An in-depth review of the Polestar 3 reveals a compelling electric SUV marred by a frustrating user experience and a failure to fully deliver on the software-defined vehicle (SDV) promise. Despite a great driving experience and attractive design, the car's clunky software, missing core features, and slow update cadence detract from its appeal.
When I first drove the Polestar 3 at the launch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, it was September 2024. Biden was the president, Francis was the pope, and core features of the SUV were still labeled as 'Coming Soon' via an over-the-air-update. Eighteen months later, only one of those statements is still true. And it's a damning indictment of the Polestar, an SUV I love driving but struggled to live with.
Simple features—like the ability to adjust the volume of your music or skip a track using the steering wheel—are still missing. The user experience remains clunky and requires too many steps for too many functions. Eight of the 12 buttons on the steering wheel are completely useless 99% of the time. And virtually all of the other buttons have been culled, even down to the driver-seat rear window switches. Instead, there's an infuriating toggle switch, a callous way to shave a few pennies on a test car that stickered for over $93,000. It's not just that these choices are frustrating in and of themselves. It's that they're fundamentally struggling to deliver on what should be this car's core selling point. Let me explain. (Full disclosure: Polestar loaned me a 2025 Polestar 3 Dual Motor with the Performance Pack for this review. The car arrived with a full battery, and was returned with a less-full battery.) A True Software Defined EV When the Polestar 3 and its mechanical twin, the Volvo EX90, arrived in 2024, they were heralded as the first true European-developed software-defined vehicles (SDVs) on sale in the U.S. That's no small feat. The SDV revolution is massive and massively underestimated. Ford's CEO recently claimed it's a bigger transition for the auto industry than the transition to EVs, and I think he's absolutely right. Because you need to know how to make great SDVs to make great EVs. An SDV has a software stack owned and updated directly by the manufacturer, not a variety of third-party vendors. It sounds simple, but it's a huge value unlock. It means you can drastically reduce the amount of wiring in the car, allow systems that were previously isolated to interact together, and update everything from the drive units to the door locks over-the-air. The benefits of a true SDV are why Teslas have slicker software, more frequent updates, lower costs, and more polished user interfaces than legacy EVs. And Volvo and Polestar really were early to this game; Mercedes and BMW are just now launching their first SDVs in this market. Traditional cars use dozens of electronic control units (ECUs) spread throughout the car, most of which use proprietary software from suppliers. SDVs, like the Rivian pictured here, use far less wiring and a handful of powerful, centralized computers to improve the software experience and cut costs. But consumers aren't going to buy an SDV purely because it is software-defined. Most people have no idea what that even means. The value is in creating a cheaper car, with a better software experience and a higher update cadence. And here, Polestar and Volvo have so far failed to deliver on the promise. How Does It Take This Long? A key tenet of the sales pitch for SDVs is rapid upgrades. So when Polestar reps told me back in September 2024 that steering wheel controls for music were coming soon via an over-the-air update, I believed them. After all, I could feel the physical buttons clicking under my fingers. They worked for adjusting the mirrors, the few times you do that. Everything is connected. I'm no programmer, but it seems like the solution to this problem is pretty simple. Some variation on: if VolumeUpButton==pressed {Volume+1}. Like I said, I'm a rube, but I can't fathom how this would take 18 months. A Polestar representative said that the function will now be added via an over-the-air update after the refreshed 2027 Polestar 3 launches. To which I say: If I have to wait for a mid-cycle update to get a core feature that should have been available on launch, how exactly is this a better experience? It's a lovely interior to look at, but a tough one to use. Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs In fairness to Polestar, the software team has been busy with... other things. But the Polestar 3 and EX90 launched with a lot of software bugs, all of which have had to get painstakingly quashed over the last year. That hard work is paying off, to be sure. The 2025 model I drove had no major software issues. But the idea that the company launched a product so incomplete that it had to spend a year getting it to baseline reliability, all while keeping core functionality offline, feels like exactly the sort of move that has soured many consumers on tech-focused vehicles. Frustrating Controls Even outside of the missing functionality, there are other choices I don't understand. First up is the window switches, which I have complained about before. Secondly, the Polestar 3's user interface has undergone a slight refresh, but still requires way too many steps to access common functions. The climate controls, for example, are buried in a menu, which you then have to access through the touchscreen. The same goes for adjusting the driver's seat. All of these functions used to have physical buttons. And I'm not saying I need a return to the dark ages of car design, with buttons everywhere. But the user experience in the Polestar 3 feels like a regression, and it's something that even a die-hard fanboy like myself can't overlook. The company is leaning on the SDV concept to sell the vehicle, but is failing to deliver a compelling SDV experience. The car's driving experience is great and the car is a pleasure to be in, but the issues with the user interface and missing features cannot be ignored
Polestar 3 Electric SUV Software-Defined Vehicle SDV User Experience EV Review Automotive Technology
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