2023 Volvo C40BEV Driver assistance Problems

Volvo offers a One-Pedal Drive (OPD) where the car can be driven exclusively with the accelerator on its C40 electric cars. Foot off is braking and foot on is accelerating. While using this mode I experienced an uncommanded acceleration of the vehicle. I was creeping forward, applying slight pressure on the accelerator, when the car lurched forward suddenly and was close to impacting a stopped car in front of me. The amount the car accelerated did not match the amount of pressure I exerted on the accelerator pedal. After the car in front of me moved up, I again began to creep and again the car began to lurch forward suddenly in a manner that did not match the amount of pressure I exerted on the pedal. After this I turned off OPD and made a report to Volvo regarding the uncommanded acceleration incident. Road conditions were dry, weather was clear and about 85-90F, there was one car in front of me, and I almost exclusively used OPD before this incident so I was familiar with the pressures required to accelerate

NHTSA ID

11764597

Incident

Aug 25, 2026

After having our car repaired per NHTSA recall 25V-282 we are still having issues with malfunctions of the backup camera system including warning messages that the camera is unavailable during attempts to drive in reverse.

NHTSA ID

11677143

Incident

Jul 29, 2025

Cameras stopped working and getting message “camera temporarily not available”. But does not appear to be temporary. Lots of discussion of this issue on message boards but nothing from Volvo.

NHTSA ID

11640010

Incident

Jan 31, 2025

There are frequent errors with the infotainment. Often times, when backing up—the screen will say “back up camera not available.” Recently, I experienced a problem where the blinkers were not working until I reset the software on the car.

NHTSA ID

11636593

Incident

Jan 16, 2025

Three issues: 1) in One Pedal Drive mode car when fully stopped on level ground and in Drive (at traffic signal) will accelerate rapidly without any driver contact with accelerator pedal. This happens once to several times a month. In the first incident the car entered the intersection before I stopped the car with the brake pedal. In another incident the car did this when a pedestrian was in the crosswalk. If I had not intervened the car may have hit the pedestrian. 2) the lane keep assist function will steer the car TOWARD large vehicles in adjacent lanes. This happens most often on curved sections of highways with large slab sided vehicles such as passenger buses and semi trailers. Collision avoidance requires driver intervention to steer the car away from the adjacent vehicle. 3) the rear view camera display in the vehicle center screen has stability issues. The display either does not start upon placing car in Reverse or lags or crashes during reverse movement.

NHTSA ID

11625663

Incident

Nov 16, 2024

I am writing to bring to your attention a potentially catastrophic accident involving our leased C40 vehicle that happened on [XXX], 3:30pm. (ID [XXX] ) On the above mentioned date, my husband, [XXX] , was parking the C40 in a school parking lot to pick up our grandchild. He experienced an alarming episode of unintended acceleration. Despite his efforts to control the vehicle, the car lurched out of the parking space and rapidly accelerated, veered onto a snowy embankment, ran over a metal post, and stopped only after it rammed into a minivan parked in the school pick-up zone with enough force to push the minivan up on the curb. Regrettably, this accident resulted in injuries to the individual in the minivan who waiting to pick up her preschoolers and required emergency medical attention after the accident. She is presently pursuing legal action against our insurance company for both personal injury and vehicle damage. This accident could have caused far worse injuries since preschoolers were being picked up at this time in the area where the accident occurred. Our C 40 was in one-pedal mode, and during the accident, none of the alarms activated nor did the front emergency braking system work, and the airbag did not deploy even though the car was probably traveling at speeds greater than 10-15 miles/hour upon impact. Disturbingly, upon further investigation, we have uncovered numerous reports indicating similar incidents of unintended acceleration associated with the C40 series. This raises serious concerns about the safety and reliability of this vehicle, not only for us but for all individuals operating or coming into contact with these vehicles. Our insurance company determined that our car was completely totaled, since the EV battery was destroyed by running over the metal post. The driver of the car suffered a concussion and is still suffering from post concussion syndrome 2 months after the accident. She is unable to drive. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C

NHTSA ID

11579426

Incident

Jan 29, 2024

The vehicle started exhibiting steering and acceleration issues on the highway that mimicked high winds. Despite my efforts to keep it in its lane, the car would not respond to my slight adjustments for split seconds, causing a cat and mouse game of projecting it’s next move. The vehicle seemed to be accelerating in a way that made it feel as if is moving diagonally. The steering becomes stiff and unresponsive then releases, like two magnets separating, making only minor incremental changes. This caused the vehicle to swerve around the lane, merely veering into the lanes of a semi truck and several other vehicles. The lane keep assist did not respond or aid as it seemed caused by this very system. Once I reduced speeds to 20-30 MPH from 55-70 MPH, the steering began to make a metal-on-metal grinding noise which the steering turned. Having experienced this, I tested the forward collision very slowly- if it were not for my actions, the vehicle would have hit an object at 10 MPH.

NHTSA ID

11557790

Incident

Nov 29, 2023

After ota software update, the vehicles braking systems (abs, traction control) and driver assistance systems(lane assistance, adaptive cruise control, one pedal driving mode) no longer functioned normally. The vehicle displayed warning information that read “stop safely, brake failure”; on the instrument cluster. This put my family and others at risk by changing the cars behavior by no longer operating in a one pedal mode and disabling common safety features like abs, traction control as well as the more advanced collision avoidance systems. If I had attempted to operate the pilot assistance it could have easily turned into an incident. The car is now at the dealership, and it sounds like a recent ota “failed to sequence properly” which might have damaged the hardware, or possibly just the software needs to be reflashed, but the technician made it sound commonplace from the last update. The vehicle is not available for inspection it is being remedied at the dealership.

NHTSA ID

11526704

Incident

Jun 11, 2023