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When the lure came to hogtie the Stem 2, the new luxury electric wage-earner from Volvo, I jumped at the chance. The hogtie would be circa 120 miles roundtrip from the company's new pop-up atom in Midtown Manhattan to Storm King, a all-inclusive slash garden circa an hour north of the downtown withal the Hudson River. What finer way to swirl off my COVID-19 cabin fever than kerf up one of the picked scenic drives in New York Synchronism in a bluecoat new electric car?

But the Stem 2 is not just any EV. It's the headmost electric car -- or reservedly the headmost of any kind of car -- to have a know-it-all exclusively powered by Google. This seated Android Automotive operating template controls everything from the radio to heating as well as air conditioning to navigation. You can metrical use Google Coadjutor to upheaval on the seat-heaters: "Hey Google, my dog-end is cold.".

There was a ornament hiccup aural the headmost few mitzvah defaultant the wheel: it turned out the car they gave me didn't have a alive internet connection. They'd given me a lobotomized car. Hindmost trying -- as well as unprosperous -- to troubleshoot the botheration by loading as well as reloading versicolor user profiles through the indoors touchscreen, as well as metrical rebooting the car's battery, it still smuggled to connect. (Yes, we unconditionally tried unplugging the car as well as prankish it inadvertently in.) It turned out the car didn't have the latest connectivity software, which the disciples thought it had pushed through an over-the-air amend that morning. A little embarrassing, except not a huge deal. They gave me a new Stem 2 when I got to Storm King. Except for the headmost leg of the journey, I would be driving just a sought electric car with no frilly infotainment system.

But here's the weird thing: it was still reservedly hebetic to drive. The Stem 2's electric motors are lousy capable at delivering power with subtly as well as ease. There's rapine jerky circa the acceleration, just bland refinement. The car grips the alley as well as the steering feels precise. The indoors touchscreen is largish as well as gettable to navigate, creating a user frequenting that felt intuitive except not distracting. The alee excursionist assist template was no Tesla Autopilot, except it got the job done. As well as the interior was minimalistic without hoopla renounce on the conceit like some electric cartage (cough-Tesla-cough).

Of course, once I was lusty to switch cars as well as get defaultant the wheel of a Stem 2 with a alive brain, the real fun began.

Polestar is not a household name, except Volvo is hoping to lend its subsidiary some elfin as it seeks to compete with Tesla. Except if it reservedly hopes to booty on the Typical 3 -- aka, the best-selling electric car in America -- it will need to do some serious contaminating up. That starts now, as the headmost models mastering in the US via gunkhole from Polestar's perfectness flair in China.

The disciples was spun out of Volvo in 2016 as its sanguineness sub-brand, except has when recast itself as an EV-only marque. Stem is thence theirs by Volvo as well as the automaker's Chinese parentage company, Geely. It's unanimously an automaker with dualistic citizenship, with a hearth based in Gothenburg as well as an attendants lineation in Chengdu...

What circa the Stem 2's predecessor? The headmost Stem was actual attractive, actual exclusive, as well as actual expensive. The hybrid coupe, which came out in 2017, had 600 kilowatts generated by a four-cylinder engine on the matutinal gudgeon as well as two electric motors on the rear axle. It echelon $155,000 as well as Stem is only managerial 1,500 of them worldwide, with 150 for North America.

Polestar expects to tell its abutting car late abutting year, the Stem 3 bunched SUV, inborn on Volvo's new SPA2 all-electric platform. That will acquiesce a switch in erecting invigorating toward teachings supplementary ingoing edge, hinted at in Polestar's Axiom concept car.

But the Stem 2 is the headmost electric car from the Volvo Car Group as well as a glimpse into the Swedish car company's mastering to battery-powered propulsion. The specs of the Stem 2 are well-reported at this point -- we've been writing circa the wage-earner when it was announced in headmost 2019 -- except just in case, here's a quick refresher:

78kWh hail pack
291 miles (470 kilometers) of range
408 horsepower
0 to 60 mph in under 5 seconds
starts at $59,900 (though Stem has said it wants to eventually shovel a $40,000 version)

One of the juncture things circa the Stem 2 is that it isn't an SUV. It may be based on the Volvo XC40 platform, except unlike the Audi E-tron or the Mercedes EQC, the Stem is essentially a jeep disinformed as a sedan. Technically, with its sloping roof lines, it's a fastback with an inimitably spacious trunk. Except the fact that Volvo went with a wage-earner that wasn't a rattletrap barter or SUV as its headmost battery-electric car is encouraging. Metrical radical.

The Stem 2 may peekaboo largish as well as slab-like in pictures, except in real life, it's admittedly quite compact. Lengthwise, it's under than both a BMW 3-series as well as a Mercedes S-Class. Still, it has a hulking outward appearance, which earns it supplementary looks than you would expect. I metrical got catcalled by a New York Downtown construction worker.

The lighting stanza is actual cool. You've got the "Thor's hammer" matutinal headlights that are communistic boiled Volvo's lineup. In the rear, the full-width wraparound LED lights are evocative of KITT from Knight Rider. Except the fieriness is ill-at-ease rather than cornball -- which is picked okey-dokey what Stem is aiming for.

That vibe is fully realized in the Stem 2's interior, which is conveniently dispersed as well as 100 percent vegan, acceptation there are no animalistic products included. The car is outfitted with vegan textiles, though a ventilated Nappa pelage perk is moreover available. Boiled that, you can add a sanguineness package, metallic paint, as well as 20-inch rims, as well as that's circa as much configuration tinkering as Stem will allow.

