NissanConnect EV / Telematics Hardware Update, for the post-2G world

If you ever expect to sell or trade in the Leaf, you would do it. How would you explain why that feature does not work - you did not want to spend $100 to prevent disabling a factory feature? What else didn't you fix?

Roadburner440 said:

I got an email and a hard copy in the mail today as well. I have to say for me the magic number is less than $1k as well.

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Let me make sure I understand you correctly...You're talking $1000 out of your own pocket for the new TCU hardware, assuming no new functionality? I use CARWINGS/Nissan Connect EV several times every day (to monitor charging progress at work), and especially to pre-heat my car in the winter. I would REALLY miss being able to do that. But my price limit is more in the $50-100 range. As much as I would miss the ability to pre-heat, I couldn't really justify spending any more than that for a service that in the end really only lets me start/monitor charging and pre-heat/cool the car. And if they get any cute ideas about charging a subscription fee that's more than $25/year, I'm out as well.

Now if part of this re-work enables some additional functionality (even as simple as stopping charging), then okay, I can see spending a bit more. But I really don't expect that. I expect this to be nothing more than a drop-in replacement with the same cruddy Nissan app & ridiculously slow service (I don't think the slowness is due to 2G, but rather just a horrible implementation on the Nissan servers).

For our records, I just came out of a 2013 Leaf using 2G to a 2016 Leaf that has the 3G modem on it. The sluggishness of response is worse on the 2016 model than what it was on the 2013 model.

You are right...it has nothing to do with the cellular network speed. It is about how the communication is implemented on the Nissan Servers. Fixing this cannot be a huge feat. All Nissan needs is a dedicated team of 8-10 software engineers to fix its slow, insecure and often broken telematics system.

lpickup said:

I would REALLY miss being able to do that. But my price limit is more in the $50-100 range.

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Ditto. It's going to mean diddly-squat to resale value. And I'm probably going to replace the Leaf with a Tesla in 2-3 years. So it's just not going to be worth the additional expense for me.

Now if they would shut the Nag screen on startup when the service goes away, that would be great!

If you were trading it in, they would never know...

mjblazin said:

If you ever expect to sell or trade in the Leaf, you would do it. How would you explain why that feature does not work - you did not want to spend $100 to prevent disabling a factory feature?

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mjblazin said:

If you ever expect to sell or trade in the Leaf, you would do it. How would you explain why that feature does not work - you did not want to spend $100 to prevent disabling a factory feature? What else didn't you fix?

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Not worried about that, though at $100 I would do it. If its $1000, there is no way you will ever get that back in "resale value". I have no problem explaining that I did not want to spend $1000 (or even $3-400) to replace a techie feature that works poorly and which I rarely used. Meanwhile, I have every record of everything I did to the car regarding maintenance, mods, accessories...

lpickup said:

Let me make sure I understand you correctly...You're talking $1000 out of your own pocket for the new TCU hardware, assuming no new functionality?

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I quite enjoy the app. It is slow for sure, but I like being able to defrost my windows and leave home/work the moment I step in to the car. I also intend on keeping my car for the long haul, and keeping the functionality is important to me. I figured they were just going to let the Gen1's drop off the radar. So I was beginning to have the thoughts that I would have to figure a way to do it some other way if it was even possible. Hopefully it is way cheaper, but I am just being realistic. I am shocked they are even offering to cover any cost. They should have all the data they could ever need from all the cars on the road. So I don't see how it is benefiting them to upgrade the cars at all. I will certainly take it though.

Roadburner440 said:

Hopefully it is way cheaper, but I am just being realistic. I am shocked they are even offering to cover any cost. They should have all the data they could ever need from all the cars on the road. So I don't see how it is benefiting them to upgrade the cars at all. I will certainly take it though.

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There is a "realistic" figure of how much you think it would cost, and even how much you think they will charge, but there is also a figure of how much each of us is willing to pay. Those numbers are not necessarily the same (and probably are not). In my case, I would estimate the hardware & labor to install would fall into the $250 range; I expect Nissan to charge us about $50-100 for the upgrade; my own threshold is $25-50. Just because I think a realistic cost for the upgrade is $250 does not mean I'm willing to pay it!

