2025 Volvo EX90

I was parked in a parking lot and when I released my foot from the break, the car accelerated on its own and crashed into the car in front of me. The automatic emergency braking did not deploy. It was most recently a safety risk and put others in the parking lot, particularly the driver in front me, in danger. I have reported this issue to Volvo and they instructed me to get the body of the car repaired and then the dealer will inspect it. I filed an insurance claim with my insurance company and the car is going to be repaired. There were no warning lamps or messages prior to the failure.

On [XXX] around [XXX], while driving on [XXX] fro Santa Paula to Ojai, my car displayed a message on the dash that said "critical brake fault, pull over safely." When I applied the brakes they did not respond. I came to a stop only when the car lost momentum. When I exited the car to investigate, I shut the driver's door and was locked out. Neither my key card, nor phone key worked and the Volvo app indicated the reason was that the car was still driving it was not). I was just a mile away from descending a steep and winding road on the [XXX]. Had I been on that stretch of the road, the consequences I am certain there would have been a serious crash, as one side of the road has no shoulder and the other side is a steep cliff into a ravine. I had it towed that night to the dealership and it has been there at the dealership for almost three weeks. Both the dealership (Rusnak Volvo) and Volvo Customer Care have been uncommunicative, though on 12/7/22 Volvo Customer Care informed me I have a case number ([XXX]). When I called for an update today 12/12/25, I was told only that it had been assigned. No additional information has been provided. A simple internet search indicated that this brake issue has affected many Volvo cars in the past few years. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

On three occasions my car has initiated automatic emergency braking while I was driving across the same grated bridge deck (Montlake Bridge in Seattle). In each instance there was no potential for collision and my car slammed on brakes and jammed on my seatbelt with varying levels of discomfort and terror. This also created a safety risk because I could have been rear ended as there was so reason to suddenly stop and certainly was shocked to have my car brake urgently and restrain me suddenly with seatbelt. My best guess is that this related to boats traveling under the bridge as this happened three times during higher boat traffic. I reported incident to Volvo and was told a case would be opened and that I would be contacted. I was not contacted. I scheduled a service appointment to address this and other issues with the EX90 that are unrelated but for the third time my appointment was cancelled as the Volvo dealership is refusing to service the ex90s they have been selling.

I experienced a serious safety issue with my 2025 Volvo EX90 around 1:15 PM on October 7, 2025. It was drizzling at the time. I had stopped in front of an ATM to deposit and withdraw money. After finishing, when I released the brake pedal to leave, the vehicle suddenly accelerated forward on its own, much faster than normal creeping speed. I had to keep pressing the brake pedal to control the car. I used intermittent braking to steer it around and managed to park it safely. After shifting into Park (P), I restarted the vehicle’s system, but the issue did not go away. Only after I parked, locked the car, and came back later did it return to normal. I shared my experience on Reddit to see if other owners had similar incidents, and several reported the same issue. I am very concerned that this could happen again, as it poses a serious safety risk if it occurs in traffic or near pedestrians.

The vehicle has exhibited unexpected braking without any apparent external trigger, posing a safety risk. Most troubling, we have now had a third incident of the seatbelt pre-tensioning unexpectedly and forcefully, which caused my wife several days of lower abdominal discomfort. The most recent episode happened while parking at low speed. These experiences have undermined our trust in the vehicle’s safety systems.

The screen behind the steering wheel, which provides the car's speed, driver assist, warning lights, turn signals, and other driving information suddenly went blank. I was grateful that I was close to home and no longer on the interstate highway I had just exited. I drove home, reset the car, and the screen was back on. I was lucky. I could have been at the beginning on my drive, over a hundred miles from home and unable to easily exit the highway. The car is being towed today back to the dealer, again. This happened without warning. I was driving and the whole screen just went black.

On Saturday, [XXX], I drove from Woodbridge, VA to Fairfax, VA without any issues or error messages. Car was parked and locked for approximately 2 1/4 hours. When I came back out to the car and opened the door, the display behind the steering wheel stated "System communication fault. Pilot Assist deactivated. Find a place to stop and select P to park. When parked, the system will reset." I followed the directions as specified in my parking spot without any change. I moved the car to another location in the parking lot and repeated the process as directed without any change. I then got out of the car, locked the car, walked away from the car so that I was well out of range of the car, and then came back to the car. Despite these efforts, when I unlocked the car with my Key Tag and got back in, I was not able to get the message to clear. This resulted in the following issues: (a) No speedometer on the display or in the HUD; (b) No green graphic for the turn signals to indicate that they were working; (c) No display of information concerning cruise control, headlight function or windshield wiper settings; (d) Speed limit sign reading in HUD was stuck on 25 mph even though I was driving on roads with higher speed limits (e.g., [XXX] - 45 mph and [XXX] - 55 mph); and (e) Center stack stated "1 serious issue detected - Emergency Call System fault - book a service". The car was driven this way from Fairfax, VA to the Service Department of the Volvo dealership with no change and when I left, the cluster behind the steering wheel and the center stack were still in the same condition. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)