8 ms·

Volvo Centum is Dalton Maag's new typeface for Volvo

127 points by ohjeez 10mo ago

chrisandchris 10mo ago
As an owner of a Volco Electric, I am happy that they are focusing on fonts and adding nicknames to cars instead of fixing the countless bugs and issues these cars have regarding software. /s Issues I encountered: - The schedule for AC charging moves by 1 hour when DST changes. So someone thought let's ignore daylight saving times for that. - The app randomly says "could not start heating/cooling", but still started it. - The last few times, AC schedule and power limit were ignored by the car (so charged 16 A but the car said only 14 A allowed) - Randomly, the AC schedule is in a random timezone (like 7-9h lff), but just for one day. - Sound sometimes does not work, like at all. Reboot the center display helps, but takes a couple of minutes. Most days, it feels like they don't drive their own cars. Regardless, I think the font is somewhat nice.
- joezydeco 10mo ago
  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.
- bigstrat2003 10mo ago
  > Sound sometimes does not work, like at all. Reboot the center display helps, but takes a couple of minutes. This one is really bad because it turns out that the turn signal clicks play through the sound system. So when this bug happens, you lose a key bit of feedback from the car until you pull over and restart the system.
mc32 10mo ago
Why does a car company need to develop its own typeface? Is it more cost-effective? Is it to have better control? Is it for branding? (Although it does not appear unique/novel) It’s not like it needs to solve something that isn’t addressed by other typefaces —at least I don’t see it. It’s not a radical departure from existing typefaces.
- exitb 10mo ago
  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.
- matsemann 10mo ago
  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.
- 6SixTy 10mo ago
  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.
  - PunchyHamster 10mo ago
    Maybe if the font wouldn't be so generic that could be true but it's... bland, and uninteresting. Could be replaced by 2 dozen other > as Airbus designed B612 for readability within their glass cockpits. weird it still has problem of O being similar to 0. I guess it's less of a problem in plane instruments but still
- The_President 10mo ago
  It beats the bad dream material of every car using Calibri as the only font. Like what if Mercedes used Comic Sans.
DeepYogurt 10mo ago
I wonder if its open license. Not as impactful as seat belts, but it would be nice to see volvo continue that legacy.
- viraptor 10mo ago
  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_protection_of_typefaces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...
  - omnimus 10mo ago
    I think you are missing the point. The font curves/shapes/beziers are not copyrightable. But the source code and resulting font file is (everywhere). Fonts are licensed just like software (or more like software plugins). So you can take any typeface and trace/redraw it just fine. But you can't use the original font files unless you have proper license.
    - krick 10mo ago
      That's exactly what I was wondering, since I vaguely remember that all this "copyrighted fonts" silly business boils down to the exact source code, and the same shape can be represented a hundred ways. So, what's the big deal, anyway? I never tried to do it, but I'd assume that to make a "different" copy of a font with minimal human intervention must be a trivial computing task by now. Sure, in theory there are subtleties like many possible ligatures and kerning, but I doubt it's really that critical. And it only matters if you only have a picture with so many latter combinations. If you have the actual font file, you have full information anyway. And if so, why people still even bother with all that "font licenses" stuff and such? I'd think the only reason to buy a font by now must be when design studio actually does custom work for you. And the emphasis is on "custom", because it isn't truly "for you": anyone will be effectively free to use it after you use it once anywhere.
      - omnimus 10mo ago
KomoD 10mo ago
Something that would make driving safer is removing that massive tablet. Give me buttons, not a font.
- mikepurvis 10mo ago
  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.
- skrebbel 10mo ago
  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.
  - colechristensen 10mo ago
    Volvo got sold.
    - skrebbel 10mo ago
      Sure but the brand still has value.
MisterTea 10mo ago
That picture of the dashboard displaying "Hello, Liam" is what makes me super happy that I bought a 2022 Honda CR-V with a minimal computerized dashboard. I do not want my car knowing who I am.
- CodingJeebus 10mo ago
  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.
- lawgimenez 10mo ago
  I wonder how the UI will adopt with a longer name.
- RankingMember 10mo ago
  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.)
  - dentalnanobot 10mo ago
    That message is really just confirmation of which driver profile is active. It could say “selected profile: Liam”, but “hello” is just as good, I think.
    - SoftTalker 10mo ago
      It's the difference between the Star Trek computer and HAL-9000
- joezydeco 10mo ago
  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.
annoyingnoob 10mo ago
