[Dogwhistle]

Ok, this is now the second time this has happened. Backing out of the garage, after WELL CLEAR of the garage (nose was still in, rest was outside), the car decided to randomly engage emergency rear braking with absolutely no obstacles behind us. Again, there was NOTHING BEHIND US but asphalt and grass. The emergency rear braking is extremely violent, it locks the wheels and stops all movement instantly. My wife called me virtually in tears about this, her head and neck were hurting after the sudden whiplash. I can’t figure out what might be triggering it, and it’s rare enough I’m sure the dealer will just shruggy shoulders it. For now, I’ve put a sticky note in the car pointing to the button my wife needs to push after putting the car in reverse to disengage the rear emergency braking. Unfortunately the rear braking must be disengaged before EACH drive, wish I could just disable it. Meanwhile, she’s headed to bed early tonight with a good headache and a growing distrust in her new car, which she otherwise loves.

 

[David]

There's a button to disengage rear braking? Sorry you guys are having this problem, and I hope your wife's neck is ok!

 

[mpepper]

Yeah if you accelerate and the sensor picks up something while in the reverse the car will definitely stop.. Parking lot at my work has a gentle slope at the end of the parking space so the sensors pick up that as I'm backing into the spot. If I accelerate to quickly the car emergency brakes and it stops like instantly. Scared me so bad the first time I thought I hit a brick wall. It's done it for tall grass too since it can't differentiate what the potential obstacle is. Like you said the part that scares the **** out of you is the full immediate stop.

 

[JT Rock]

There's a button to disengage rear braking?

The 2021 owner's manual link: Activating and deactivating warning and auto-braking when backing up* | Cross Traffic Alert | Driver support | XC40 Recharge Pure Electric 2021 | Volvo Support

 

[SeattleCat]

Sorry to hear your wife had such a bad experience.
I have heard a few stories of emergency braking saving folks lives I guess sometimes it is overly sensitive

Nothing like waiting for your car to do an emergency stop.

Have you verified the rear camera is clean?

Can you reverse to the same spot and make it happen again? If you can could you take a picture for Volvo or even invite them to your home so they can see what is triggering it? Perhaps you could share the picture for us so we can try and duplicate it as well

How fast was the car going when it deployed?

I have noticed that the (something is to close) cameras sometimes switch on randomly when I am not moving on the road. I should try and work out what is triggering it. I wonder if what ever triggered the cameras could also trigger the braking.

Good luck

 

[3738]

This happens to me when I back into my garage. So now I am in the habit of turning that off each time I need to do so. It would be nice to have a more permanent toggle.

 

[SeattleCat]

This happens to me when I back into my garage. So now I am in the habit of turning that off each time I need to do so. It would be nice to have a more permanent toggle.

Can you take pictures of what is triggering it?

 

[3738]

Can you take pictures of what is triggering it?

It's about once in every 10 times - but once is enough, so I just turn it off. Empty garage except for what's all the way in the back. I just rely on the side mirrors and the 360 view to accurately guide me in. Sometimes I can even get in without the sensors beeping at all. 🤷‍♂️

 

[SeattleCat]

It's about once in every 10 times - but once is enough, so I just turn it off. Empty garage except for what's all the way in the back. I just rely on the side mirrors and the 360 view to accurately guide me in. Sometimes I can even get in without the sensors beeping at all. 🤷‍♂️

The car emergency brakes when your parking if you do not turn it off? Does it go through the beeping first? Does the break happen after it hits the end of the world flashing red setting?

I have noticed that some shapes make it freak out as being too close when there is space to spare.

 

[MMK]

Dogwhistle - Hope your wife feels better and eventually trusts the vehicle again. Absolutely understand the "scariness" of the ordeal. Similarly, I had permanently switched off the Lane Assist (at least there's an option to toggle it) - the Car was travelling 75mph on highway and it was splitting to West/East bound. As i was steering it (not even an aggressive split), the Car decided that I was totally going the wrong course, it jerked so hard and the steering wheel felt like it was locking up to not allow the steer. I had to forcefully with both hands steer it - what a scare ! Since then, the Lane Assist has been off.

