I was just out in Los Angeles for one of our periodic Autopian Leadership Synods and ayahuasca-fueled vision quests that eventually form the basis for our future business plans. While there, we had use of a Polestar 4 press car – you know, the one without the rear window, which is what everyone has been clamoring for, as I’m sure you know. But it’s not that absence of a rear window that I think is the most unsettling and disturbing detail of this car: it’s something smaller and more insidious, and something that I feel is remarkably well-suited to showcase what feels like a pervasive madness of modern automotive design.
It’s just a little detail, but I think its very existence is something we should really be looking at and thinking about, critically. Because the very existence of this feature – and I’m hesitant to really call it a “feature” – implies a way of thinking about modern cars that I feel is fundamentally flawed and deeply annoying, and is a way of thinking that contributes to the modern problems of cars being too expensive to buy, repair, and maintain. Also, it’s just kind of stupid.
It’s this:
See that? It’s that little button there that you use to close the charging port. There’s a motor behind there, and that motor moves the door closed – you know, like what you could do with your hand without even thinking about it, like you’ve been doing to little refueling flaps (gasoline or electrons or hydrogen or whatever, it doesn’t matter) for decades.
The button is very counterintuitive; every single fiber of your soul wants to just close the damn flap with your hand like you’ve been closing doors and cabinets and mailboxes and whatever since you were a toddler, but if you try you can feel the hidden motor connected to that hinge resist and suggest, via subtle tactile cues, that you’ll probably cause hundreds of dollars of damage or more were you to absent-mindedly force it.
Can you picture how maddening this is? It drives me clamshit. Here’s some video evidence of the madness-driving:
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Now, having to open the charging port from the inside isn’t great, but there are plenty of cars that have you open the fuel door with some little button or lever, so I can’t really fault the Polestar 4 for that. And besides, it looks like it can be opened manually from the outside, according to the manual:
I mean, they say it’s only for emergencies and you shouldn’t do it regularly, and they mention “prying” which hardly seems ideal. That said, there’s another part of the manual that says you can open it manually, and it’s a little less dire-sounding:
Despite this, though, the preferred way is indeed opening from the center screen’s menu:
I think you can open it from the phone app, too? All of this feels like needless complexity, especially considering that on other Polestar cars, like the Polestar 2, all you have to do is tap the charge door to open it and close it with your hand, you know, like every other freaking car on Earth:
What was wrong with this? Aesthetically, it looks no different from the outside of the car; there are no aerodynamic disadvantages; it accomplishes the same function as the powered door, and does it without the extra complexity of a motor and specialized software. It was fine. Not a problem at all.
I suppose the only advantage the powered door offers is that it can close itself, if you forget and leave it open (which is hardly an Earth-shattering problem), as described in the manual:
So, okay, it can automatically do something that you could have also done essentially automatically. How is any of this worth it? I can’t think of anything I need a car to do for me less than closing a tiny door. But look at all the complexity and complication that gets introduced for this nearly meaningless feature! I mean, look at how many more pages of owner’s manual is taken up just describing how this feature is to be properly interacted with (especially compared to the half-page the Polestar 2 needs to explain how to open and close its charge port), and then there’s the fact that there’s a motor in there and associated wiring and gearing and linkages and the software needed to control it and sense when it’s open or shut and on and on and all for what? So you don’t have to move your hand three inches?
The mentality that led to anyone thinking this is a good idea is deeply and profoundly misguided. Modern cars are so wildly expensive precisely because of this sort of thinking, this concept that every interaction with the car needs to be motorized or interact with the car’s software and screens or be remotely actuated in some inane way – it’s absurd. This way of thinking burdens cars with needless hardware and software and complexity, and the end result is an experience that’s just more annoying than the old manual ways.
Look at the issues with powered door handles, for example: there’s a reason China is banning them. They add complexity and don’t work reliably in emergency situations, and all for what? So rubes can be dazzled when the handle slowly slides out from the car? It’s ridiculous. Door handles were a solved problem, and these new powered solutions only made them worse.
The same goes for this charge port flap. No one was asking for a fucking button to close the door. No one’s experience with this car is improved thanks to the addition of this button or any of the associated rules and systems that the charge flap now demands.