This is the state of Volvo innovation in 2025, a legible font. Geely has not been good for Volvo. For a giant tablet with no buttons that never belonged on a dashboard. It is common knowledge that buttons are better for drivers. For a company supposedly focused on safety, they make their cars more dangerous for drivers by installing touchscreens and removing buttons.
- omnimus 10mo ago
  You know companies can work on multiple things at time? Especially when its done by contractor like here?
  - annoyingnoob 10mo ago
    Contractors? Is there any talent left at Volvo? What is innovative here? https://www.volvocars.com/us/news/innovation/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/news/innovation/
homeonthemtn 10mo ago
Isn't that just Calibri?
- ryukoposting 10mo ago
  To me it's indistinguishable from IBM Plex Sans, besides a simplified dingus on the lowercase g
  - mikeayles 10mo ago
    Well thanks for that rabbit hole. I was hoping the dingus was the actual term, but sadly not. For anyone needing some pub quiz trivia, a lower case g has the top half which is called the bowl, the bit top right is called the ear, then the bottom is called a loop tail when it's closed, or just a tail when it's open, and is joined by a link.
systemtest 10mo ago
> for the Swedish carmaker Chinese. Volvo is a fully Chinese company that has some people working for them in Sweden. That does not make Volvo a Swedish carmaker. Zeekr also isn't a Swedish carmaker, despite having an R&D center in Gothenburg. A friend recently got a steering pump for his classic Volvo 940 and instead of a European part the official Volvo dealership gave him a Chinese part. Broke in a couple of months. The times that a Volvo would do 500,000 kilometers with basis maintenance is in the past.
- matsemann 10mo ago
  So all American IT companies are really Irish or something, since they're incorporated there?
  - colechristensen 10mo ago
    No the parent companies are always incorporated in the US, usually in Deleware. They funnel all of their foreign profits through various tax shelter subsidiaries in Ireland and similar locations. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Netflix are all incorporated in Deleware, Apple is incorporated in California.
  - tekkk 10mo ago
    Are they owned by the Irish?
  - systemtest 10mo ago
    IKEA is still Swedish despite being incorporated in The Netherlands and having all their "charities" in The Netherlands. For companies of that size, being incorporated somewhere is just an administrative trick to lower taxes. The same way I structured my mortgage to maximise tax returns. Volvo Cars has been bought by Geely. That is not comparable.
- KomoD 10mo ago
  > 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"
tjomk 10mo ago
They should instead focus on their overall software stability and usability. And introduce more physical buttons for climate control. I don't want to click 4 times on a screen while driving in order to enable seat heating.
- dentalnanobot 10mo ago
  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.
  - ryukoposting 10mo ago
    Oh lovely, now my kids can fuck with my seat, assuming the computer can hear one of them over the other one talking about something else. This is a regression in usability compared to luxury cars from 30 years ago.
    - pests 10mo ago
      I guess they don't have hands to press the seat heat button either?
      - vladvasiliu 10mo ago
        They would need some pretty long hands to reach the dashboard if they're in the back seat.
    - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
      This doesn't seem like that big of a problem to me. Yeah, your kids are going to be amused when they find out they can turn on the heated seat. Then you tell them not to do that. If they still do it, then you hand out punishments as appropriate. The kids will decide that the amusement of messing with your heated seat isn't worth the consequences and you go on with life.
    - HPsquared 9mo ago
arjie 10mo ago
That's actually quite a beautiful font. Hard for me to say why, but I feel the "Charging" text feels really balanced and pretty.
- dotancohen 10mo ago
  The "Parked" text as well - it looks near perfect. I actually looked at it and tried to decide how it could look so good.
  - bayindirh 10mo ago
    The font is proportioned very cleanly. Every lower case letter has the same height, and if they need to be higher like an "h", the remaining part of the font except the long stem is again the same height. This creates two well defined lines where the text is present. With the wide stance of the font, plus all the lowercase and uppercase characters occupy almost the same area, text fits into a loose grid. It's a modern, almost mono, minimalist font which reduces the effort required to process it. With some tasteful design choices, it doesn't look bland, either. It's like a well-crafted machine draped in a beautiful paneling. It's as engineering as it gets, but in typography.
    - rityvkjivfgj 10mo ago
      [dead]
daft_pink 10mo ago
Personally, I’m waiting for the crash test results of this new typeface. Just sayin'
Ericson2314 10mo ago
As cars go to shit, I'm more and more glad I live in NYC and mainly use public transportation
- jbverschoor 10mo ago
  At least you don’t have to sit in shit when you’re in a car
  - lomase 10mo ago
    If I wanted to waste years of my lifetime behind a wheeldrive I would be a driver and at least get paid for it.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
linksnapzz 10mo ago
