[ebiederm]

Does the 2026 Nissan Leaf meet your criteria for a dumb car?

All it's connected features appear to come from Android Auto or Apple Car Play. AKA from a connection to your phone.

I like the looks of it because it appears to be a serious EV unlike too many which are just some company getting their toes wet.

[madwolf]

Did the new Leaf get dumber? I have an old 2019 model and it’s connected. In the mobile app I see its location, turn on AC etc.

[everdrive]

Does Nissan still not put telematics in the base model in 2026?

[everdrive]

Looking at the specs page the base model includes "Dual 12.3" widescreen displays" Why? What the hell is wrong with modern cars?

[rootusrootus]

Lots (most?) cars are going to LCDs for the instrument panel. The second screen is the infotainment.

[al_borland]

My previous car had its infotainment system reboot several times while I was on the expressway. The idea of my instrument panel, or other more critical systems, crashing and rebooting while driving terrifies me.

[rootusrootus]

The infotainment is not connected to the ECU and other car control electronics. At least not on my Tesla nor my F150 Lightning. You can reboot them to your hearts content while driving down the road.

[al_borland]

Yes, but it is still rather unnerving when part of the car goes dark. It also makes me question the QA on this stuff. If that is crashing, will the other systems be crashing at some point as well? Is there redundancy? These are the questions that went through my mind while hoping the screen would come back on before I missed my exit. Even knowing the systems are completely separate, it spoke to overall quality.

[rootusrootus]

I agree that it is unnerving, but I expect it to be normal in the future. They save a bunch of time by being able to push out a 90% product with low risk of catastrophe and just push updates later to fix it up. As a bonus, they can market the frequent updates as a benefit rather than cleaning up technical debt they would have had to iron out before shipping the first car.

[vel0city]

I've had multiple vehicles have instrument cluster failures while operating them. None of those have been screens. "Analog" gauges have not actually been analog for a while. They're all digital controls being read by a computer.

Even a carbureted motorcycle I owned from the early 2000s had "analog" gauges with values given to it from a computer!

[rootusrootus]

> from the early 2000s

For sure, and even earlier -- I had a 1995 Mustang with faux analog gauges, it has definitely been a Thing for decades now.

[sagarm]

Backup cameras are an enormous safety improvement. Plus touchscreens are much cheaper than buttons and knobs.

[DaSHacka]

> Backup cameras are an enormous safety improvement.

Sure, however....

> Plus touchscreens are much cheaper than buttons and knobs.

And how much LESS safe is using a touchscreen while operating a motor vehicle? Its literally no different from using an iPad.

[bluGill]

There are large implementation differences in touch screens. My wife's care needs several second: turn the radio on, wait for the splash screen, press the drives heat control, wait for it to appear (100s of ms - long enough to notice) then find the button in the miedle of the screen - finally I can change the heated seats. My car that button is always has the button at the bottom of the screen in the same place so is is ms to look and see.

[DaSHacka]

You still lose the tactile feedback of the button though. It's much harder to hit it while not looking versus a physical knob.

There's a reason Euro NCAP requires physical climate controls for ca models to get a five star safety rating starting in 2026.

[stephenr]

Backup cameras are an enormous safety improvement.

You know that a backup camera can be added to practically any car right? My ~2002 Toyota has a Pioneer deck from around 2007 (I guess?) that supports reversing camera input. My wifes 2012 Toyota hybrid has a reversing camera using some POS cheap Chinese deck that's so shit it doesn't even support Bluetooth audio.

No part of reversing cameras are dependent on any of the "modern" trends in cars that are being discussed here.

[sagarm]

I responded to a comment about screens.

[stephenr]

You don't need 'dual 12.3" touch screens' for a reversing camera.

[sagarm]

I should have mentioned a digital dashboard is also cheaper than a traditional one, I guess. But isn't that obvious?

[46493168]

Does Nissan still air cool their batteries or have they wised up?

[i80and]

The 2026 redesign has put in a proper liquid cooling loop.

(Battery heating is inexplicably an extra $300 option, and not available on the base trim AFAICS?)