2022 Polestar 2 Window & Wiper Problems

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2022 Polestar 2 owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

What failed? There have been a couple instances of the screen (IHU) rebooting while just driving down the road. This temporarily disables the HVAC (including defroster) and turn signal sounds. It is unclear which ADAS functions are impacted. It is available for inspection upon request, if you visit me in NC. How was safety put at risk? Disabling the defroster could cause the windshield to fog up quickly, and the distraction of the IHU rebooting could cause the driver to focus on the issue instead of the road. Safety related ADAS functions may also have been impacted, that is unclear. This has not been confirmed or reproduced by a third party, it has only happened a couple of times and is fairly random. If I had to guess it's an OOM (out of memory) condition in the IHU caused by an under-spec'd IHU plus a memory leak somewhere. Has it been inspected by anybody else? Nope. …

On 12/27, I was on I-5 North driving up during daytime. Auto-headlight and daytime running lights stopped working. I noticed from the reflection that I don't have ANY headlight (even the DRL) when the lights were on AUTO mode. Also, when I look at my driver display, I noticed the green headlights icon was completely gone! My wife and I were able to capture this on video: https://youtu.be/z9HAa2Yo-6I (tried all modes - you can see the dash) https://youtu.be/WX73OU4hBy4 (both interior and exterior view to see the DRLs are actually not on when on AUTO) In addition, during the same drive, I noticed that the "Triple turn signal" feature stopped working. Normally, when I slightly move the blinker stalk before it catches the detent, the turn signal will flash exactly 3 times. However, during this drive, it only flashes exactly once. Video here: https://youtu.be/qU0TGnBko1I

The rear-view camera continues to be an issue and is worse with each software update that is installed, in an attempt to fix the camera. When entering the car and shifting into reverse, the rear camera does not show and states 'unavailable'. This issue has persisted for over a year. Given the small rear window and potential blind spots, the rear camera is an important safety tool. In addition, the latest fix has resulted in sensors not making an audible sound about 50% of the time (rear cross traffic, parking sensors, etc.). The issue with the camera not working started when the system was updated from android automotive operating system. Polestar continues to try and 'fix' this issue by removing features in the system to free up memory in the computer system, however this is not a software issue. This is clearly a hardware issue that needs to be addressed.

Backup camera can fail to start when putting car in reverse. When backup camera does start, it can also suddenly stop during active reversal so that the driver is then reversing with zero visibility. All car audio can stop or suddenly fail to start in the car. This impacts sensors, blind spot warnings, etc. Driver is reliant and conditioned to hearing these sensors for lane keeping, safety, turn signal sounds, etc and without this - driver can dangerously assume there are no issues. Issues have been reproduced and confirmed by dealer, dealer has attempted to fix this and there have been multiple recalls by NHTSA as well - but nothing has fixed this issue yet. No warnings, no messages before any failures.

When backing up the car, the rear camera often does not work. It gives a message that says "camera not available." It happens sometimes, and when it doesn't happen, the camera will lag and freeze up. It makes it dangerous for cars and pedestrians behind me, as I lose access to the camera. The problem has not been taken to the dealer. There were prior recalls on the car due to this, and were claimed to have been fixed via OTA software update. However, I am on the latest software and this still occurs. It has not been inspected by anyone, and there are no warning lamps or anything.

When placing car into reverse the backup camera does not work and instead displays message "Camera is temporarily unavailable" Car was taken into Polestar service 5/24/24 for issue and IHU was reset and was told that issue is from a software glitch that will be addressed by an OTA update but no ETA. Problem returned less than a week later. Contacted customer service and told same thing but no estimate when a fix will be released. This is not acceptable and car is unsafe to back up due to blind spots from the cars design.

Backup camera routinely disappears with message that Backup camera is unavailable when car is started, which is when car is most commonly reversed. Processor is not adequate to perform the various tasks associated with car start-up and to simultaneously provide backup camera imagery. This happens approximately 80% of the time when the car is started and put in reverse. Car has most recent software installed. This continues to occur even after software update that was supposed to resolve this.

When reversing the car, the backup camera is not available. So when I am backing up the car, the camera cutting out means that I can't see if there are any pedestrians or cars behind me. It has not been taken to a service center, as the nearest one is not currently possible to visit for me. It has not been inspected by manufacturer or anyone else, and there were no warning lamps or symptoms prior.

While driving, the center display screen has shut off and remains to be unfunctional. This screen is the primary way any collision warnings and rear view video. This car is not driveable and extremely unsafe without the display screen as there is almost no rear view visibility without it. The rear view video did not always work beforehand either, but this makes it completely unfunctional.

The car's rear camera freezes up for a few second and then blacks out intermittently. An error code even appears, "Camera is temporarily unavailable." I am terrified that one of my kids (or someone else) is going to run behind the car and I won't realize it because the camera is frozen. I know other owners are experiencing this, too, and it's only a matter of time until it kills someone.

Window & Wiper complaints in other 2 years