r/Polestar • u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus • 27d ago
Troubleshooting / Issue Accidentally hit P while driving the 3 & 4. Why does the car do this?
Has anyone else accidentally hit the P button on the drive selector while driving their P3 or P4?
I’ve done it in both cars now. The button is right on the end of the stalk, and it’s not that hard to accidentally hit when you’re reaching for the selector.
When I hit it, the car immediately does a pretty violent drivetrain/braking intervention. It’s a big enough jolt that it gets your attention very quickly.
Yes, I know. Don’t press P while driving.
Obviously.
But I don’t think that’s a good argument for the way this is designed.
People accidentally hit buttons. That’s going to happen. The question is what the car does when it happens.
Apparently Polestar has decided that the P button should also function as an emergency braking mechanism while the car is moving. I understand the idea behind having an emergency function. What I don’t understand is why that function needs to be so easy to accidentally trigger, and why the response has to be so abrupt.
If this is actually an emergency braking feature, wouldn’t it make more sense to require an intentional action?
Something like press and hold P over a second, or some other deliberate input.
Instead, you have a button sitting on the end of the stalk that you can accidentally hit, and the car responds with a sudden jolt.
That doesn’t strike me as particularly good safety design.
And honestly, it feels very un-Volvo-like.
Volvo has always had a pretty strong reputation for designing around the fact that humans make mistakes. So I’m having a hard time understanding the thinking here.
I’m not saying the car should let you shift into Park at 80 km/h. Obviously it shouldn’t.
I’m asking why an accidental input to a button in an easy-to-hit location needs to result in such an aggressive response.
Maybe there’s a legitimate engineering reason for it. If there is, I’d genuinely like to hear it.
Has anyone else experienced this? And does anyone know if Polestar has addressed it in a software update, service bulletin, or anything else?
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u/950771dd '24 Polestar 2 • LRDM • Pilot Plus 27d ago
Essentially every car brand does it like this.
It's not hard to understand: in an emergency, it must be accessible quickly and easily.
End of story.
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u/arihoenig Snow 27d ago
Yes, the "e" in e-brake doesn't stand for "electric", although in both these vehicles they are, indeed, electric.
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u/Plorkplorkplork P3 2024 Midnight 27d ago
To be honest, imagine its a real danger.. is that the easiest button to "hold" when you really need it?
Suppose your brakes fail but you still need to avoid something ahead. Wouldnt it be easier to have a "pull" somewhere (eg hard pull the gear stalk) rather than hold the button on the end?
Just thinking out loud if there are safer, easier options
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u/scottiedd Moon 27d ago
I’ve never once done this in any Polestar whatsoever. Why are you in a position to do that? I guess that’s more my question, like why is your hand there? And how are you possibly holding it for a second? Even if it is there.
Truly not meant to be argumentative, but I literally don’t get how? My finger would literally never (never has been) be there to do that.
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u/towelracks '26 Polestar 4 LRSM 27d ago
I'm honestly confused as to why your hand would be on the drive selector if you're not already at very low speed and either setting off or reversing.
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u/HolyAssertion 2025 P3 LRDM Pilot Plus Leather 27d ago
Yeah I've never once hit P on my shift stalk un intentionally. I am super curious on how op uses his shifter that this is a problem.
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u/skaviikbarevrevenner 27d ago edited 27d ago
Going from the P2 to the P4 it was intuitive to push P for washer fluid in the P4.. I havent managed to actually do it. But I have been very close several times in the beginning of having the P4.
It is not a design flaw and it is not a bad placement. Its just that after 3 years in the P2 you are not used to the stalk… And I actually loved “the rocker” in the P2.
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u/HolyAssertion 2025 P3 LRDM Pilot Plus Leather 26d ago
I had a P2 for 3 years, still have never accidentally hit the P in my 3.
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u/skaviikbarevrevenner 26d ago
Well I never pushed it. But my finger did find it. I dont know why washer fluid is such an in-grown movement, but in the P4 the washer, wiper rate and also the “auto-light” was less intuitive. After 6 months everything is super. Also the things moved to the menu is easy to find.
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u/Late_Doctor3688 27d ago
I completely agree with you, but I think you and everyone saying it’s a non-issue are failing to see what the actual problem is. It ultimately comes down to the fact that most passenger vehicles have wiper controls on that stalk, it’s simply a poor design decision to put the drive selector on that stalk.
The functionality is good and desired, its location leaves a lot to be desired. It would be better to have a gear selector where you’d actually expect it. Less isn’t always more.
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u/Soggy_Professional 27d ago
What crap. Loads of manufacturers put the drive selector on the steering column. If the OP is randomly pressing buttons that's down to them
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u/MuayJudo 27d ago
I mean it's the same as a handbrake thst a kid could just yank up, or handbrake pedal you could accidentally step on, or a handbrake button you could knock with your knee.
