For over a century, the automobile has represented freedom, power, and the thrill of mechanical mastery. The connection between driver, machine, and road defined what it meant to own and love a car. But in today’s digital era, a different trend is unfolding. Cars are no longer just machines designed to take us from point A to point B. Increasingly, they resemble something else entirely: smartphones on wheels.
Imagine a car without cellular connectivity
You mean, like the car that I drive currently? It’s pretty tough to picture, honestly.
Tough to picture? Maybe improve your arts skills.
No need to improve your art skills. All you need to do now is feed your 2026 Civic some keywords to generate an AI image.
Archive link to an FAQ for the Slate electric trucklette that claims no sim cards and minimum digital bits. No clue if it will be a good vehicle so don’t take this as an endorsement. https://archive.ph/PMKpC
Anyone know other options?
Find a car that fits your needs and then pull the fuse powering the sim card before it leaves the lot. If it breaks, put the fuse back and don’t buy it.
My 2019 corolla lost the right speaker and mic access when I did that. I fixed the right speaker by crossing some wires, and the mic hasn’t really been needed enough for me to dig deeper to fix it.
Fucking sim cards in cars. I hate everything.
Suzuki Jimny, still comes in a very basic electrical system
Have they ever made an electric car that didn’t have that fucking SHIT ?
My 2015 Nissan Leaf asks every few weeks if I want to allow the telematics to phone home. When you say no, it obeys. (I also removed the SIM card anyways.)
Yes, plenty. The pre-faclift Ioniq for example
You can convert an older car to electric. As basic as it gets but with a new mode of power
When I ask car people about that they say (basically) “no, it won’t fit”.
Yes, there can be challenges about where to put the batteries, and some vehicles are certainly easier than others. But that hasn’t stopped a LOT of people from doing it anyways.
30 seconds of internet searching will show plenty of retrofits. One guy retrofitted a 1980s Delorean with a Chevy Bolt electric powertrain, and now it accelerates twice as fast as it ever did with gasoline.