Font is nowhere near as nice as Elston/Volvo Broad; but I suppose it's better for touchscreens. My advice for Volvo: 1.) Go back to actual buttons/dials (with the old font, please) 2.) Fix the comically bad horrifying electronics issues the new models have.
spankalee 10mo ago
The comments here sound like they're from people who don't work in tech or at large companies... The Volvo software design team isn't responsible for fixing electronics bugs, and maybe not even responsible for the presence or lack of physical buttons. They didn't even make the font - it was contracted to a design studio. I seriously doubt this effort distracted too much from fixing the other things people care about. Big companies do multiple things at once.
- 0manrho 10mo ago
  > 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.
  - jibal 10mo ago
    The headline wasn't written by Volvo. Does the font improve safety and is that the motivation, or not? There are comments here like "They should instead focus on their overall software stability and usability", and spankalee is correctly pointing out that it's a false dichotomy.
    - mikestorrent 10mo ago
      I think the font looks lovely. Great touches. I have a Volvo with Android Automotive. And I think touchscreens in cars are trash, and Android particularly so; the latency is horrendous, the rear-view camera only works 50% of the time, everything just feels like the cheapest trash Android tablet from a decade ago. I really wish this car just had physical controls and a double-din Carplay deck from Pioneer or whatever, the experience would be so much better. I honestly believe I'm going to get into an accident in a parking lot due to the horrendous sight lines and unreliable camera.
herpdyderp 10mo ago
This is not a legible font. You can clearly see they did not distinguish uppercase o and 0 (zero) at all. Uppercase i and lowercase L are barely distinguishable. Classic font blunders.
- The_President 10mo ago
  Yikes - I thought it looked fine at first but that's a wide zero.
- techwizrd 10mo ago
  That makes sense for code or technical text, but it is less relevant for car UIs. In an infotainment system you almost never see ambiguous strings where O vs 0 or I vs l matters. Everything is highly contextual, short, and glance-based. These fonts are tuned for distance, motion, glare, and quick recognition, not for reading arbitrary identifiers. If it tested poorly in real driving conditions that would be a real problem, but judging it by programmer font rules feels like the wrong yardstick.
fnord77 10mo ago
looks like yet another ripoff of Helvetica
- omnimus 10mo ago
  If that's your level of nuance then you are totally right.
dotancohen 10mo ago
It's nice, but far from being the most legible font. I notice that the uppercase I is not shown in the example image - and that is one of the hardest letters to get right for a legible font. Nitpicky, the 0 and O are difficult to distinguish. But for the application, this is not a problem. Other than entering (e.g. wifi) passwords, there are no places where one would be mistaken for the other in a passenger vehicle UI.
- bayindirh 10mo ago
  You can see it at https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dqRnTESj6k2pgWFWPnzCTQ-768-80.jpg.webp https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dqRnTESj6k2pgWFWPnzCTQ-768... Yes, it's small, but "l" has a tail, and "i" is very prominent for what it is so while "I" is a column, it's an unmistakable one. I want to see the infamous Turkish Quartet "ıiIİ" in action.
  - dotancohen 10mo ago
    That makes only the lowercase L unambiguous, not the uppercase I )). But at that point, for a font intended for text with context, it is surely nitpicking on my part. My ideal font is a san serif, in which the uppercase I had a small hint of serifs. I live in a fantasy world though, along with my Debian desktop and electric car.
    - bayindirh 10mo ago
      For the intended context, the font is both elegant and unambiguous enough, so I have no qualms with that. I also tend to like sans serif fonts, and my personal favorite is Inter these days. On the other hand, anything technical (terminal, programming, diagrams, etc.) gets Berkeley Mono as the only choice. Sometimes diagrams and labels get DIN though, if I feel fancy that day. I also live in a fantasy world which I spoil myself with a Debian desktop, but an ideal car for me is a hybrid one, which I'm going to get in a near-ish future.
      - dotancohen 10mo ago
PunchyHamster 10mo ago
What an utter waste of money, did manager's nephew design studio needed some work ?
bayindirh 10mo ago
For anyone who thinks legibility in typographic design is a minor issue, please read about highway sign design, Saab's "Night Panel", Germany's license plate font (which is a fruit of another legibility problem), Atkinson HyperLegible fonts, and aircraft dial design studies done in the past. This is important work and is being outsourced (so no heavy load on Volvo employees besides reviewing the work), and I believe this is as important as reducing any distractions during driving. Ford used to have (and may still have) a cockpit/dashboard simulator where they install prototype dashboards and test their mental load by creating "unexpected hazards" in the simulation while tweaking something on the dash. I can operate my car's controls without even looking at them and just by feeling them, while looking at the road. The dials are extremely readable, so I'm not aware that I'm checking them even. We should be targeting this over design, any day. This is important work.
