Polestar 2 Where Its Google OS is Star-Trek-Meets-Car-Trek

Polestar Diary Day 3: Today was mini-roadtrip day. I gathered up handsome Jake, who knows little about cars because he is a muso. Although the two spheres of knowledge are not mutually exclusive, in this case the disconnect was a subject of much amusement.

I have driven thousands of cars, with hundreds of interfaces ranging from the quaintly primitive, to the stupefyingly complex. As cars greedily consume the technical prowess of its white-coated creators, the back-of-house functions now mimic that of a fighter jet.

The connection between the computers and the pilot have blurred, with the once humble audio system now being redefined as “Command Central.” Drive-by-wire is now aided by sensors both internal and external, using AI to make split second life-changing decisions.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself.

As I gaze into our future, I see predictions made by Jules Verne and Gene Roddenberry coming true. Not only is our technology more complex, but it is more beautiful. Like a Borg assimilation, controls seem like they’re from the future in an age where thought is actioned by machine.

Handsome Jake and I wended our way up the M1 with the Polestar gulping down the juice like a Seven on a bender. The cockpit is something from which you expect Picard to utter, “make it so.”

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ABOVE: 2022 Polestar 2 and its Google Table and operating system

There is no start button on a Polestar. You get in and as it senses a bum in the driver’s seat, it readies itself for warp. The gear lever looks like the handle of a Klingon weapon, and the rear has an array like a warp nacelle. As the car wakes or goes to sleep, a sweep of red light signals to onlookers that Polestar 2 is a force of considerable reckoning. Although that looks more like KITT, I’m sure I could also find a Star Trek reference if I really tried.

This brings us to Google and its integration of human and machine. Until now, Google has allowed humans to cleverly search a hive mind, make phone calls, and track our lives to the point of obsession. To control Polestar, google does the lot. To get the full effect, create a profile and sign into to your accounts. From then on, your car is part of the hive mind.

It knows your preferences, and you can ask it to take you home using Google maps. You might be feeling a trifle testy in town traffic, so ask it to play ambient relaxing music via Spotify. If you’re feeling warm, tell Google. Better still, tell it to select a specific temperature for one or both of the front zones. This isn’t an overlay of yet another allegedly intelligent 2000’s interface over a clunky 90’s system, Google is in fact, the system.

The portrait tablet looks like your phone or Android device, with intuitive quadrants of installed apps represented by their now-familiar icons. A swipe up from the bottom reveals climate settings should they be hidden, and a tap at the top switches function.

Profiles can be added for multiple Polestar 2 drivers, and are linked to the keys and a phone app. Deleting the profile also deletes the Google settings secreted therein. If you have an iPhone as I do, you can also ask Siri to do your bidding because as yet, CarPlay is a way off. It will come with the next Google OS update but switching between assistants is as easy as remembering which voice command to use.

As is normal for tech having even the slightest of passing acquaintance with me, my Polestar’s Google developed a personality of their own, becoming dazed and confused, refusing to lock on to a satellite. While most function comes through an inbuilt LTE sim, navigation and its many wonders, require help from a little man in space.

Bereft, I rang my Polestar rep who told me to turn it off and turn it back on again. This clichéd suggestion is the go-to for most electronics, and as always, actually worked. The reset button is a hidden function of the rear heater key (of all things) and after a moment of pressing/holding, the map in the driver’s binnacle pirouetted like a demented Pavloa. After several high-speed spins, the map righted itself having finally locked on to a beam. Of all the times not to have had phone camera in hand.

The week so far has brought surprise-and-delight up the wazoo, and I can’t wait to see what marvels await. So far, drifting silently between half-impulse and warp 9.9 has been a revelation. Possibly the greatest satisfaction was seeing the smile and amazement on the face of handsome Jake.

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