Am I being a luddite? I don’t think so. I like seeing new tech applied to cars, but only if it actually, you know, makes owning and using that car better. And so much of what is being put into new cars is not making them better. Touchscreen-controlled air vents and gloveboxes are idiotic, for example. None of this crap is making cars better, just more complex and expensive. And if you think all this electrical bullshit isn’t going to be a problem as the car ages, then I envy your ability to happily delude yourself.
It’s up to us to speak out and push back when we see this sort of bad design happening. When carmakers seem to be going down a poorly chosen path, we need to make it clear that there are plenty of potential car buyers who don’t want this. I suspect most people are absolutely capable of slapping a charge door shut, and are just fine with that. If there’s something I’m missing here, some glorious joy that comes from pushing a stupid button to get a motor to close a door I could have more easily just shut with my hand, I’m listening.
Until then, Polestar, knock it off, already.
Top graphic image: Jason Torchinsky
Torch is in the right here. Also, we will be needing the Tinfoil Hat Uncle takedown of rear-windowless EV dipshittery soon
Automakers have started treating cars like washing machines and cell phones and it’s absolutely baffling and terrible. I really hope the simplicity of the Slate truck catches on, because it’s the first new car I’ve seen in years that isn’t designed by a bunch of boardroom morons.
but if you try you can feel the hidden motor connected to that hinge resist and suggest, via subtle tactile cues, that you’ll probably cause hundreds of dollars of damage or more were you to absent-mindedly force it.
It’s disturbing to me that pushing against the motor resistance would bring one to that conclusion — Because the way it should work would be just like a CD player’s tray. (Torch should remember those!) You could close it with the same button used to open it — It usually was labeled “Open/Close,” in fact. But also if you pushed it and made the motor move even the slightest bit, the controls would instantly recognize your nudge and activate the motor in reverse to obligingly pull the tray back in.
Please tell me whoever designed this electric door didn’t forget how simple tech like that worked in the Before Times, right? Right? (Yes, you wouldn’t want the motor to try to close the door on the connected charging plug if you pushed the door — but how hard would it be to disable the motor based on detecting that the plug is connected?)
I once led a research team focused EVs and EV charging, and it was hilarious the different viewpoints on things such as this powered charge port door between the various folks we talked to. People we spoke with who were in the EV industry loved all the gadgetry and the novelty of power doorhandles, charge port doors, glove boxes, etc.. We, the nerdy researchers, tried to be open minded but objective about such things, but generally concluded that they were novelties that added complexity and unnecessary power draw without adding any value. Consumers we spoke to either loved all the gimmicks or despised them all – nothing in between. We ultimately scrapped most of the subjective input and stuck with the objective stuff for our report, but to this day I can’t help but see power doorhandles and charge port doors as solutions in search of problems.
This button exist on my Ioniq 5.
The worst part is that the car will tell you if you try to drive off with the door open, but you still have to stop and get out to close it.
This is a useless ‘feature,’ but still ranks well below proximity keys on my scale of annoying.
Ummm… Yeah. If the door has a motor to close it, then putting the car in drive ought to be able to trigger the motorized close action. That’s actually a good reason to have it in the first place.
I don’t like that it doesn’t let you manually close it, but otherwise this is fine. A nice way to avoid fingerprints on a part of the car you have to touch everyday.
So stupid, a friend was showing me his new Tundra, which has a power tailgate. While arguably slightly less stupid than the gas flap because they’re heavy and clunky, it’s also like if you own a pickup presumably you have the arm strength to lift things into the bed implying you have the strength to close and open the tailgate…and what about when it gets partially full of ice or mud. Which come to think of it applies to this power charge flap idiocy.
You complain about this motorized door, but wait till the first time someone siphon’s your electricity out of your car using a jug and extension cord! Bring back the key-lockable
gas capscharge port doors!This will come in handy in case Iran ever decides to cut off electricity shipments
… actually, Russia could technically sort of do that, we import 20% of our uranium from them, and nuclear is about 20% of our electric production, so they could knock out like 4% of our electricity if they wanted to. Add in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which supply 10% and 25%, respectively, and that’s 11% of our total electric production reliant on those three countries.