- jjtheblunt 10mo ago
  what car can you operate so? i ask because i had a SAAB 900 model from the early 80s, used, and it was like that. never needed to look away from the road...and it's been gone for 35 years now but oh how i miss its design.
  - bayindirh 10mo ago
    It's not something very young. An 2001 Ford Focus MK-I. However, I recently drove a Ford Puma Hybrid, and that had the same DNA. Great dashboard despite being LCD, good controls, on-wheel cruise and limiter, etc. I can do most of the things without looking away from the road. While I use Apple CarPlay most of the time, it's navigation was good, even. With good directions and readable, clear maps. For all the cars I have rented in the last 2-3 years, Ford still has that DNA the best.
- subscribed 10mo ago
  And what would you say is more conductive to safety -- having to use the giant tablet and READ it to use the temperature/volume controls, or having a physical, tactile buttons and knobs that can be found and operated without ever taking the eyes off the road? If you say that making a font easier to read increases the safety more I think NCAP would like a word.
subscribed 10mo ago
> obsessive pursue of safety > forces use of touchscreen / touch controls for climate control https://www.mycarusermanual.com/volvo/xc60/suv/2020/climate-control--climate-system-controls https://www.mycarusermanual.com/volvo/xc60/suv/2020/climate-... Hmmmmm. Someone lies and I think it's volvo. I'm pressing X For "doubt". - https://safety21.cmu.edu/2025/03/11/physical-buttons-could-make-a-comeback-thanks-to-a-new-safety-regulation/ https://safety21.cmu.edu/2025/03/11/physical-buttons-could-m... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-replace-touch-controls-in-cars-thanks-to-new-euro-ncap-tests https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-re... - https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/study-finds-that-buttons-are-safer-and-more-efficient-than-touchscreens-in-cars/198371/page1/ https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/study-finds-that... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/206867/just-how-bad-are-car-user-interfaces-we-consult-an-airbus-pilot https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/206867/just-how-bad-are...
_yb2s 10mo ago
A good car design shouldn’t require any writing or screens at all. It’s not safe to have drivers read while driving, or to assume the drivers language. The vintage 80s and older Volvos I have owned, where just looking them over is a masterclass in highly usable minimalist design, had almost zero writing anywhere, and all the controls were high quality mechanical switches with clear drawings that made them universally understandable to speakers of any language, and usable without taking your eyes off the road. If Volvo wants to restore their image they should bring back a modern reinterpretation of the iconic 240, with the same level of usability, quality, and design language and absolutely no screens anywhere.
- davidjade 10mo ago
  I was recently in a friend’s Tesla model 3 for the first time and all the buttons on the doors simply had a dash “-“ on them. No information about what they were for at all. Same dash for opening the windows and the opening the door. But no indication of which was which.
  - _yb2s 10mo ago
    If the Volvo 240 is an example of elegant functional and minimalist design, the Tesla Model 3 is something close to the exact opposite of that- almost every aspect is sloppily ill conceived and overly complicated, with essential functions that should be accessible in an instant without taking your eyes off the wheel hidden down menus on a touch screen. Saving a single dollar on a physical button at the expense of your safety.
  - subscribed 10mo ago
    Yeah, great example of the hostile design. This, giant tablet that is the main interface to everything and car being a death trap in case of fire are my three dealbreakers. Well, nazi at the helm being the fourth one.
    - _yb2s 10mo ago
      Dunno why you’re being downvoted but I can’t think of four better reasons to not buy a vehicle, despite them being obvious leaders in EV tech, at least in the past.
ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
Volvo, the company who could not make better cars and instead limits them citing “safety”. But sure, create fonts because reasons. They could try to be better at engineering. https://www.volvocars.com/intl/media/press-releases/5ABB4F355FD13DE7/ https://www.volvocars.com/intl/media/press-releases/5ABB4F35...
- estearum 10mo ago
  Huh? Is the claim that Volvo is incapable of making cars that travel above 180kph?
  - ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
    Yes. Otherwise they would not limit them.
    - estearum 10mo ago
      Lol, but this is just demonstrably false? Volvo has made cars with higher top speeds than that for years?
      - ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
        True, but by limiting them they showed that they can’t keep up with their competition. So they play the safety game. You know… “think of the children” version for cars.
        estearum 10mo ago
        lol, funny guy you Competing on top speed is very very stupid You’re a BMW driver aren’t you?
        throw20251220 10mo ago
        Your funnier
lambdaone 10mo ago
This looks to me like it's "I Can't Believe It's Not Helvetica."

