> The comments here sound like they're from people who don't work in tech or at large companies...

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.

> Volvo is a fully Chinese company that has some people working for them in Sweden

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"

Was Volvo an American car company when it was owned by Ford?

So all American IT companies are really Irish or something, since they're incorporated there?

It's technically not wrong to describe Volvo as Swedish. It was founded in Sweden, the main office remains in Sweden, but it is fully owned by China.

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.

Huh? Volvo is a subsidiary. Almost every legacy car company is a subsidiary of some kind. Lamborghinis aren’t German because they’re owned by Volkswagen group and often have Audi parts and Jeep isn’t Dutch because they’re owned by Stellantis.

My anecdata on a 2019 Volvo xc40 is that it’s my most reliable car ever? Made in china too

I thought Volvo was publicly traded. Had to look it up.

Volvo Group - sells trucks - publicly traded - Swedish

Volvo Cars - sells cars - not publicly traded - 100% owned by Geely (Chinese)

Volvo Cars ≠ Volvo Group

New Volvos let you “hey Google, turn on my seat heating”. I wish it wasn’t google, but the voice interface is great while driving.

Volvo tries to assign profiles (and Google logins) to each key so the idea is that the car is set up for you when you enter. They don't fully have it right (profiles only swap when the car is unlocked), so it's kind of pointless at the moment.

Just because it doesn’t have a HUD on your dashboard doesn’t mean your vehicle isn’t tied to your personal identity in myriad ways. Almost all cars ship with sophisticated telematics systems nowadays.

I wonder how the UI will adopt with a longer name.

I'm just sick of interfaces pretending to be human. Be an unabashed interface, just show me the gauges or weather or anything functional on boot-up. (Unless you're KITT- KITT can talk to me.)

> Not as impactful as seat belts, but it would be nice to see volvo continue that legacy

I'm afraid that legacy is long lost, Volvo is a very different company today than it used to be.

Unless they're covered by a design patent, it's a free for all anyway in many places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...

Concur. In fact I feel like it's painfully off-brand for Volvo to go all-in on touchscreens. They were so proud about inventing the 3-point safety belt that they embedded it into their logo for decades. Volvo has always been about safety and to-the-point functionality. If any brand could get an enthusiastic following (and a productive marketing campaign) for de-emphasizing screens and emphasizing buttons, it's them.

I'm the owner of a 2020 Volvo V60 that has been at Waterloo Volvo since March of this year, racking up an increasingly terrifying bill of various parts and wiring harnesses all ordered one after the other from Sweden.

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.

Part of making a typeface is making it subconsciously part of the brand. Though there's precedent for making a functional font in this use case as Airbus designed B612 for readability within their glass cockpits.

Half the value proposition of car culture is to symbol that you're better off than your neighbor etc. Of course branding is important, otherwise you would just buy the competitor's that also give you a couch with 4 wheels.

You get to decide which car you buy every X years. When the time comes, you pick one of the brands from the group you consider notable. Established brands do a lot of things to stay within that group. This one worked - we talk about it.

Agreed. The software situation seems to be getting more confusing by the month. AAOS builds have suddenly jumped from 3.x to 4.x and the release notes say "various fixes". Um, like what? Was there a major update to something or not?

I'm still on a AAOS 2.x release from 2023 and will not upgrade at this point.