How Does the Polestar 2 Electric Car's Safety Tech Stack Up?
Some of these assistance features work better than others.
Polestar brings a lot of attention to the active safety features of the all-electric 2024 Polestar 2 fastback. Using cheeky labels peppered around the stylish four-door car’s exterior, the automaker not only calls out the 2’s 82-kWh battery with a sticker on the lower portion of the front doors, it also affixes the words “mid-range radar” beneath the camera located underneath the lip of the hood. As we’ve been piling on the miles in our long-term 2024 Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor, testing the capabilities of our sporty sedan’s advanced safety tech has been a priority. Here’s what we think of the various standard and optional features that are employed by our far-driving fastback.
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How Many Cameras, Radars, and Sensors?
While most automakers take great lengths to hide their vehicles’ radar arrays, the Polestar 2 celebrates its functionality with that label up front. The Polestar 2 certainly has the hardware to back up its boast, with three radar units, five cameras, and twelve ultrasonic sensors minding cars, cyclists, pedestrians, and other obstacles in the surrounding environment. Our 2’s “grille” panel houses Polestar’s SmartZone, within which the camera and heated radar are situated. Polestar equips every 2 with a what it and Volvo call an “Active Safety Domain Master” computer that processes inputs from all of these units placed around the sedan’s exterior.
Which Features are Most Useful?
These cameras, radars, and sensors enable features we use every day. Let’s start with the most useful; the 360-degree camera view. It's an unofficial policy to back into parking spots at the MotorTrend office, so we frequently rely on these cameras to make sure we’re perfectly situated between the lines and parked straight. The cameras come in handy when pulling up to a charging station as well, with proximity sensors helping you pull as close as possible to make the plug reach the Polestar 2’s port.
Blind-spot monitoring is another highlight of the Polestar 2’s daily driving experience. Lights on the frameless mirror indicate when there’s a car in your blind spot. When you use the turn signal, the world’s most pleasant chirp gives an audio reminder to wait until there’s a gap. Although this seems like a minor part of the Polestar 2’s overall character, it’s one of the most common tones that gets play time in the cabin since we’re constantly threading Los Angeles’ heavy traffic.
We’ve also made heavy use of adaptive cruise control, available through the Pilot pack, on our road trips. Activated with one press of a button on the left spoke of the steering wheel, the Polestar 2 locks into whatever speed it’s traveling at the moment. Tapping the up or down arrows adds or subtracts five mph from the set velocity, and holding down the arrows scrolls one mph at a time. The distance following control keeps a comfortable interval between the Polestar 2 and the leading vehicle even at the tightest setting. We’ve been impressed with how natural the deceleration feels and how quickly the Polestar 2 automatically gets back up to speed when there’s open road ahead.
Another Pilot pack perk is the LED front fog lights with cornering functionality. At low speeds, lighting elements at the front of the car activate in accordance with the steering wheel turning. This feature only works below 19 mph, but it’s handy in dark parking garages or on neighborhood streets at night.
These Active Safety Features Actively Frustrate Us
We’ve largely been satisfied with the Polestar 2’s safety technology, but there are a few quirks that we wish the automaker would update. When you use the right arrow on the steering wheel to activate Polestar’s PilotAssist, which comes alongside adaptive cruise control as part of the Pilot pack, the Polestar 2 begins to automatically center itself within the lane using the cameras and radar units. For the most part, the Polestar 2 tracks straight, but we’ve noticed it wandering off-line and have frequently needed to make corrections with the steering wheel. This tendency worsens when there’s a freeway exit.
Reverse automatic braking is a handy feature, but its effects are jarring when applied incorrectly. We’ve experienced a misfire of this safety system making a tight maneuver in a driveway. In one instance, we were inching backwards toward a stone-lined planter bed and the Polestar 2 yanked to a halt with emergency beeping noises clanging over the speakers. I hopped out of the car in a panic, thinking that we somehow smacked into the rocks only to find there was plenty of space left. This experience is corroborated by fellow Buyer’s Guide editor Alex Leanse’s testimony of the Polestar 2 doing the same thing while he was reversing toward some foliage in his home driveway.
Do the Pros Outweigh the Cons?
For all of our frustrations with the handful of issues that have arisen from the Polestar 2’s active safety tech, the positives improve our daily life far more often than the negatives cause us distress. They crop up infrequently enough that they don’t cause everyday frustration. Still, we’d love to see Polestar amend these bugs during one of its regular over-the-air updates, as some of the automatic braking incidents have caused genuine panic. In the meantime, we’ll have to keep positioning the car carefully with the knowledge that certain scenarios are more likely to provoke a phantom emergency stop.
More On Our Long-Term 2024 Polestar 2 Single Motor:
Billy Rehbock's passion for cars started with his dad's Volkswagen Jetta GLX, his mom's Cabriolet, and his own Hot Wheels collection. A USC graduate with a Master of Science in journalism, he's an associate editor for the MotorTrend Buyer's Guide and covers everything from sports cars to SUVs.
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