127 points by ohjeez 10mo ago

As an owner of a Volco Electric, I am happy that they are focusing on fonts and adding nicknames to cars instead of fixing the countless bugs and issues these cars have regarding software. /s Issues I encountered: - The schedule for AC charging moves by 1 hour when DST changes. So someone thought let's ignore daylight saving times for that. - The app randomly says "could not start heating/cooling", but still started it. - The last few times, AC schedule and power limit were ignored by the car (so charged 16 A but the car said only 14 A allowed) - Randomly, the AC schedule is in a random timezone (like 7-9h lff), but just for one day. - Sound sometimes does not work, like at all. Reboot the center display helps, but takes a couple of minutes. Most days, it feels like they don't drive their own cars. Regardless, I think the font is somewhat nice.

joezydeco 10mo ago
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.
bigstrat2003 10mo ago
> Sound sometimes does not work, like at all. Reboot the center display helps, but takes a couple of minutes. This one is really bad because it turns out that the turn signal clicks play through the sound system. So when this bug happens, you lose a key bit of feedback from the car until you pull over and restart the system.

mc32 10mo ago

Why does a car company need to develop its own typeface? Is it more cost-effective? Is it to have better control? Is it for branding? (Although it does not appear unique/novel) It’s not like it needs to solve something that isn’t addressed by other typefaces —at least I don’t see it. It’s not a radical departure from existing typefaces.

exitb 10mo ago
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.
matsemann 10mo ago
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.
6SixTy 10mo ago
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.
- PunchyHamster 10mo ago
  Maybe if the font wouldn't be so generic that could be true but it's... bland, and uninteresting. Could be replaced by 2 dozen other > as Airbus designed B612 for readability within their glass cockpits. weird it still has problem of O being similar to 0. I guess it's less of a problem in plane instruments but still
The_President 10mo ago
It beats the bad dream material of every car using Calibri as the only font. Like what if Mercedes used Comic Sans.

DeepYogurt 10mo ago

I wonder if its open license. Not as impactful as seat belts, but it would be nice to see volvo continue that legacy.

viraptor 10mo ago
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_protection_of_typefaces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...
- omnimus 10mo ago
  I think you are missing the point. The font curves/shapes/beziers are not copyrightable. But the source code and resulting font file is (everywhere). Fonts are licensed just like software (or more like software plugins). So you can take any typeface and trace/redraw it just fine. But you can't use the original font files unless you have proper license.
  - krick 10mo ago
    That's exactly what I was wondering, since I vaguely remember that all this "copyrighted fonts" silly business boils down to the exact source code, and the same shape can be represented a hundred ways. So, what's the big deal, anyway? I never tried to do it, but I'd assume that to make a "different" copy of a font with minimal human intervention must be a trivial computing task by now. Sure, in theory there are subtleties like many possible ligatures and kerning, but I doubt it's really that critical. And it only matters if you only have a picture with so many latter combinations. If you have the actual font file, you have full information anyway. And if so, why people still even bother with all that "font licenses" stuff and such? I'd think the only reason to buy a font by now must be when design studio actually does custom work for you. And the emphasis is on "custom", because it isn't truly "for you": anyone will be effectively free to use it after you use it once anywhere.
    - omnimus 10mo ago

KomoD 10mo ago

Something that would make driving safer is removing that massive tablet. Give me buttons, not a font.

mikepurvis 10mo ago
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.
skrebbel 10mo ago
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.
- colechristensen 10mo ago
  Volvo got sold.
  - skrebbel 10mo ago
    Sure but the brand still has value.

MisterTea 10mo ago

That picture of the dashboard displaying "Hello, Liam" is what makes me super happy that I bought a 2022 Honda CR-V with a minimal computerized dashboard. I do not want my car knowing who I am.

CodingJeebus 10mo ago
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.
lawgimenez 10mo ago
I wonder how the UI will adopt with a longer name.
RankingMember 10mo ago
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.)
- dentalnanobot 10mo ago
  That message is really just confirmation of which driver profile is active. It could say “selected profile: Liam”, but “hello” is just as good, I think.
  - SoftTalker 10mo ago
    It's the difference between the Star Trek computer and HAL-9000
joezydeco 10mo ago
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.

annoyingnoob 10mo ago

This is the state of Volvo innovation in 2025, a legible font. Geely has not been good for Volvo. For a giant tablet with no buttons that never belonged on a dashboard. It is common knowledge that buttons are better for drivers. For a company supposedly focused on safety, they make their cars more dangerous for drivers by installing touchscreens and removing buttons.