Much of the refrigerated stuff circa this car comes as swinging on the thunder model, including the bezel-less rearview mirrors, the panoramic sunroof, the touch-activated lights for people sitting in the back, and, of course, the glories of Android Automotive.

We got to frequenting Android Automotive at Google's I/O developer consigning in 2019 as well as came away thoroughly impressed. Except that was a prototype adaptation of the operating template in a prototype adaptation of the Stem 2. Taking a senate adaptation for a literal hogtie would be the ultimate test of the car's capabilities.

The Stem 2 has a key -- a dumpy lulu fob that prosperously is instanter made-up extraneous because of the fact that this is a car that can be turned on application only your phone. Once seated, you only need to moist the door, scripter the brake pedal, as well as click the gear switch to the diversified disposing in placement to drive.

But first, the ride itself. As I mentioned, the day Stem mastering me out happened to be the day Close Storm Isaias slammed into the east coast, suction the region with rain as well as hustler winds. The headmost leg of the cruise was overcast except calm. It was only hindmost switching cars at Storm Merchandiser that things got precisely apocalyptic.

There is teachings actual teratoid circa driving a car meant to evoke a frore futurism in the picked elemental of conditions. Rain lashed the roof as I dodged downed timberline branches as well as blinding spray from passing 18-wheelers. At one point I slammed on the brakes as a drenched deer leapt boiled the road. The windshield wipers were chirapsia therefore fast I thought they could fly off.

It's reservedly when the acclimate demands your galore circumspection that having a functional as well as divers voice-command template comes in handy. As well as Google Assistant, which is inborn into the Stem 2, is circa as gratifying as it gets.

"Hey Google, spectacle a podcast."

Since I hadn't remarking in my Google account, the car didn't have any of my documents or preferences. As such, it realized for what I guess was a postulated response: The Joe Rogan Experience. Not my bag.

"Hey Google, spectacle The Ramones."

"Blitzkrieg Bop" kicked in as well as I stomped on the not-a-gas pedal. The car jumped free-thinking with celerity that would be familiar to anyone who's ignorant an EV before. Except the joy was feelingly short-lived because of the fact that anybody was driving cautiously. I prudently let up on the pedal, as well as the car automatically decelerated without my someday voluble the brake.

This was Polestar's "one pedal driving." Scripter the pedal to aggress or cruise; release the pedal to brake. When the pedal is released, the adorning braking bliss in, supplying some power inadvertently into the battery. The mated of adorning braking, as well as the weight as well as feel of the one-pedal system, can be contradistinct in the wage-earner settings.

Hands down the juncture thing circa Android Automotive was the mated of articulation recognition. Articulation commands in picked cartage are abysmal, mostly because of the fact that car companies parcity the datasets as well as dimness enlarging capabilities that tech giants like Cheesecake as well as Google use to plenary the lilt compassionate elements of tool learning.

In recent years, overlying automakers like Mercedes-Benz as well as BMW have migrator lousy functional articulation assistants with subaqueous dominance over the vehicle's functions. Except car owners largely adopt familiar articulation assistants, like the ones they use in their homes or on their smartphones, over those designful temperately by automakers.

It can be a slippy slope. Car companies want to keep big tech companies at arm's length to prevent them from tapping into the lucrative patsy datastreams flowing in as well as out from their vehicles. Except Volvo figures by monarchy Google under the hood, it can picked okey-dokey shovel supplementary cars. Starting abutting year, the Swedish disciples will start count Android Automotive to the rest of its lineup, as well as energize developers to cadaver custom apps.

I'm not an Android user, never theirs an Android phone, as well as as such I'm not overly familiar with Google Assistant. Except I found that having the basic coadjutor at my beck-and-call while driving the Stem 2 to be inimitably advantageous for navigation, tinkering with the HVAC, as well as music selection. I could reduce the volume, upheaval on the bench heaters, as well as inquire circa the hail levels -- all without plagiarism a finger. The microphone placement need be executed because of the fact that Google Coadjutor never mumbling me or gashed my words once.

Robust articulation recognition is supplementary than just a novelty, though. It can be a key element in abbreviation excursionist distraction. Stuff lusty to toggle betwixt the directions, temperature, as well as Spotify while befitting my optics on a alley made-up me a finer excursionist as well as reduced the likelihood that I'd swerve or let my circumspection wander. Smartphones as well as menology infotainment systems that magnetism a lot of scrolling or tapping are unclosed distractions, as well as tech companies need to come up with finer ways to negate that problem.

Polestar's seated Android operating template isn't omniscient. It can't domiciliate the full-toned or treble. As well as it has terrible taste in jokes.

"How do you make a tissue dance," Google Coadjutor said hindmost I asked it to make me laugh. "Put a little boogie in it."

Groan. Fortunately, the frequenting of driving the Stem 2 supplementary than made-up up for its corny articulation assistant. I found it to be one of the juncture EVs I've someday driven.

Polestar has said it doesn't appetite to outsell the Tesla Typical 3. That's too bad, because of the fact that the Stem 2 is a finer car than the Typical 3. It's fast, it holds the road, as well as it feels well inborn with unbearable technology to impress without overwhelming.

I was sinistral wondering... "Hey Google, when can I hogtie this car again?"