The SEMA show in Las Vegas is coming up, and this massive industry event has given automakers an excuse to build wildly modified versions of real production cars. Nissan is joining the party with something called the Sentra Spec V concept, but there’s an asterisk for now. In an age of easily-generated slop, someone pulling the levers seems to have published images of this concept car with some anomalies. Let’s take a look.
While there may have been a Sentra Nismo available to buy as recently as 2019, that thing only offered 188 horsepower. To get a properly hot Sentra, you’re going to have to go back somewhere between 2012 and 1991 depending on your definition of hot. 2012 for the final year of the 200-horsepower Renault Megane-related SE-R Spec-V, 2006 for the final year of its predecessor, and 1991 for the first year of the original SE-R. The one that started it all.
On paper, a Sentra with a 300-horsepower two-liter turbocharged engine, a manual gearbox with a limited-slip differential, GT-R Recaro seats, massive Brembo brakes, and the requisite suspension mods sounds enormously tantalizing. Although it’s a one-off in its current form, it sounds a vision of what a Sentra fettled to fight the Honda Civic Type R and Hyundai Elantra N would be like. There’s just one problem: The photos Nissan’s released of it appear to, at the very least, have AI-generated components. Huh?
Motor 1 was the first outlet to point out that something is off with these press photos, and the front-three-quarter shot above reveals something strange. Look at that C-pillar treatment. That’s not the current Sentra’s C-pillar treatment, and the trailing edge of the rear door glass is completely the wrong shape.
Above is closer to what the greenhouse and C-Pillar are supposed to look like, but what’s going on with the front emblem?
It should say “Nissan” but it just doesn’t. Instead, it looks like a series of mutated scribbles have replaced the text everyone expects to be there.
Next up, here’s the profile shot Nissan provided, and there’s something obviously wrong here. That quarter window on the C-Pillar isn’t actually a window on a real Sentra, but instead just a piece of black plastic trim. Nevertheless, it’s rendered as actual glass here, with a transparent section and frit for bonding it to the C-pillar and all.
Also, what is going on with the lug nut situation? All of them aren’t the same size or indeed, equidistant around each lug circle.
Around back, that C-pillar applique continues to erroneously be rendered as an actual window, but there’s another bit of weirdness here. The Sentra Spec V concept supposedly comes on Yokohama Advan AD09 tires, but that’s not the tread pattern of the AD09 displayed in this photo. An AD09 has two wiggly circumferential grooves, while these tires have three straight ones and completely different lateral grooves.
Moving to the interior: what’s going on with the Sparco logos on the passenger harness’s shoulder belts, along with the safety labelling further down on the harnesses? Those aren’t the right logos, and the text is completely illegible. These weren’t ultra-low-resolution images here, so fuzzy appearances of familiar letters should be discernible if these images were completely real.
At least the engine shot looks legit – at first glance. But upon closer inspection, the text on the brake fluid reservoir cap has been reduced to mush that sure looks like an artifact of AI. What gives?
Needless to say, I’ve reached out to Nissan for comment on the matter, and will update this as soon as I hear more. Building something cool for SEMA is great, but releasing slop like this undermines the whole project by casting doubt on how much of this is legitimate. Also, you’d expect a project like this with a custom Bomex body kit to be built in CAD these days, so why not use those renderings for exterior teasers? Answers on a postcard…
UPDATE: We now have a statement from Nissan, and I’ve inserted the full thing below.
The Sentra Spec-V Concept is a physical vehicle that was photographed in a real-world garage setting. During post-production, AI-assisted editing tools were used to create and refine elements of the image backgrounds. In that process, unintended inaccuracies were introduced to some vehicle details in the published images.
We’re working with our creative partners to replace the affected assets with corrected imagery, and we appreciate the feedback that brought the issue to our attention. We regret any confusion the edited images may have caused.
The Sentra Spec-V Concept itself is exactly that: a real, physical concept vehicle. We look forward to showing it in person when it makes its SEMA debut next week.
Basically, it sounds like an external creative partner (it’s extremely uncommon for OEMs to have in-house photographers for shooting vehicle media sets) used AI tools to edit actual photographs, and this slop-affected set made it past review, all the way out to publication. On the one hand, it’s great that Nissan’s aware of the problem and is working to fix it. On the other, it’s hard not to wonder how these sloppified photos made it out in the first place.
Top graphic images: Nissan; DepositPhotos.com
This is nothing we can’t fix with about 5,000 more data centers. What were we even using all that farm land and national parks for anyway?
Yes, there are errors. But a few years ago it would have been errors from typical bad photoshopping. Every time you Google something, you are using AI. It isn’t going away, and like every technology, it will improve and have bugs with newer features.
“It will stop sucking eventually” is not much of a reassurance when I look at the sacrifices we are all being told to make for the sake of AI.
That’s….. a Corolla? Albeit – with a Nissan rear light setup.
But good god, I guess having an original design is completely dead?
this would never happen with SI
The disc brakes look very funky, as well.
Tellingly, no shot of the AI-generated paving stone floorboards.
PROVE IT. IMMEDIATELY AND WITHOUT DELAY.
it’s not bad if you don’t look at it closely. someone typed in “hey gemini, make this sentra look cool” and then Nissan said et voila.