Too bad windmills kill birds and the noise causes cancer or we could go that route.
It’s there because it’s *fancy*. Nothing else.
The Porsche Taycan and some higher-end Audi e-tron models have powered charging flap doors too, and more elaborate ones at that.
I’ve seen this somewhere before…
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheFarSide/comments/1c4xudt/midvale_school_for_the_gifted/
I’d pay extra for a car designed by Rube Goldberg!
I feel the same way about the power tailgate on my CX-5. I didn’t want it, but I was buying used, and the car with the trim package that included the power tailgate ticked all the right boxes.
The power tailgate is dumb. It’s slower than opening and closing by hand. It adds complexity and failure points, while accomplishing nothing of value. Just like this filler flap.
I also dislike how power tailgates fight you if you try to close them manually. It’ll allow it, but it almost feels like it’s designed to make you feel off about doing it – the tactile feedback feels like you’re breaking something – vs just pushing the button.
I do like my power tailgate, but I have mobility issues with reaching overhead, so the button is super helpful to me.
The charging/gas cap? Pfffffft.
I love a power tailgate. Can just walk away and let it do its thing. Operating it from the driver’s seat is helpful too, if someone is helping unload stuff and have their hands full.
If someone is that burdened with stuff to load in your car, offer them more help than pressing the ‘open hatch’ button.
My gripe with our power tailgate is that I can’t hit the lock button as it’s closing or it beeps and gets all mad at me like it has separation anxiety. Sorry car. Yes, I want you to close and lock yourself while I go inside. Yes, my trust in your ability to close without jamming might be misguided but instead, try to finish this task and if you fail then honk or flash at me.
My wife insisted our minivan purchase include a power tailgate option, and the van we chose promptly had its latch mechanism fail.
And, there was no manual override! Except to crawl into the area behind the third row, dislodge a part of the rear trim panel, and pop the latch with a screwdriver every time you wanted the tailgate opened. That was fun!
The dealer we chose to fix the problem was incompetent (to say the least), and it took over a month to get the damn thing fixed.
Power tailgates, like other things…cool or whatever – until they break.
This is the Volkswagenization, and more modernly Teslaization, of cars.
Does it help the user? No.
Is it functional? No.
Does it failsafe? No
Can we do it? Yes.
And that’s it, the whole thing. It has nothing to do with making anyone’s life better, as a user, as a mechanic, honestly probably not even as an engineer (in most cases). But it *can* be done and that’s imperative enough that it *must* be done.
I think that’s an excellent point. It seems almost as though engineers are finally giving us exactly what we want, not what’s actually good for us. Can’t fault them, and it certainly says more about us as consumers than anything.
You know Jason is truly peeved when he can’t even bring himself to call it a ‘clambaking button’ and escalates to using an actual swear word.
I’m halfway through watching Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle. It should be required watching for all car company product planners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ad0R_Bt4nM
They should have made it a capacitive “button” and really let everyone squeal.
Haptic would be even funnier. “Mummy, what’s that strange man doing behind the car there?”
I mean the Polestar 2 also has a button right in that position. You know what it’s there for? To unlock and release the charge cable which is actually kind of great. Press the button while charging and the whole ‘end charging’ cycle is started, does whatever negotiation is needed with the charge station, and then unlocks the cable.
But what I want to know is why the heck the whole charge port area is so so huge? Almost looks like someone planned to have both a CCS-1 and NACS port behind that door.
My P2 has plenty of quirks that makes me wish they’d spent another 6-12 mos in development to get things right but man the P4 is actually worse. I mean, when you’re designing a car and get to the point where you can’t fit a rear window it’s time to take a step back and start over.
Yeah there are a few things with my 2 that I wish they made better but yeesh after seeing the 3 and 4 in person though great looking cars the things they did the “simplify” them is ridiculous. Glad my 2 has a normal charging/fueling door that is manual. This 4’s reminds me on the blazer EVs dumb powered door that wouldn’t open when it gets iced over.