omnimus 10mo ago
You know companies can work on multiple things at time? Especially when its done by contractor like here?
- annoyingnoob 10mo ago
  Contractors? Is there any talent left at Volvo? What is innovative here? https://www.volvocars.com/us/news/innovation/ https://www.volvocars.com/us/news/innovation/

homeonthemtn 10mo ago

Isn't that just Calibri?

ryukoposting 10mo ago
To me it's indistinguishable from IBM Plex Sans, besides a simplified dingus on the lowercase g
- mikeayles 10mo ago
  Well thanks for that rabbit hole. I was hoping the dingus was the actual term, but sadly not. For anyone needing some pub quiz trivia, a lower case g has the top half which is called the bowl, the bit top right is called the ear, then the bottom is called a loop tail when it's closed, or just a tail when it's open, and is joined by a link.

systemtest 10mo ago

> for the Swedish carmaker Chinese. Volvo is a fully Chinese company that has some people working for them in Sweden. That does not make Volvo a Swedish carmaker. Zeekr also isn't a Swedish carmaker, despite having an R&D center in Gothenburg. A friend recently got a steering pump for his classic Volvo 940 and instead of a European part the official Volvo dealership gave him a Chinese part. Broke in a couple of months. The times that a Volvo would do 500,000 kilometers with basis maintenance is in the past.

matsemann 10mo ago
So all American IT companies are really Irish or something, since they're incorporated there?
- colechristensen 10mo ago
  No the parent companies are always incorporated in the US, usually in Deleware. They funnel all of their foreign profits through various tax shelter subsidiaries in Ireland and similar locations. Meta, Amazon, Alphabet, and Netflix are all incorporated in Deleware, Apple is incorporated in California.
- tekkk 10mo ago
  Are they owned by the Irish?
- systemtest 10mo ago
  IKEA is still Swedish despite being incorporated in The Netherlands and having all their "charities" in The Netherlands. For companies of that size, being incorporated somewhere is just an administrative trick to lower taxes. The same way I structured my mortgage to maximise tax returns. Volvo Cars has been bought by Geely. That is not comparable.
KomoD 10mo ago
> 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"

tjomk 10mo ago

They should instead focus on their overall software stability and usability. And introduce more physical buttons for climate control. I don't want to click 4 times on a screen while driving in order to enable seat heating.

dentalnanobot 10mo ago
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.
- ryukoposting 10mo ago
  Oh lovely, now my kids can fuck with my seat, assuming the computer can hear one of them over the other one talking about something else. This is a regression in usability compared to luxury cars from 30 years ago.
  - pests 10mo ago
    I guess they don't have hands to press the seat heat button either?
    - vladvasiliu 10mo ago
      They would need some pretty long hands to reach the dashboard if they're in the back seat.
  - bigstrat2003 10mo ago
    This doesn't seem like that big of a problem to me. Yeah, your kids are going to be amused when they find out they can turn on the heated seat. Then you tell them not to do that. If they still do it, then you hand out punishments as appropriate. The kids will decide that the amusement of messing with your heated seat isn't worth the consequences and you go on with life.
  - HPsquared 9mo ago

arjie 10mo ago

That's actually quite a beautiful font. Hard for me to say why, but I feel the "Charging" text feels really balanced and pretty.

dotancohen 10mo ago
The "Parked" text as well - it looks near perfect. I actually looked at it and tried to decide how it could look so good.
- bayindirh 10mo ago
  The font is proportioned very cleanly. Every lower case letter has the same height, and if they need to be higher like an "h", the remaining part of the font except the long stem is again the same height. This creates two well defined lines where the text is present. With the wide stance of the font, plus all the lowercase and uppercase characters occupy almost the same area, text fits into a loose grid. It's a modern, almost mono, minimalist font which reduces the effort required to process it. With some tasteful design choices, it doesn't look bland, either. It's like a well-crafted machine draped in a beautiful paneling. It's as engineering as it gets, but in typography.
  - rityvkjivfgj 10mo ago
    [dead]

daft_pink 10mo ago

Personally, I’m waiting for the crash test results of this new typeface. Just sayin'

Ericson2314 10mo ago

As cars go to shit, I'm more and more glad I live in NYC and mainly use public transportation

jbverschoor 10mo ago
At least you don’t have to sit in shit when you’re in a car
- lomase 10mo ago
  If I wanted to waste years of my lifetime behind a wheeldrive I would be a driver and at least get paid for it.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]

linksnapzz 10mo ago

Font is nowhere near as nice as Elston/Volvo Broad; but I suppose it's better for touchscreens. My advice for Volvo: 1.) Go back to actual buttons/dials (with the old font, please) 2.) Fix the comically bad horrifying electronics issues the new models have.

spankalee 10mo ago

The comments here sound like they're from people who don't work in tech or at large companies... The Volvo software design team isn't responsible for fixing electronics bugs, and maybe not even responsible for the presence or lack of physical buttons. They didn't even make the font - it was contracted to a design studio. I seriously doubt this effort distracted too much from fixing the other things people care about. Big companies do multiple things at once.