Kissing lug-nuts aside, the c-pillar isn’t even consistent between photos. AI-slop is getting better, but it will always be a bunch of code trying to guess what comes next if you paint pixel A white and pixel B black. There is no soul or emotion underlying its decisions.
I’d love to hear what Adrian has to say about the bots being employed to replace human designers, and whether there is a place for this technology alongside creative talent. It would also be hilarious to get his take on this Sentra concept, ut I worry that Nissan will just feed that into the prompt for the “spec V2” unveiling.
Glass CVT, white Sentra, live for New Year’s Eve. Sloppy AI steaks at SEMA. Big, rare cut of AI with water dumped all over it. Water splashing around the table makes the night so much more fun. After the club, go to SEMA for sloppy AI steaks. They’d say, “No sloppy AI steaks.” But they can’t stop you from ordering an AI steak and a glass of water. Before you knew it, we were dumping that water on those AI steaks. The waiters were coming to try and snatch ’em up. We had to eat as fast as we could.
It’s amazing to me that a year ago, this was AI output, and today people want AI to write their emails and their legal documents for them.
On a somewhat related note, I got baited by AI enhanced photos on a car recently. Not sure how the seller thought that someone expecting a pristine looking car would still buy it when they get there and it has peeling paint and a cracked bumper among other defects, but 100% frustrating. AI seems to be ruining just as many things as it is helping.
Honestly, to my eyes it looks a lot more like a Corolla than a Sentra.
Came here to say that. Take a look at the Corolla:
https://www.toyota.com/configurator/build/step/color/year/2027/series/corolla/model/1852/exteriorcolor/0089/interiorcolor/FB10/packages/FE/?bap_guid=b165a6aa-72ca-4df1-8686-7e47b53fd809
Big AI energy.
Didn’t Nissan close a number of design offices along with turning to more AI in design as part of its (latest) restructuring.
So not surprising?
I hope all the calls they get to schedule test drives are from AI.
Well isn’t that what Toyota is doing?
https://www.gumtree.com/news/cars/toyota-advertising-cars-to-ai
Well, if you were to ask me which car manufacturer would pull something like this, my first guess would certainly be Nissan.
I would have gone with Tesla, because Grok, but Nissan would be a close second for sure.
On a sorta unrelated, kinda related note – I recently noticed that Suzuki ads (yup, somehow the brand is still alive here in Europe) use CGI models instead of real cars, at least for the videos.
Which on one hand shouldn’t be that surprising: after all, it’s easier – and probably cheaper – to make a CGI model running with some nice scenery in the background than actually shooting the ad IRL.
Then again, if the ad agency has to use CGI to make the car look good…it just feels cheap and sloppy.
CGI is still better than AI. At least it still takes effort and skill while being more environmentally friendly.
As someone who used to do work in advertising, I can tell you that the S.S. Entirely CGI Car sailed well over a decade ago.
Cars were one of the first things we were able to make really good in CG.
Interesting, I thought that it’s the more recent thing. Goes to show that convincing CG goes a long way.
i love so much when automakers use ai!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Someday the books they write about this era are going to be fascinating. Assuming books haven’t been banned by then.
Why would the AI write books?
Because AI #1 asked AI #2 to determine a new book that humans will buy and read, and AI #2 determined humans would want to read about how AI was born. AI #2 reported this to AI #1 who then told AI #3 to go write the book. AI #3 then put the book up on Amazon, which was purchased by Consumer AIs on behalf of their owners based on their vast consumer habits data.
I can’t wait for the future!
“It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?” Stupid monkey!
Heh, AI is kind of our attempt to implement infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters.
So far so good, but I hope we get to the part where it cures cancer and stuff pretty soon.
And to guess correctly which monkey is right. Not always with convincing results.
An awful lot have been, especially in Florida.
Wow… their use of AI is almost as insane as running 300hp through a CVT and calling it sporty.
I’ll have you know that Nissans have been doing big power CVTs for a long time! People were boosting their Altima Coupes 20 years ago!
(Don’t confuse “doing big power for a long time” with “the cars with big power lasted for a long time”. They didn’t. The transmissions exploded very quickly).
They forgot the obligatory donut spare…
According to the original Nissan press release, this thing is headed for SEMA. If the physical concept is identical to those images (slop aside), then this is just business in 2026.
I don’t understand why they would use AI since they already have designers on the payroll but, hey, in an insane world, a sane man must appear insane, right?
Side note, the plastic on the C-Pillar is accurate. This was a cost-saving measure for 2026 and forward.
Don’t care how the image was generated, but I do like the design itself. Memories of the mid 90s flipping through old car modding magazines.
Anyone remember what magazines even were??
AI is a dumb move, but if they are really making a 300HP Sentra that’s pretty cool.
Note how in the low rear-quarter shot the front and rear wheels are at the same odd angle?
And why would Recaro seats use Sparco belts?
Next you’re gonna tell me they have no intentions of making this…..pshaw
at least back in the day they’d use the “it’s a design exercise” line to let us down easy rather than say “yah, you rubes, there’s no way this is being made”. Is it still a design exercise if AI just makes it?
It’s an exercise, but not a vigourous exercise.
Exercise in the same sense as riding an emoto on a bike trail is exercise.