this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Once again a misleading headline: No, Nissan isn't evil trying to force people to buy a new car (Edit: well maybe a bit, see replies). Those older cars rely on 2G connectivity, which is soon to be shut down in the UK, so they are sunsetting support for the features relying on it..
TL;DR: The 2G network they rely on is shutting down.
Well this isn’t really true. The 2G network won’t be shut down for another 6-10 years. They are using it as an excuse to turn off their servers and save some money without supporting people they have already taken money from.
I'm not in the UK so I don't really know, I'm just saying the headline is misleading, and I'm just summarizing the article. Yes, I checked again, the article does mention the networks won't go down immediately, so maybe Nissan is a bit evil, or maybe there's something else the article isn't saying.
As a UK Nissan Leaf owner I’ll explain, they basically have given up on existing customers. They don’t really care about us anymore. The app works okay and does the bare minimum but it is clunky and slow. They have a new app for all models over 2019 or 2020 and it works better and is significantly easier for them to update and maintain.
The 3G service in the UK will go first as the 2G service provides a lot of emergency failover. The 2G network has around 10 years of service left and even then will probably be left on longer.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/information-for-industry/policy/2g-and-3g-switch-off
They want rid of as many old app users as possible so they can save money on server and development costs, the problem is that even modern 2018 Leaf version still uses the crappy app and have 3G cellular which will fall back to the 2G side when the 3G goes (before the 2G cellular is fazed out) so to blame it on 2G is disingenuous as they still have to support the app for the 3G models and still have to use those on the 2G network as the 3G will go first. I looked at upgrading the module to a 3G or 4G but there is no point because even if you do that they are pulling the app functionality for the car rather than the signal.
There is an ODB add on by open vehicles that will restore the service and is actually loads better but is a bit of a janky hack. https://www.openvehicles.com/ we may do this if we really miss the functionality and desire a £250 solution with a £2 monthly connection fee. We shall see.
So Nissan maybe not evil. But certainly not being honest and transparent.
Nah, Nissan is at least kinda evil. Probably more than kind of.
I tend to agree. Used to be a front runner in EV. Now very much an after thought. All happened because Zero emission EV vehicles were the master plan of their CEO Carlos Ghosn who was either framed or actually did commit mass financial fraud depending who you believe.
Let's not forget the whole Nissan.com saga either.
Ah yes. Lay claim to someone’s domain even though they had the company name first and you were sloppy. But you are big and think you can just bully your way through life.
In 5+ years. Seems a bit premature.
Maybe not evil but not exactly good either. It's a computer in a car, they could offer the owners to buy a replacement part that works on (n+1)G.
And make it connect with an RJ-45 so you can swap out for a connection device for your own carrier instead of some stupid proprietary interface.
True, but maybe not physically possible. I doubt that the 2G module is a separate piece of hardware
I guarantee it's a separate piece of hardware. The leaf is sold all over the world and needs different hardware to work on all the different radio frequencies. There would be at least four or five different cell radio modules for the leaf.
Well, I said maybe is not physically possible, not that this is the cause.
But still, even being a separate piece of hardware does not make automatically possible to change it with a newer one.
Modularity costs money and they'd rather you pay for a whole new car, especially modern smart cars that have subscriptions to use hardware in the car you paid for (e.g. heated seats).
What you say about the subscription model is true, but I don't think this is the case. They simply went with the network that at the time had the biggest area covered, which would probably was 2G. (and it seems that they also used more recent modems in later models)
They simply, correctly, decide that having the widest area possible covered now is better than to have to maybe shutdown some services at a not yet known future time.
I don't know what you mean.
I think we already shut down most of the 2G and 3G in the USA, so those would already be offline here. It happened to my (gas) car already that was using the 3g network for its OnStar type service. But I had already disconnected it myself so it didn't matter
I had one of the first OnStar versions that used a 3-watt analog cell connection (this was when cellphones were 0.6w on the high side). Damn thing had coverage in the middle of the west Texas desert when my cell phone couldn’t even find a tower for miles.
3G still exists specifically for stuff like this (though more for remote monitoring devices, since this is a consumer device requiring a consumer account, it doesn't work).
It's just that as a consumer, you can't buy into 3G - there's no way to get service on 3G.
One car in my family is 3G only, and reports a cell connection everywhere we go (it just can't use it).
The oil/gas/pipeline (water) sector uses 3G monitoring devices all over the place.