0manrho 10mo ago
> 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.
- jibal 10mo ago
  The headline wasn't written by Volvo. Does the font improve safety and is that the motivation, or not? There are comments here like "They should instead focus on their overall software stability and usability", and spankalee is correctly pointing out that it's a false dichotomy.
  - mikestorrent 10mo ago
    I think the font looks lovely. Great touches. I have a Volvo with Android Automotive. And I think touchscreens in cars are trash, and Android particularly so; the latency is horrendous, the rear-view camera only works 50% of the time, everything just feels like the cheapest trash Android tablet from a decade ago. I really wish this car just had physical controls and a double-din Carplay deck from Pioneer or whatever, the experience would be so much better. I honestly believe I'm going to get into an accident in a parking lot due to the horrendous sight lines and unreliable camera.

herpdyderp 10mo ago

This is not a legible font. You can clearly see they did not distinguish uppercase o and 0 (zero) at all. Uppercase i and lowercase L are barely distinguishable. Classic font blunders.

The_President 10mo ago
Yikes - I thought it looked fine at first but that's a wide zero.
techwizrd 10mo ago
That makes sense for code or technical text, but it is less relevant for car UIs. In an infotainment system you almost never see ambiguous strings where O vs 0 or I vs l matters. Everything is highly contextual, short, and glance-based. These fonts are tuned for distance, motion, glare, and quick recognition, not for reading arbitrary identifiers. If it tested poorly in real driving conditions that would be a real problem, but judging it by programmer font rules feels like the wrong yardstick.

fnord77 10mo ago

looks like yet another ripoff of Helvetica

omnimus 10mo ago
If that's your level of nuance then you are totally right.

dotancohen 10mo ago

It's nice, but far from being the most legible font. I notice that the uppercase I is not shown in the example image - and that is one of the hardest letters to get right for a legible font. Nitpicky, the 0 and O are difficult to distinguish. But for the application, this is not a problem. Other than entering (e.g. wifi) passwords, there are no places where one would be mistaken for the other in a passenger vehicle UI.

bayindirh 10mo ago
You can see it at https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dqRnTESj6k2pgWFWPnzCTQ-768-80.jpg.webp https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dqRnTESj6k2pgWFWPnzCTQ-768... Yes, it's small, but "l" has a tail, and "i" is very prominent for what it is so while "I" is a column, it's an unmistakable one. I want to see the infamous Turkish Quartet "ıiIİ" in action.
- dotancohen 10mo ago
  That makes only the lowercase L unambiguous, not the uppercase I )). But at that point, for a font intended for text with context, it is surely nitpicking on my part. My ideal font is a san serif, in which the uppercase I had a small hint of serifs. I live in a fantasy world though, along with my Debian desktop and electric car.
  - bayindirh 10mo ago
    For the intended context, the font is both elegant and unambiguous enough, so I have no qualms with that. I also tend to like sans serif fonts, and my personal favorite is Inter these days. On the other hand, anything technical (terminal, programming, diagrams, etc.) gets Berkeley Mono as the only choice. Sometimes diagrams and labels get DIN though, if I feel fancy that day. I also live in a fantasy world which I spoil myself with a Debian desktop, but an ideal car for me is a hybrid one, which I'm going to get in a near-ish future.
    - dotancohen 10mo ago

PunchyHamster 10mo ago

What an utter waste of money, did manager's nephew design studio needed some work ?

bayindirh 10mo ago

For anyone who thinks legibility in typographic design is a minor issue, please read about highway sign design, Saab's "Night Panel", Germany's license plate font (which is a fruit of another legibility problem), Atkinson HyperLegible fonts, and aircraft dial design studies done in the past. This is important work and is being outsourced (so no heavy load on Volvo employees besides reviewing the work), and I believe this is as important as reducing any distractions during driving. Ford used to have (and may still have) a cockpit/dashboard simulator where they install prototype dashboards and test their mental load by creating "unexpected hazards" in the simulation while tweaking something on the dash. I can operate my car's controls without even looking at them and just by feeling them, while looking at the road. The dials are extremely readable, so I'm not aware that I'm checking them even. We should be targeting this over design, any day. This is important work.

