[Beakerbox]

Hi folks. I am very close to pulling the trigger on ordering the Polestar 2. In researching the owners experiences so far I see issues regarding 4g connectivity and signal dropouts causing bad experiences with the software - issues like not reconnecting and having to reboot to regain signal. Cell signal at my house is fairly weak and my phone will toggle between 3 and 4g if the 4g signal is particularly weak at a given time. My cellphone handles this very efficiently. Switches to Wifi at my house for Data and makes best use of what's available in the area, as i drive down the hill from my house I also loose all signal for about 500 yards and then when I get closer to town connects again. I'd expect the car OS to handle this as efficiently as Android on my phone - this seemingly is not the case - but to what extent?

So leaving my house goes like this. Wifi at house - as I leave driveway connects to 4g - about 30 seconds later as I drive down the road no connectivity - 30 seconds later back to a reasonable 4g signal strength.

In reading peoples experiences - It sounds like some users have to reboot if 4g signal is lost - and sometimes cannot reconnect. How bad is this issue? What should I expect right now? Would living in an area with weak cell signal significantly impact my experience with this car? To be clear - I don't expect to have services available that rely on cell signal when the signal is not there. I'm just curious - If I loose signal for 30 seconds every-time I drive down the road from my house - how common / severe is this re-connectivity issue?

Also if anyone would happen to have a link to a thread or article that explains this issue in a concise manner that would be fantastic. It's difficult to gauge from what's out there as to the severity of this issue and how common an occurrence it is.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

 

[Ivan1]

I can only tell you this was a concern of mine as well, as our cell phone service around here is very spotty and weak. When they came for our test drive Monday, I warned the woman from Polestar that I expected we would have issues with the signal, but surprisingly the car was able to get a strong enough signal, even in areas where I often have trouble making calls. I know we drove through some areas where the signal would have been at least briefly lost, but the system worked just fine the entire test drive, and there was no reconnection issue...

 

[krheinwald]

Which carriers are you using on your cellphone? PS uses T-Mobile, their coverage might be different.

 

[Beakerbox]

@Ivan1 It's reassuring to hear that. You mostly hear about the bad experiences. Thank you!

@krheinwald That's a great point, thank you! Verizon is the best signal in the hills around where I live - largely because their 3g network fills in the gaps when 4g drops out in between towns. T-mobile used to have zero coverage here but in looking at their maps I'm in a "fair signal" part of their map for whatever that's worth. I'm sure the maps are optimistic. I'd say there's a good chance with the topology here signal would be intermittent with tmobile aswell.

But it is what it is, this is where I live and any connected car will experience the same thing so I don't think I'll let it deter me.

I do have a Polestar location in my county just open up so I'll look into a test drive. but who am I kidding, the chances of me not ordering one are slim Of all the EV options out there this one still calls out to me more than any of the others. I work in development for Deep Learning applications so I think I can be patient and work through the bugs with them.

 

[Fishouttawater]

EE is terrible near me, but car appears to be using O2 and I've had no issues with 4g staying disabled.

When it does fail to send voice info, I just try again in a few seconds and all is good.

 

[Ivan1]

Do we know if T-mobile will be their carrier in the US as well? Verizon is the best around here as well...

 

[Beakerbox]

Do we know if T-mobile will be their carrier in the US as well? Verizon is the best around here as well...

Maybe one of the few in the US who received their car can confirm. Hopefully it is Verizon.

 

[JMP2]

Question : what actually happens when you are navigating somewhere and signal drops completely ? Does navigation also stop or does Google maps continue on offline maps and GPS and still get you to your destination like any other car ? Anybody has any experience with this ?

 

[GDank]

Google preloads the map ahead

 

[JMP2]

Google preloads the map ahead

Thanks. Does that mean that once you have lost connection and you are en route, you can no longer modify your destination ? Is Google maps only preloading the map along your route or is there actually an option like on your phone where you can download an offline map ? (Canada has vast areas with no cell phone connection at all and that would mean you could or could not use the navigation system)

 

[Steve The Techy]

Thanks. Does that mean that once you have lost connection and you are en route, you can no longer modify your destination ? Is Google maps only preloading the map along your route or is there actually an option like on your phone where you can download an offline map ? (Canada has vast areas with no cell phone connection at all and that would mean you could or could not use the navigation system)

Google maps preload an area around the route. When driving with my phone in the US, I would stand in the hotel lobby, using their wifi, get the directions set and walk to the car. I could then drive to the location, and so long as I was not far off the route, no issues.

Things have advanced since then. For one thing, you can preload a large area of the map into Google Maps, including the Automotive version. By default, the Polestar will load a large area around your Home and Work locations. Google Maps on the Polestar also support caching of maps, draw an area on the map you want cached. It does not seem to synchronise the preloaded areas between your phone and the car. They seem to areas to the device. (Other than the Home and Work locations.)

There are limitations on this, local roadblocks and of course up to date traffic conditions will only exist when you have an internet connection, Certain routing criteria may also not work when using cached maps. Routing by no charge roads was not supported in Europe and the UK when not connected to the Internet.

 

[JMP2]

Google maps preload an area around the route. When driving with my phone in the US, I would stand in the hotel lobby, using their wifi, get the directions set and walk to the car. I could then drive to the location, and so long as I was not far off the route, no issues.

Things have advanced since then. For one thing, you can preload a large area of the map into Google Maps, including the Automotive version. By default, the Polestar will load a large area around your Home and Work locations. Google Maps on the Polestar also support caching of maps, draw an area on the map you want cached. It does not seem to synchronise the preloaded areas between your phone and the car. They seem to areas to the device. (Other than the Home and Work locations.)

There are limitations on this, local roadblocks and of course up to date traffic conditions will only exist when you have an internet connection, Certain routing criteria may also not work when using cached maps. Routing by no charge roads was not supported in Europe and the UK when not connected to the Internet.

Thanks @Steve The Techy