As for Nissan's motivation for supporting the older cars...they already have to create a solution for the 2015 MY (and I would argue 2014 as well), otherwise their customers would raise a $#!+storm that their 1-2 year old car that was sold to them with telematics capability are useless. And I suspect the solution they come up will be able to work in the older vehicles as well, as I don't believe the TCU has changed. And while the argument is a bit weaker for owners of 2011-2013, the fact is that an EV is a special type of vehicle that almost REQUIRES telematics support due to its unique requirements to control and monitor charging, so it's reasonable to assume that 2011-2013 owners would raise quite a stink as well (and may still if it's too expensive!) I'm not too surprised that they made the decision to include those years.

At least by the time I bought my MY 2015 Leaf, I had to sign a very clear disclosure statement indicating that CarWings would / could go away at the end of 2016.

I don't think I, or anyone else who signed that, would have a legal or moral leg to stand on.

My takeway: Nissan did not HAVE to do this for me, but I'm very grateful that they are.

Oh Nissan, even GM has 4g in every car. You might consider upgrading the celeron server that all these requests go though, but I suspect that the copy of unix you bought on ebay 15 years ago is so old no one is capable of hacking it.

Elephanthead said:

Oh Nissan, even GM has 4g in every car. You might consider upgrading the celeron server that all these requests go though, but I suspect that the copy of unix you bought on ebay 15 years ago is so old no one is capable of hacking it.

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I've still got (2) TRS 80 With the printer etc.

Evoforce said:

I've still got (2) TRS 80 With the printer etc.

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And I'm pretty sure I have that COMPUTER GAMES book in the upper right still lying around!

Roadburner440 said:

lpickup said:

Let me make sure I understand you correctly...You're talking $1000 out of your own pocket for the new TCU hardware, assuming no new functionality?

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I quite enjoy the app. It is slow for sure, but I like being able to defrost my windows and leave home/work the moment I step in to the car. I also intend on keeping my car for the long haul, and keeping the functionality is important to me. I figured they were just going to let the Gen1's drop off the radar. So I was beginning to have the thoughts that I would have to figure a way to do it some other way if it was even possible. Hopefully it is way cheaper, but I am just being realistic. I am shocked they are even offering to cover any cost. They should have all the data they could ever need from all the cars on the road. So I don't see how it is benefiting them to upgrade the cars at all. I will certainly take it though.

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Would add that I thought the main reason for this system was Nissan "Big Brother" pulling operating stats from their customer's vehicles. If they want to track my car around then they will ante-up and replace the hardware. Personally, I can live without it. Similar attitude to when I got an email from my Chevy truck with the current odometer reading (was parked inside unused for several weeks) reminding me to bring it in for service. I unplugged that damn thing...

All I can say is they better make the Head unit parts available to those of us that do not have a Dealer within in Range. Since buying my 2011 LEAF i moved to Oregon and we do not have a Dealer here not even close.


Bad move again Nissan. And wheres the Free charging Card Love they promised us 2011 LEAFERS in 2014.

Still love my LEAF but not so much Nissan.

thew said:

And wheres the Free charging Card Love they promised us 2011 LEAFERS in 2014.

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I wasn't aware they ever did that?
I had heard about the card for the new Leafs, but not originals...

Wow, you moved smack dab between 2 Aerovironment sites. At least you have one 30 miles in each direction. ;-)
I use the West Coast Electric Highway (AVNet) daily.. Nice to have...

Love the Oregon Coast.. Pretty good charging. ;-) Have a good one..

desiv

Maybe a dumb question, but since I have an S, this doesn't apply to me, right? I got the letters from Nissan too (and they know I have an S), so it made me wonder.

A bit of a warning regarding 3G - I work in telecommunication (in EU, but I often speak with people from US operators) and both in EU and USA, we expect 3G to start shutting down in 2019 (my employer actually has a plan to start removing 3G in 2018). Complete shutdown will happen a bit later, but from 2018, dont expect operators to replace broken 3G HW - it would be either removed, or replaced with working HW from less important location.

Rebel44 said:

A bit of a warning regarding 3G - I work in telecommunication (in EU, but I often speak with people from US operators) and both in EU and USA, we expect 3G to start shutting down in 2019 (my employer actually has a plan to start removing 3G in 2018). Complete shutdown will happen a bit later, but from 2018, dont expect operators to replace broken 3G HW - it would be either removed, or replaced with working HW from less important location.

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Nissan will have it's 3G fix ready just in time for that to become obsolete. I cannot imagine the cost of a LTE radio being much more than a 3G one, especially if you take into account the cost of doing a recall.

Will the new radio be needed to get NissanConnect back up and running? Maybe that is the delay? Perhaps they should have put the smallest of protections in place when they connected their cars to the public network?