it to have better control?
Is it for branding? (Although it does not appear unique/novel)
It’s not like it needs to solve something that isn’t addressed by other typefaces —at least I don’t see it. It’s not a radical departure from existing typefaces.
> as Airbus designed B612 for readability within their glass cockpits.
weird it still has problem of O being similar to 0. I guess it's less of a problem in plane instruments but still
Like what if Mercedes used Comic Sans.