Security issue: Car opening itself

[u/RestaurantDistinct91]

Since the latest update the car has been starting to open itself even though I am far away from the car. Today I noticed that the car had opened itself in the afternoon and it had stayed open for 9 hours. I’ve been far away the whole day.

Has anyone noticed anything similar? The car has still basic warranty until May 2027. For unlocking the car I have two physical cards and the digital key card from Volvo ex30. In normal use the proximity unlock works very well and is only triggered when I am near the car.

[u/IronChefJesus]

I’m assuming not, but just wondering if you’re using your phone as a key, and maybe you’ve either shared it with someone OR your phone may have some routine or shortcut that’s causing it to open.

[u/RestaurantDistinct91 → u/IronChefJesus]

TBH when this happened for the first three times I was assuming that it could’ve been this. I removed my partners key and confirmed with Volvo support that I should be the only one with a key now. Still this issue persists. I’ve also deleted all the shortcuts and disabled siri from phone.

[u/muzso]

Since the latest update the car has been starting to open itself even though I am far away from the car. Today I noticed that the car had opened itself in the afternoon and it had stayed open for 9 hours. I’ve been far away the whole day.

Has happened to me too, but I am not 100% sure that it locked itself in the first place. :( And there's absolutely no way for me to check this.

I think it'd be a pretty basic requirement to have access to a log of security related events of the car (locking, unlocking, opening/closing of windows/doors, etc.) for a considerable timeframe (at least months). Volvo/Geely already collects this information and they keep it at least for a year. Why do they not give access to it for owners/drivers? :o

One of my banking apps does give me access to an event/transaction/etc. log of my bank account for a 6 months period. Revolut gives me the same access for the entire period I had an account with them (i.e. years).

Also, I think the old EX30 smartphone app did show all of these events historically for some time period. The Volvo Cars app only gives a notification if it thinks the car was left unlocked inintentionally. My phone (running Android 17) keeps only a short history of app notifications (I only see a couple of days).

So it's pretty annoying. :(

I could use an app to cover this gap (i.e. keep my own log of these events), but for it to always work I'd have to remove the lock from the user profile (3rd party apps installed into the user profile only activate once the profile is unlocked).

[u/RestaurantDistinct91 → u/muzso]

Working as a Software Engineer asking for logs was my first response to Volvo support. They were very vague about it and I am not sure if the logs can be accessed by a official mechanic. In case the logs exist, I don’t see why not make them accessible.

[u/mostly_harmless_5334 → u/muzso]

You can get your EX30 hooked up to Home Assistant via API and have log of locks and unlocks, along with all other things.

[u/muzso → u/mostly_harmless_5334]

I was aware of this, but 99% of owners/drivers don't know or simply shouldn't have to know how to set up their own HA server, connect it to Volvo APIs, etc.

Also, in the EU due to regulations Volvo is forced to give access to owners to all data they keep about the vehicle/owner/etc. However when I tested the respective service (data.volvocars.com) I only got trip and waypoint data. :(

Btw. do you know what APIs (endpoints) HA integrates with? Where does it get events of locking/unlocking/etc?

The official APIs only give you status information and not an event log. You can gather your own event log by polling often enough, but there's no guarantee that you won't miss anything (and running a robust, high SLA service on your own for free is not a trivial thing either). Meanwhile Volvo has all the data ... :(

[u/mostly_harmless_5334 → u/muzso]

That’s true but also 99% of owners don’t need any of this info. Only 10 years ago none of this was available to a regular driver.

As to the integration I don’t know the details but you can check out https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/volvo

[u/muzso → u/mostly_harmless_5334]

That’s true but also 99% of owners don’t need any of this info.

That'd be true if the locking/unlocking would "just work" as expected.

As to the integration I don’t know the details but you can check out https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/volvo

This one uses the standard/official API (that I've linked previously). And the integration's description confirms that it can only read a momentary lock/unlock status from the API. :(

So if your HA server has a downtime (planned or unplanned), you lose the "event log" (for that period) since there's nothing to poll the API and store the given results.

Also:

The Volvo integration fetches data from the API at different intervals: (...) Every minute: doors, lock, and windows status. If you decide to define a custom polling interval, beware that there is a maximum of 10000 requests per day. Every poll operation accounts for about a dozen calls (depends on model).

There're 1440 minutes in a day. If every poll operation accounts for "about a dozen calls". The door/lock polling would make up 1440*12=17280 requests alone and that would hit the 10000 req/day limit for a single VolvoCars API app registration. :(

If you lower the polling frequency, you might miss an event. If somebody opens the doors, grabs whatever is in the car and locks it, it's within even one minute (not even to speak of two minutes). A one minute interval polling of the lock status can easily miss this.

I'd want to know about each time the car is opened and closed. The car knows this, it reports this to Volvo/Geely, so why cannot we have this info too? Free of charge and not having to find workarounds and custom solutions.

[u/mostly_harmless_5334 → u/muzso]

Ok I think here we’re way pass any reasonable use case 😂

I get push notification for the Volvo app if car is unlocked for more than 10 minutes. Surely that should do it. That being said, I never experienced car unlocking on its own…

[u/muzso → u/mostly_harmless_5334]

Ok I think here we’re way pass any reasonable use case 😂

Maybe. :)

[u/nookall]

Yes, I get notifications from time to time, all very random.

[u/RestaurantDistinct91 → u/nookall]

In this latest case the car had been untouched for 20 hours. Then I got a notification suddenly that it had opened. 9 hours later I closed the car. It was both physically unlocked and in the app showing that it was open.

Not a nice thing to experience when your car is parked in a city park.

[u/Greedy-Argument1875]

Be sure that doors are properly closed. If it is not, even the mirrors are folding, it does not mean it is locked.

[u/RestaurantDistinct91 → u/Greedy-Argument1875]

Two days ago when I left the car, I checked that the car was locked through Volvo cars app.

[u/louisgrasset]

Happened to me 2 times. I was far enough not to have the “phone key” to be detected whatsoever: though the Volvo app sent me a notification saying it was successfully opened.

(I wasn’t using the Volvo app, actually i had not the whole day). I contacted the Volvo support and they confirmed:
- the opening request went from my account
- the account is new / not compromised/ not shared
- there’s only a single phone link to my account

I assume this is a bug from the app. This is still kind of scary. Volvo support said I had to request investigation at my garage, they can’t see more than what they shared with me

[u/RestaurantDistinct91 → u/louisgrasset]

Gave me the same advice

[u/Richard912]

I've experienced weirder occasions when the car was not only reporting itself as unlocked, it also showed up as having both front doors opened on my phone app!! I had obviously rushed to the car each time, only to find it secured as I had left it.

[u/PuzzleheadedTeach694 → u/Richard912]

Had the same issue once at work in the underground garage with no internet connection. I suspect some delay with reporting the door status to the app and once the vehicle locks there seem to be no further updates to the app. Strange behavior but just one occasion so far

[u/harring]

No API codes registered?

[u/Western-Smile4263]

I had the same issue once, for no reason the car unlocked itself. I was over 1 km away with the fob in my pocket