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If you're in the states, new cars are legally required to have a screen for the back up camera.
Woah hold on so a backup camera is also a legally requirement? That sounds a bit too much hand-holding for me jeez. (But I'm used to old cars and motorcycles)
Ok looked it up, yup since May 2018! Interesting
I feel that backup cameras have become more necessary as crash safety rules have become more stringent. The belt line on cars is really high now. You can't see as much out of the sides or the back. My car from the early 2000s definitely had windows that were lower and I had no trouble parallel parking it without a camera. I appreciate the cameras on the newer vehicles. Easier parking is great but also.... not running over little kids is good too I suppose.
Good point about the lack of visibility.. my usual fear is that every new requirement becomes an excuse to only make expensive and heavy, tall monstrosities, but a camera and screen are very cheap today so those are more than okay I guess, just like seatbelts and airbags.
My Chevy Bolt is all Electric and has a real physical key that has to be in the cabin to drive. No app bullshit. The Bolt is currently out of production but any of the Chevy EV should be the same. Chevy never went full app-dumb and many of the modern convenience features are gates behind OnStar. I have a regular car remote for lock, unlock, and prestart.
The screen is used for the backup camera and the radio. The fan speed and where the air is directed is buttons but the temp and heat/AC status are controlled via the screen.
has a real physical key that has to be in the cabin to drive
🤨 the way you say "has to be in the cabin" makes me think it's not a real physical key, and is actually a wireless smart key that you leave in your pocket when starting the car.
It's got a metal key inside the housing that unlocks the doors and the fob sensor is actually inside the armrest so if the battery is dead you place the fob inside a pocket in the armrest and it authenticates your fob with NFC and you drive away. Closest I've seen in a modern car anywhere.
Well at least the physical key works for the doors. What year is that?
Yeah, I wish there was a company that made a fully dumb electric car, but there's just no incentive to do that. I have a 2014 gas car with a normal physical key that you use to turn start it, but I don't think I've ever seen an electric car where you have to use the physical key to start the car.
Yeah, I wish there was a company that made a fully dumb electric car
I’ve been thinking this too. How hard is it to start a car company, I wonder?
Mines a 2017 but they didn't change this over time as far as I understand. GM had a bad problem with the key-in-ignition a few years ago and will likely never use them again.
so if the battery is dead [...] and you drive away.
what do you mean?
If the key fob battery is dead it still has a physical key that is removed from the key fob to unlock the doors and can still interface with the car via NFC to allow operation of the vehicle once inside (not op but I have a car with that going on so I’m making the assumption).
I got the Hyundai Kona to be a simple small barebones EV and it has done that. It's going to have the same bells and whistles most people expect, but I did also get a physical key with it.
Had it just over a year now and love it. It's a great car
I can't think of a current EV that is completely without a touchscreen or proprietary OS, but there is quite a big selection of cars with physical keys and controls. For example, if you look at Kia's current EV lineup, features like voice control, digital keys etc are all available, but completely optional. There are physical buttons and levers for almost everything you need while driving, like volume, temperature, fan speed etc.
I don't think Chevy's do any of those either.
The Dacia Spring might be the closest to a no frills EV I'm aware of outside of China
UpMiiGos as well.
Ford is kinda doing it. The Mustang MachE and the f150 lightning both have physical keys, but the MachE and higher trim lightnings are very touch screen dependent. They have all the driving stalks and such, but to even turn the ac settings requires touch screen and worse menus. The lightning lower trims (XLT and pro) have a smaller screen and a lot more physical controls. There are still a couple things that are buried in the touch screen, but most anything you need while driving has a physical button. Pull a fuse to disable modems and it can’t even phone home to Ford anymore.
If you can find a 23 XLT you might even be able to get the extended range battery. 24 and later all ER batteries were tied to trim packages that included the big screen and fewer buttons.
If you can fleet order, you can get Pro trims with ERs, but they’re really hard to find in the wild.
My Mustang Mach-E has a physical key, or you can use your phone as a key, or in a pinch, you can set up a door code and an activation code to start it. The physical key still isn’t an actual key, though. It just needs to be near your car. There’s no physical lock in the door or the dash.
I like a mix of mechanical and some software, and several of the EVs I looked at had that mix. I liked Polestar for the mix of stalks and levers + some good tech making my life easier, but they really messed up outsourcing their software to Infosys. As for the key situation, many give you the option of app or actual key…they just boast about the app because they think it’s cooler.
they just boast about the app because they think it’s cooler.
From a privacy and security perspective, I can’t think of anything worse. As well as that, how long will they support the app for?
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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