Thanks JT Rock for the manual -- I did not know there was such Brake and/or Where to d/engage it !

 

[srf058]

I had a similar experience on Friday. Had turned into a driveway with a slight rise from the street over the sidewalk. I then reversed and as I started to backup, going very slowly, the brakes were slammed on noisily and came to an immediate stop. There was nothing behind me and no cross traffic. The only thing I could think of was some mis-alignment of the camera that was focused on the street and it thought I was going to run into something. Was able to slowly backup after that but it was unexpected and a bit head scratching.

 

[340driver]

Had a similar incident backing out of my son's driveway onto road that had tall grass on other side, I was sure I had hit something in the grass and got out to check but only grass, nice to know that rear braking is that effective and thanks to these postings I now know what caused it.
With regards to lane assist I find this car acts the same as my previous XC60 which initially I found rather frightening since it was always unexpected. So I just practised it whiled driving down an empty road and crossing the centre/side line and found that it was very easy to manage/overcome when you are expecting it and now I get ready at places where I think it might happen such as off ramps.

 

[paul5280]

I have similar issues backing into my garage which is downhill from the street. About 1 in 10 times or so the car will auto brake thinking I'm going to hit the garage floor. The first time scared the **** of me, because I thought I'd hit something. Had to get out, and confirm that I hadn't.

I have a small garage, and a narrow driveway, so the car always beeps at me and scolds me for getting so close to everything. This is the first car I've owned with a backup camera, so it's a new experience for me. But I've gotten used the soundtrack as I back into my garage.

Having had to negotiate European garages, which were all small and narrow, I wonder how this works in Europe. Is the system just as sensitive, and Europeans just get used to it, or are European models a bit more forgiving of you getting within a foot of a support pillar?

 

[SeattleCat]

Is anyone this is happening to feeding it back to Volvo? They cannot fix/update the system if we do not let them know it is happening.

 

[MMK]

Is anyone this is happening to feeding it back to Volvo? They cannot fix/update the system if we do not let them know it is happening.

Volvo Service: “….the new software will fix it…”

 

[RechargeTyler]

Same issue here backing into my garage. It is so sudden and violent I thought I hit the stone facade on my garage. It felt so harsh. It’s only done it once so far in 8 days of ownership, but was well clear of hitting anything. Glad to hear it isn’t just me, I think the sensors all around need some fine tuning. My front parking sensors rarely start beeping or show an object in front of me, even when there are big things right in front of the car. Meanwhile, the rear sensors think I’m about to hit everything and starts beep like 10 feet out. Assuming this will get fine tuned in future OTA’s.

 

[SeattleCat]

Sadly for me whilst driving into my car park I caught the rear wheel with no warnings from the sensors (this was months ago and when the car was a few days old) so I am way paranoid at the sensors not seeing things!

 

[hankxc40rc]

When emergency braking had been engaged, there should be a warning after the fact. I get this when I try to back up too quickly into my garage which has relatively high slope (but not high enough for the car to bottom out). I have had to just learned to back up slowly. Insurance company where I live actually gives discount for cars having this feature. If yours is the same, you might not want to disengage it (and later forget). Problem is if you got into an accident and they found out that it was disengaged, there might be claim issue.

 

[MegMH]

I had a similar issue yesterday while backing out. I've also had my car lock up while driving down a mildly and I do mean mildly curvy road. It activated the collision protection feature. Luckily there weren't any cars around me. I feel like this could have caused and accident not prevented one. This has happend 2-3 times now. The first time was after I had the windshield replaced and the dealer hadn't calibrated the new one yet. I chalked it up to that, but after having it happen again I'm more concerned.

 

[SeattleCat]

This is sounding like it might be a real bad issue. I encourage everyone it has happened to to contact your dealership and if possible Volvo.

take pictures of where is happened. Take pictures of your sensors to show if they are clean or not. They are going to need data to fix this.

A thought. If the front collision is optical I wonder if the chance of it being tricked by a big flying insect hitting the sensor / flying past the sensor at the wrong distance is zero or is it greater than zero? As it is focused further out it should ignore flying things but a big juicy impact on the sensor?