Volvo's Fixing the Same Cars It Recalled Last Year for the Same Issue

Rear Camera Malfunction

In May 2025, Volvoissued a safety recall for a rear camera issue: Google-based infotainment screens have faulty software that prevents the rear camera feed from being displayed.

What's notable about this recall is that it covers 413,000 cars across most of the Volvo lineup. Not to mention that the production years covered by this recall span over four years, from 2021 to 2025.

Same Issue, New Symptom

It seems the problem is far from resolved, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has just issued a new safety recall. The second recall relates to the same issue from May, bumping up the total affected cars to 413,151 in the U.S.

A second recall advisory was issued because "an additional issue has been found that causes the same symptom." The issue, as described in the NHTSA advisory, is that "the image does not show up during the start of each backing event."

This, of course, is not only a failure of a feature customers paid for but also a potential safety risk for those who rely heavily on the rear backup camera.

In the advisory, though, the NHTSA noted that those affected by the issue can still use other safety features, such as park assist warnings, rear automatic braking, and cross traffic alert, which don't rely on the camera to detect obstacles.

Pending Remedy Program

To address the issue once and for all, the advisory mentioned what Volvo plans to do about it. A remedy program will be implemented where new software will be released at the end of the first quarter of 2026. Once available, Volvo will update all the cars affected by this issue through over-the-air (OTA) updates. It's interesting that the remedy software doesn't yet exist despite the issue occurring around May 2025.

This rear-view camera issue is not exclusive to Volvo. A recent one rolled out for both Audiand Porsche. Audi's total tally of affected units is around 356,000, while Porsche's number is 173,00, adding together with Volvo's 413,151 puts a total of almost a million cars across three brands that have rear camera faults. Yikes.

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