I'm a new C40 Rechage owner.

I think anyone who has tried it might find the Steering Assist mode of Pilot Assist just a little less than completely confidence inspiring. In many situations it feels like a 15-year-old is at the wheel, and the more traffic there is the more one might feel more than a bit nervous.

It would sure be nice to just be able to turn it off in a stressful situation, while keeping the adaptive cruise engaged, using a steering wheel button. That is exactly what the original designers thought, and that is what the left and right arrows were for on the left side of the steering wheel. Left arrow turned steering mode off, and right back on again. I think it still works this way on the Hybrid models, like the XC90 Recharge. Our XC40 Recharge brothers and sisters enjoyed this capability until the June, 2021 software update (version 1.5). Then for some benighted reason Volvo decided to place the control on the Driving section of the center console. That change disabled those arrow buttons, which now have no function at all.

I frankly can't imagine what Volvo was thinking. The new center console control can be changed while driving, but imagine taking your eyes off the road to do this in a somewhat stressful steering situation. The only choice is to disengage Pilot Assist altogether, and maybe then fumble with the center console to turn off Steering Assist. This always involves taking eyes off the road to make the change. How could a company that prides itself on safety believe that is a better choice?

Perhaps they are trying to make Steering Assist so difficult to use that owners will stop using it altogether.

The XC40 Recharge forum has a discussion about this here:
Steering Assist control removed from steering wheel

The discussion contains a poll on how owners feel about removal of the control. I think the vote is currently something like 67 to 2 in favor of putting it back the way it was. If you are on that forum, please take the time to make your opinion known in the poll. Or make your opinion known here. Maybe we can get someone at Volvo to listen to owners.

 

Is this why the left and right buttons on the CC don't work? Yes, this is awful. It's so annoying having the "top" trim on our C40 with buttons that do nothing. And I can't understand why these work on the XC40 and not our C40's! We used to have an XC40, but it didn't have PPA at all, which is the main reason we sold it. We couldn't buy the feature after we bought it even though it probably had the hardware for it...

Also, I tried various voice commands to toggle it on our C40 to no avail. Having to go into the menu while driving to turn it off and on is absurd! The fact it doesn't do a good job is why I want to turn it off frequently, so I almost always have it disabled. Lame.

I'm not on that forum, but I didn't know about it.

Thanks!

 

Yup, that's why. The buttons have stopped working on the XC40 Recharge as well after software update 1.5, June of 2021.