2025 Polestar Polestar 3 driver assistance & safety tech problems

Related recalls

• Recall 25V293000May 7, 20253,664 vehicles
  BACK OVER PREVENTION:SOFTWARE

  Polestar Automotive USA, Inc. (Polestar) is recalling certain Polestar 3 vehicles. The rearview camera image may not display when the vehicle is placed in reverse. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 111, "Rear Visibility."

  Risk: A rearview camera image that does not display reduces the driver's view of what is behind the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.

  Remedy: The software will be updated by a dealer or through an over-the-air (OTA) update, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed June 24, 2025. Owners may contact Polestar's customer service at 1-800-806-2504. Polestar's number for this recall is RP1057.

What owners say

1. Filed Sep 23, 2026NYDriver Assistance & Safety TechSeats & Seat Belts

   I was driving south on the Palisades Interstate Parkway and started to exit at Exit 9E when the automatic emergency brake engaged and the seat belt tensioners engaged. There were no vehicles in front of me or very close to me. The stop was jarring. There was no apparent reason for this to happen.

   NHTSA complaint #11766318 · source
2. Filed Apr 10, 2026CADriver Assistance & Safety TechAcceleration & Cruise Control

   On [XXX], while driving, the car issued a warning that stated, “driving performance reduced. Book a service” and an icon of a turtle. Then on [XXX], while driving on [XXX], the car suddenly slowed dramatically that me, my husband and our frenchie in a dog crate behind us lurched forward violently. Estimated 30 mph sudden drop in speed then the turtle icon appeared briefly. I took the car to the Polestar 3 service department in North Hills, CA on March 12 and it is now April…

   NHTSA complaint #11730450 · source
3. Filed Nov 26, 2025PADriver Assistance & Safety TechElectrical SystemTransmission & Drivetrain

   I have had multiple issues with my Polestar 3. Most notably, the vehicle lost all propulsion at highway speeds. My safety was heavily jeopardized as I had to merge across multiple lanes of traffic to reach the shoulder. On the day of the incident, the car's propulsion stopped working 4 separate times. The Polestar service center did nothing other than reset the software and tell me the issue was not repeatable. Additionally, the Polestar 3 has consistently electrical issues.…

   NHTSA complaint #11701760 · source
4. Filed Nov 18, 2025NJDriver Assistance & Safety TechElectrical System

   The malfunction I experienced involved the vehicle's electronic safety system, which caused the brake to apply suddenly and without my input. The service center was "UNABLE TO DUPLICATE" the specific fault during their inspection and found "NO CODES STORED," noting that the problem was intermittent and not verifiable by the technician. The car is, however, available for inspection. My safety and the safety of others were put at extreme risk because the car suddenly and…

   NHTSA complaint #11700146 · source
5. Filed Oct 11, 2025NYCrash1 injuredTowedDriver Assistance & Safety TechElectrical System

   Date of Incident: [XXX] US Eastern Time Location: [XXX] Incident Type: Safety defect and vehicle malfunction due to Sudden Unintended Acceleration with multiple safety system failures On the date referenced above, while traveling at approximately 5 mph and preparing to park in a gravel parking lot, I removed my foot from the accelerator pedal to bring the vehicle to a complete stop using the normal deceleration process (with One-Pedal Mode disabled). Instead of the expected…

   NHTSA complaint #11692656 · source
6. Filed Oct 1, 2025NJDriver Assistance & Safety Tech

   After the car is backed up in reverse, the car is placed in drive however if at a stand still you pull down on the shift lever twice the car thinks it is in adaptive cruise control and as soon as you apply pressure to the accelerator pedal the car speeds up quickly without application of pressure on the accelerator. Multiple times I had to quickly apply the brake otherwise I would have crashed into my garage. I a person was in front of the car they could be injured. The…

   NHTSA complaint #11690698 · source
7. Filed Sep 19, 2025CODriver Assistance & Safety Tech

   We have owned this vehicle for about 4 months. During that time, it has displayed dozens of error messages about the vehicle's safety systems. Most commonly, it indicates that the safety systems are not available at all. There are also persistent warning lights about faults in the safety systems. Even when they are working, the ongoing warnings, issues and randomly occurring failures of these systems make them unreliable and less safe than not having the assist systems at…

   NHTSA complaint #11688335 · source
8. Filed Jun 20, 2025CACrashTowedAirbagsBrakesDriver Assistance & Safety Tech

   I was driving my Polestar 3 2025 Performance into a gated garage. The car was on one pedal mode, I slowed down to come to a stop to open the gate. When the clicker for the garage door was clicked the car lunged forward and full speed rammed into the opening gate. Realizing the car is not stopping I pressed harder on the brakes, lifted my foot up and looked down to insure that I was pressing on the correct pedal and started pumping the brake pedal. None of these slowed down…

   NHTSA complaint #11668236 · source
9. Filed May 8, 2025CADriver Assistance & Safety Tech

   - Blind spot warning detection failure (intermittent, unpredictable) - stops working during a drive and doesn't identify cars in blindspot despite working at the beginning of the drive without any notification of system failure. No way to reproduce this as it occurs randomly. Alternatively, it will sometimes light up when there is no car in the blindspot. - Lane keeping assist with cruise control: sometimes car will show that it is following a lane and stop following the…

   NHTSA complaint #11659836 · source
10. Filed May 2, 2025PADriver Assistance & Safety Tech

    There is a documented bug with Polestar. If you shift the car into reverse, the rear camera comes on (point back, like it should). If you shift out of reverse, and back into reverse, the camera defaults to an overhead view. With this view it is very difficult to see what is behind you. This happens 100% of the time...it is not a "sometimes happens" bug.

    NHTSA complaint #11658534 · source
11. Filed Mar 18, 2025NYDriver Assistance & Safety TechAcceleration & Cruise ControlTransmission & Drivetrain

    Changing the gear to Drive while car is already in Drive is the normal way to put the car on cruise control at highway speeds. This should not be permitted when car is under a certain speed. However, it appears you can turn on cruise control when the car is at 0 mph. When car is already in Drive and at a stop (0 mph), shifting gear changer into drive again, and letting foot off brake and lightly tapping the gas pedals causes car to suddenly lurch forward in a highly…

    NHTSA complaint #11649147 · source
12. Filed Mar 14, 2025NYDriver Assistance & Safety Tech

    When parking the car and putting the car in reverse, the cameras are activated and two views are displayed simultaneously on the head unit: 1) a 360 view is displayed; and 2) rear camera view is displayed. However when putting the car in Drive and then back in Reverse again, only the 360 view displays but NOT the Rear view camera. Subsequently drive / reverse sequences during a parking maneuver do not cause the rear camera to display again, The only way to turn the rear…

    NHTSA complaint #11648253 · source

Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation public data. Complaints are submitted by owners and are not verified by NHTSA or by us; a complaint does not prove a defect exists. View this vehicle on NHTSA.gov Methodology