Disney's 'A Wrinkle in Time' premiere features custom Nissans
Nissan transformed three Leaf EVs into show cars bursting with color and light, including special touch-sensitive LED windows made to mimic some of the special effects in "A Wrinkle in Time."
When Nissan partnered up with Disney to create custom cars for "The Last Jedi," it used a variety of models from their lineup; this time around, it decided to modify three identical 2018 Nissan Leaf EVs for the premiere of "A Wrinkle in Time." Each car is inspired by one of the "Mrs." characters from the film, with custom wraps made to resemble one of their most memorable looks. We've got the lowdown on the design over at Roadshow; I wanted to spend my time in this article talking about those magical-looking windows.
They're screens -- LED panels layered onto every window and mapped together in 3D space. The effect is an almost ethereal glow across all three cars, with light shimmering and shifting in a rainbow of color. It's a really striking, immersive effect -- but that's not the only bit of technology happening here. All of the windows are also touch-enabled, so when anyone makes contact with any of the windows, they come to life and ripple across all three cars seamlessly. The team behind the effect is from Symmetry Labs, and they used custom capacitive touch sensors made out of transparent film containing a thin conductive silver layer. It's specifically engineered to have a localized capacitive grid to detect user input. The result is almost indistinguishable from magic, which feels fitting considering the source of inspiration.
Check out our video about the screens, and then hit up Roadshow for more information about each car's design (and the character that inspired each vehicle).