For me the 3 and 4 are entirely too big. Honestly, coming from a BRZ I think the 2 is a bit portly as well but not as bad as those others. But seriously, my $20K Subaru never had a single glitch with the backup camera, not once in the 8 years I owned it. The far more expensive Polestar has the backup camera “unavailable” about 1/3 of the times I throw it in reverse. It’s little things like that they should have ironed out before selling the car but these days they can’t even figure out how to work in a rear window.
Yeah I heard a lot of peeps have issues with the back up camera (why there is a recall) I haven’t had the issue in my 2022 so kind of scared when they do have a fix for the recall and mine might start having issues.
Only issue I have is the BLIS throws a fault every so often and it is disabled for that drive until the car is turned off for a bit (assuming a sensor going bad) but it can be good for a week at a time with no issues. But I’ll bring it in at some point since I have the 2 year CPO warranty.
I’ve kind of lost count on the MY24 P2 reverse camera recalls. I think there have been 3 so far that are all software updates. Two of them ended up being combined for me because it took 6 months to get into the service center because OTA wouldn’t work. There’s another one brewing which might finally just replace the compute unit to something that can handle the shitty programming and stop seg-faulting whenever you put the car into reverse.
With the 4.2.13 firmware the frequency of “camera unavailable” has dropped a lot, but I do get a lot of dropped frames and occasional video freezing. Sometimes the rfid key won’t wake up the car unless I press the trunk open button on the vehicle. Audio has completed crashed a few times necessitating a reset (so weird when the turn signals don’t make any noise). The whole audio system is kinda disappointing for its lack of controls (why no real fader ffs), but the Infinity Experience app (there was an article here about it here https://www.theautopian.com/some-geniuses-figured-out-how-to-make-their-chevys-stop-sounding-like-crap-using-nissan-software/) does seem to actually do some improvements. Or maybe placebo effect. Dunno. Overall, the software on this car is its biggest letdown.
Wizards of widgets out the wazoo toil not for me and you.
Trouble understanding social norms.
Fans feed ego, god complex forms.
Monetary success drives imitation, lacking consideration of implementation.
Wisdom is sought by the wise.
Others create imaginary tulip bulbs in guise.
Technology can be beneficial, properly applied.
Scientific method never lied.
On one hand yes it’s an expensive unneeded point of failure. But on the other hand it’s also extremely annoying
Yes this is a problem. Buttons are too expensive so do everything through this tablet and submenus! Also, here’s a button and motor to close the flap no one asked for! But also NOT HAVING A REAR WINDOW IS INSANE.
The electrification of every door and panel on modern cars are INSANE. These things does not need any electrification and causes an enormous amount of friction. The only reason I think this is done is to lock owners out if they choose not paying for subscription fees or accelerate too hard or parked too close to a Planned Parenthood.
You have clearly shown why computer companies can’t make cars. I worked at a software company as a translator. I explained to the programmer what the customer wants and explained to the customer why programmers can’t do anything simple. Remember when computers were going to make everything better, simpler, easier, etc? Yes but it never happened but we are stuck using them. There is an old saying a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. That is how we humans learn. The coders are still trying to create the transformers and they suck at it.
It’s crap like this why we got a Prologue instead of the Blazer. Instead of having half the fender open up using motors and sensors the Prologue just has a manual flap, like our Bolt did, like gas cars have for the fuel door. Do they have stock in a micro motor supplier? “Now we’ve got micro motors at every door and the hatch you can’t see out of, where else can we add them?” “The charge port door?” “Genius! Let’s add two and a fancy button!”.
Waiting on the motorized flap which will cover the wheel bolts. You have to actuate that in order to change a flat tire
BS like this is the #1 reason I stay away from modern cars. Sure I could afford one at this point in my life. But why?
That is stupid and disappointing. One of the things I most appreciate about my Polestar 2, is how little electric car crap there is, and how much it functions like a normal car.
Then again, this is the Polestar 4. The car with no back window, so the charging door is not even close to being the dumbest part of the car.
I would love to see DT and the team compare what is safer in real life situations. A vehicle with great visibility or a tank with little visibility and armor instead of windows like new rules require? I say the armor is safer in an accident but visibility is better to avoid the accidents. Unfortunately our ignorant government only tests safety in case of an accident.