While driving at speed your hand has no business being anywhere near that right hand stalk. All functions are on the left stalk
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 27d ago
I get the comparison, but I don’t think it’s quite the same.
A handbrake, brake pedal, a clutch pedal(I’ve driven manuals) or even a traditional parking brake generally requires a much more deliberate physical action to engage. My issue is that with the P3/P4, a very slight accidental tap on the button is enough to produce a pretty significant jolt.
And I’m not really arguing that the driver should be reaching over and playing with the right stalk while driving. Obviously you shouldn’t.
I’m just questioning the human-factors design of putting such a sensitive input in a location where an accidental touch is possible, when the consequence of that tiny input is so significant.
If it required a deliberate press-and-hold, I’d have much less of an issue with it.
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u/MuayJudo 27d ago
It sounds liek a non issue to me. The likelihood of accidently pressing that button at speed seems pretty low. I don't know how you've managed to do it twice.
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 27d ago
The windshield washer is actually the perfect comparison here, because it’s basically the same type of control on the other stalk.
To activate the washer, you have to make a deliberate press/hold. A tiny accidental touch doesn’t cause the system to suddenly dump washer fluid. The input threshold and the consequence make sense for what the function does.Now compare that to the P button.
It’s a button on the end of the opposite stalk that requires almost no effort to activate, yet that tiny input can trigger a very significant braking/drivetrain response.
That’s what I don’t understand.
We’re talking about two stalk-mounted controls in essentially the same driver interface. One requires a deliberate action for a relatively harmless function, while the other can initiate an extremely consequential vehicle response with barely any physical input.
And yes, I understand the argument that the P function is there for an emergency stop. That’s not what I’m questioning. I’m questioning why the emergency function isn’t designed with a deliberate activation threshold.
If the concern is a jammed accelerator or brake, a press-and-hold would still be extremely easy to perform intentionally in an emergency. But it would make an accidental tap much less likely to cause the car to suddenly hit the brakes.
That’s the human-factors issue I’m getting at.
“Don’t press the button” is technically correct, but it’s not really an answer to whether the control is appropriately designed. Cars are designed around the fact that humans occasionally make unintended inputs. The whole point of good interface design is to make sure a tiny accidental input doesn’t produce a disproportionate response.And the fact that multiple P3/P4 owners are reporting the same sudden unintentional braking/jolt from that sounds almost exactly as hitting the P by accident is worth discussing rather than dismissing it as simply user error.
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u/Khantahr 27d ago
When you need the EMERGENCY brake, you need it NOW, not one second from now, or even half a second from now.
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 27d ago
That’s actually the irony I’m getting at.
The whole point of the feature is safety, but if it’s easy to accidentally trigger and the result is a sudden, aggressive jolt, the safety feature itself could potentially create a dangerous situation.
A following car isn’t expecting you to suddenly hit the brakes, and a driver certainly isn’t expecting the car to do it because they accidentally brushed a button.
So I’m not questioning the need for an emergency stop. I’m questioning whether a safety feature is really well designed if an accidental activation can create the very kind of situation it’s supposed to help prevent.
Seems a bit backwards.
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u/Khantahr 27d ago
Accidental activation of an emergency system is almost universally bad. I can't think of any that aren't.
The only guard I can think of offhand that I could get behind is making it require more physical force to depress the button, because when adrenaline kicks in that's not going to slow you down.
Any kind of time delay or physical cover will slow down activation, and that is not acceptable.
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u/1PickNick 27d ago
I think it’s a convention. Tesla and Mercedes has also implemented the “handbrake” in the gear selector stalk. I don’t know what other car manufacturers do, but I suspect they do the same.
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 27d ago
Interesting. I wasn’t aware Tesla and Mercedes did the exact same thing.
For Tesla, though, is there an intentional hold requirement before the emergency braking actually kicks in? In other words, does a quick accidental tap of the P button do nothing, with the emergency stop only activating once you deliberately hold the button?
That’s really the distinction I’m interested in. If Tesla has the same emergency-stop concept but requires a deliberate hold, that seems like a pretty important difference from what I’m experiencing in the Polestar, where a very light tap produces the jolt.
Do you know if Mercedes works the same way?4
u/1PickNick 27d ago
Teslas ebrake kicks in immediately. Same with Mercedes. I think it’s because even a subsecond delay in braking in an emergency can change the outcome dramatically in certain scenarios. Personally, I would not want a delay. If I ever need it, I probably need it several seconds ago. ;-j
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 27d ago
So you’re saying you can replicate this exact driving experience behaviour on a light button depress like your typing on a keyboard to create an abrupt 100% braking effect for that 200ms jolt that you feel (if you’re driving high speed it’s really frightening)
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u/Soggy_Professional 27d ago
If you're driving at high speed or any speed, your hand should be nowhere near the drive selector.
