There are 8 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2021 Volvo XC60in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Multiple times, with the Pilot Assist system engaged, the vehicle has pulled me out of my intended travel lane when on a curve, near an on / off ramp, and generally tends to drift from the left to right of the intended lane of travel on straight sections of road. It will drift to the rumble strip and sometimes into the next lane with both hands firmly on the wheel. I find myself fighting the system at these times. When it gets confused, with corners or merges, and on / off ramps, it will abruptly change lanes which is very dangerous. Twice it almost caused an accident. I have had it looked at many times now by Gengras Volvo in East Hartford where I bought the car. I was provided a loaner each time but the car has been in their shop for close to a month over these visits. It happend on one test drive with their repair tech driving the car, so the issue has been verified and recorded by Gengras. Multiple components of the system have been changed out and Volvo has downloaded and reviewed the telemetry twice. Volvo's stance is that the system is functioning correctly, and in times if inclement weather it may not work as intended. Most of my incidents happened on dry roads. Upon researching this on the internet, there are many other owners of Volvos of my year and others complaining of the exact same issues and behavior of the car. I feel it may be a design flaw but in my opinion the system is not safe to use. Volvo went to a completely different system soon after 2021. This was a very expensive option to purchase on the vehicle. We have a similar system in our Acura that works flawlessly on the same roads in any weather condition. I bought this vehicle certified by Volvo with roughly 15K miles for my son to drive when he had just gotten his license as Volvo has an incredible reputation for safely. I do not feel safe with him driving this vehicle as was intended. Latest diagnosis attached, Remainder available from Gengras Volvo, East Hartford CT.
The BLIS warning light has been malfunctioning and only displaying intermittently for several weeks. We were traveling from Florida to Massachusetts when we discovered the problem. We made arrangements for the car to be serviced twice, but they informed us they did not observe the issue during their test drive the first time. The second time they indicated that although the signal only activates intermittently, it is designed to function intermittently. We were informed that it will only activate if our car is going the same speed as the car we are passing or the car that is passing us. They subsequently advised the indicator will not activate if there is a 9 mph difference between the passing vehicle and the car being passed. We previously understood the indicator would be a signal or warning that it is not safe to return to the lane of the cars we are passing or move to the lane of the cars that are passing us. I have videos detailing what we perceive as the problem.
The BLIS warning light has been malfunctioning and only displaying intermittently for several weeks. We were traveling from Florida to Massachusetts when we discovered the problem. We made arrangements for the car to be serviced, but the dealer informed us they did not observe the issue during their test drive and suggested we check the manual to read about BLIS limitations. We did that, but none of the situations applies in our case. The dealer did inform us that they downloaded and reinstalled the appropriate software, however the problem has not been resolved. The passenger side indicator works about 40% of the time and the driver side indicator works about 50% of the time. (I did two manual counts of this while traveling to come up with the stats.) We have another appointment scheduled and will request the mechanic or the service rep take a ride with us in the passenger seat so he or she can observe the problem. There were no messages or warnings that the function was not working properly. The first indication there was an issue came when we actually observed the problem when we were passing a trailer truck on the highway. Although we are able to drive without this feature, it is a problem and could cause and accident.
The car started to move and accelerate with brake pressed. Accident prevention system did not activate itself. It did not display any warnings as it typically do during parking and being close to other cars. The car caused an accident with mild injuries to the driver of the other car, but could have hit a pedestrian or go to the intersection and involved with an accident with a car moving perpendicularly at a higher speed. I am waiting for an investigator from Volvo and Travelers Insurance. Prior to the accident the electronic display of the car started to malfunction. I have a video of the whole accident , but it is in mp4 format and thus i could not upload it. The dashboard camera's microphone picked some electromagnetic interference that increased as we got closer to the accident. Description of the accident: We pulled to a red light behind another car. After not moving for a few seconds, the car started to move on its own, accelerating and hitting the car in the front, continuing to move forward. I was able to put the shifter into the park, stopping it. The road conditions were good. Roads were dry. The sky were cloudy overhead. The vehicle is not drivable ( radiator leak ). The car behaved usually before the accident, except for some reason, for the first time, all the displays dimmed significantly ( it was hard to see anything, and I could not increase brightness ). The screens went back to normal brightness right before the accident. Also, the dashboard camera that recorded the incident, for some reason, picked up audio evidence of electromagnetic interference which was increasing as we were getting closer to the intersection.
Today, my Sensus in the center console, as well as my instrument panel that shows the map between the gauges, went black and switched my drive mode out of ECO, shutting off my adaptive cruise control. Rebooted 2 times before becoming stable. I have a video, but your system doesn't allow me to upload the file type
Today my Sensus in the center console as well as instrument panel that shows the map between the gauges went black and switched my drive mode out of ECO, shutting off my cruise cintrol and turned off my Bluetooth phone call. Rebooted 3 times before becoming stable. This is unsafe and very dangerous. They just did a software update while it was in the dealership recently fixing an unrelated issue for a month. Now I have to try and get a video as they always try to claim they can't duplicate issues... I always have to take videos and recordings now...
This is in regards to Pilot Assist. My husband and I purchased this vehicle in May of 2021. We have encountered several incidents (while using Pilot Assist). The car has directed us to different lanes, steered us to guardrails and other cars and has failed to break when cars have been stopped in front of us. We have taken the car in to our local Volvo dealership multiple times and they have still not corrected the issues. The first time we took the car in to the dealership, we were told (by the mechanic) it’s not a good system and it will never operate correctly. They have checked the sensors and hooked the car up to the computer and said it’s not sending off any codes, therefore there is nothing they can do. They have also test driven the car. The latest test drive, the mechanic left notes saying the car did start to drift in to the other lane but was corrected by the driver. However, he claims this is normal operation.
On two occasions the automatic breaking/city safety engaged on my Volvo XC60 2021 vehicle. In both incidences there was no need for this to happen. First incident (o/a June 25, 2021) occurred while changing lanes. There was traffic but said traffic was a safe distance in front of me. I was startled by the immediate hard stop breaking and safety belts tightening around me. No accident occurred. Only traffic behind me needing to break to avoid rear ending me. Even though shaken I continued on my way and put it behind me. Second incident (Jul 7,2021) occurred in the I95 tunnel heading to Baltimore. There was no vehicle directly in front of me. Only a vehicle vehicle at least 6 car lengths or more ahead. There was a tractor trailer beside me and vehicles behind me. Again the automatic breaking/city safety engaged. The vehicle came to a hard stop. I was shaken and even more frightened by what happened. No accident occurred. However, the vehicles behind me had to immediately break. I can’t express enough how horrifying these incidents were, especially in the I95 tunnel. I called the Volvo dealership where I bought the vehicle and took it in for service the next day. They ran diagnostics on the vehicle. No codes were shown during testing. I am afraid to drive this vehicle. I was told the automatic breaking/city safety cannot be turned off. I don’t want to sound over dramatic but I fear for my life, my family and others. I don’t want this vehicle. I want a vehicle that I have control over. This safety system has failed!! This system puts my life and others in danger!! The only explanation I received from dealer was that this system works on a camera and radar. I was nonchalantly told a glare from a vehicle or road sign could cause this. This all is alarming to me. What is my recourse?!?! I am aware there were problems with the automatic breaking in Volvos in 2019 & 2020. This was said to have been resolved through recalls. Im worried and afraid of Volvo XC60 2021!
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026