jjtheblunt 10mo ago
what car can you operate so? i ask because i had a SAAB 900 model from the early 80s, used, and it was like that. never needed to look away from the road...and it's been gone for 35 years now but oh how i miss its design.
- bayindirh 10mo ago
  It's not something very young. An 2001 Ford Focus MK-I. However, I recently drove a Ford Puma Hybrid, and that had the same DNA. Great dashboard despite being LCD, good controls, on-wheel cruise and limiter, etc. I can do most of the things without looking away from the road. While I use Apple CarPlay most of the time, it's navigation was good, even. With good directions and readable, clear maps. For all the cars I have rented in the last 2-3 years, Ford still has that DNA the best.
subscribed 10mo ago
And what would you say is more conductive to safety -- having to use the giant tablet and READ it to use the temperature/volume controls, or having a physical, tactile buttons and knobs that can be found and operated without ever taking the eyes off the road? If you say that making a font easier to read increases the safety more I think NCAP would like a word.

subscribed 10mo ago

> obsessive pursue of safety > forces use of touchscreen / touch controls for climate control https://www.mycarusermanual.com/volvo/xc60/suv/2020/climate-control--climate-system-controls https://www.mycarusermanual.com/volvo/xc60/suv/2020/climate-... Hmmmmm. Someone lies and I think it's volvo. I'm pressing X For "doubt". - https://safety21.cmu.edu/2025/03/11/physical-buttons-could-make-a-comeback-thanks-to-a-new-safety-regulation/ https://safety21.cmu.edu/2025/03/11/physical-buttons-could-m... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-replace-touch-controls-in-cars-thanks-to-new-euro-ncap-tests https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/207666/buttons-could-re... - https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/study-finds-that-buttons-are-safer-and-more-efficient-than-touchscreens-in-cars/198371/page1/ https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/study-finds-that... - https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/206867/just-how-bad-are-car-user-interfaces-we-consult-an-airbus-pilot https://www.evo.co.uk/car-technology/206867/just-how-bad-are...

_yb2s 10mo ago

A good car design shouldn’t require any writing or screens at all. It’s not safe to have drivers read while driving, or to assume the drivers language. The vintage 80s and older Volvos I have owned, where just looking them over is a masterclass in highly usable minimalist design, had almost zero writing anywhere, and all the controls were high quality mechanical switches with clear drawings that made them universally understandable to speakers of any language, and usable without taking your eyes off the road. If Volvo wants to restore their image they should bring back a modern reinterpretation of the iconic 240, with the same level of usability, quality, and design language and absolutely no screens anywhere.

davidjade 10mo ago
I was recently in a friend’s Tesla model 3 for the first time and all the buttons on the doors simply had a dash “-“ on them. No information about what they were for at all. Same dash for opening the windows and the opening the door. But no indication of which was which.
- _yb2s 10mo ago
  If the Volvo 240 is an example of elegant functional and minimalist design, the Tesla Model 3 is something close to the exact opposite of that- almost every aspect is sloppily ill conceived and overly complicated, with essential functions that should be accessible in an instant without taking your eyes off the wheel hidden down menus on a touch screen. Saving a single dollar on a physical button at the expense of your safety.
- subscribed 10mo ago
  Yeah, great example of the hostile design. This, giant tablet that is the main interface to everything and car being a death trap in case of fire are my three dealbreakers. Well, nazi at the helm being the fourth one.
  - _yb2s 10mo ago
    Dunno why you’re being downvoted but I can’t think of four better reasons to not buy a vehicle, despite them being obvious leaders in EV tech, at least in the past.

ExoticPearTree 10mo ago

Volvo, the company who could not make better cars and instead limits them citing “safety”. But sure, create fonts because reasons. They could try to be better at engineering. https://www.volvocars.com/intl/media/press-releases/5ABB4F355FD13DE7/ https://www.volvocars.com/intl/media/press-releases/5ABB4F35...

estearum 10mo ago
Huh? Is the claim that Volvo is incapable of making cars that travel above 180kph?
- ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
  Yes. Otherwise they would not limit them.
  - estearum 10mo ago
    Lol, but this is just demonstrably false? Volvo has made cars with higher top speeds than that for years?
    - ExoticPearTree 10mo ago
      True, but by limiting them they showed that they can’t keep up with their competition. So they play the safety game. You know… “think of the children” version for cars.
      - estearum 10mo ago
        lol, funny guy you Competing on top speed is very very stupid You’re a BMW driver aren’t you?
        throw20251220 10mo ago
        Your funnier

lambdaone 10mo ago

This looks to me like it's "I Can't Believe It's Not Helvetica."