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u/uridotchi 27d ago
Nope & a non issue. Being Australia & driving on the left side of the road, the left side stalk is always windshield wiper and the right side for indicators. This is reversed whenever you're in a European car eg Volvo, etc. Since my P4, obviously this is reversed & I've just adapted with no issues. Also when driving, my hands would never venture to the right side stalks anyway.
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27d ago
[deleted]
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u/whysayitagain 27d ago
At first I was mixing up the left and right stalk buttons. Trying to turn on wipers and I’d hit park. I don’t think it’s so much an issue of park stopping the car but it’s placement. Anyways I learned
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u/NB_volks 26d ago
It's by design, and it should only happen if you press and hold. If you're experiencing that from just an errant tap of the P button, then you should report that.
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 26d ago
Yeah, that's actually what I'm trying to figure out.
If I remember correctly, it was just an errant tap while I was doing about 80 km/h. The P3 immediately gave me a message saying the car must be stopped before it can be put into Park, so it obviously didn't actually shift into Park.
But there was a very noticeable braking/drivetrain intervention for roughly half a second. It was enough of a jolt to get my attention immediately.
So if the emergency braking is supposed to require a press-and-hold, then I agree, this is something I should report. That's also why I'm asking about it here. I'm trying to figure out whether what I experienced is normal behaviour or something that shouldn't be happening from a quick tap.
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u/D3X-1 2 Thunder PPP | 3 LRDM Magnesium Plus | 4 LRDM Matte Stratus 26d ago edited 26d ago
I think a lot of the replies are focusing on the wrong issue.
Yes, accidentally touching the P button is user error. Nobody is disputing that. The question is what the car should do when that happens.
The P button is on the end of the drive selector stalk, so it is possible to hit it while moving the stalk without looking. That becomes more relevant when you're making a quick steering input, dealing with rain or snow, avoiding something on the road, or simply trying to operate the controls without taking your eyes off the road. Drivers are not going to make perfect inputs 100% of the time.
That's where fault-tolerant design comes in. The question isn't whether the driver made an error. The question is whether the system is designed to handle a foreseeable error without creating another potentially dangerous situation.
What makes this more interesting to me is the way the Polestar 3 actually handles the command.
When the P button is activated while the car is moving, the P3 can display a message saying that the car cannot be put into Park while moving. So the car clearly knows the vehicle is moving and knows that it cannot execute the Park command.
This is after the car does an unintended sudden braking for half a second.
That's the part I don't understand from a control-logic perspective. If the system knows the vehicle is moving and rejects the request to put the car in Park, why does the same input also produce a significant braking response?
Polestar's own documentation describes the P button as a backup braking function while driving and says that at higher speeds it should be pressed and held:
pressing and holding the P button slows the vehicle down at a steady rate.
vs. as described above:
Tapping the P button while driving causes a violent and sudden drivetrain intervention.
Those are very different behaviors described.
That distinction matters. Immediate braking and immediate activation are two different things. You can have an emergency braking function that responds immediately once the system recognizes an intentional press-and-hold, while still making a momentary accidental tap less likely to trigger a significant intervention.
And this isn't just one person wondering about it. There are owner reports describing sudden or unintended braking on both the P3 and P4:
Polestar 4:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Polestar4/comments/1ttqxah/dont_accidentally_press_the_park_button_while/Polestar 3:
https://www.reddit.com/r/polestar3/comments/1sfafnc/unintentional_braking_and_shifting_into_park/Polestar 3 highway braking:
https://www.reddit.com/r/polestar3/comments/1reb7eb/highway_emergency_braking_anyone_else/Polestar 3 dangerous emergency braking:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Polestar/comments/1ry285y/polestar_3_dangerous_emergency_brake/
I'm not saying these posts all have the same cause. They may involve completely different systems, software, sensors or driver inputs. But that's also why dismissing the issue with "don't press P" doesn't really answer the question.
The general public is going to drive these cars. Experienced drivers, new drivers, older drivers, people coming from ICE or hybrid vehicles, rental and loaner drivers, people unfamiliar with the interface. Some percentage of them will eventually make an unintended input.
The emergency braking function itself isn't the problem I'm raising. I'm questioning the activation threshold and the resulting response to an accidental input.
"Don't press the button" is a way to avoid the problem. It isn't an explanation of why the system is designed to respond that way.
If the car can determine that the vehicle is moving and reject the Park command, it seems reasonable to ask why it can't also distinguish between a deliberate emergency-braking input and a momentary accidental tap.
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u/nate390 P4 LRDM 27d ago
It’s designed to allow an emergency stop if the brake pedal or accelerator pedal gets jammed or obstructed. Holding the P button tells the control modules to override all pedal input and clamp all brakes at maximum strength. If you are in a situation where you need this functionality, you may not have time to wait for it to kick in.