Carplay not connecting with car audio/microphone after IOS26

Iphone 15 pro with ios 26.01, 2023 Nissan Titan using carplay via USB-C: Carplay mostly worked fine until I updated to iOS26, and now 26.01 - it's terrible. I took the truck to Nissan and they tested the connection with their phone running iOS 18 without problem. Here are some of the problems since the 26 update:

• While streaming music, if I say, Hey Siri. Music stops as if she is listening/responding, but I do not hear her prompts. I cannot tell her anything, and I lose streaming music until I unplug/reconnect.
• If using GPS with voice prompts for directions, these prompts do not play while in carplay.
• If plugged in to carplay and I try to use voice-to-text, the microphone spins but it does not record any text and eventually stops. Any music paused does not reactivate and I have to unplug/reconnect.
• If I receive a phone call and try to answer it, no one can hear me and I cannot hear them, though the call is connected. I have to disconnect from carplay to talk to the caller.
• Carplay continually disconnects and shows "no devices found".

Steps I have tried:

• Took it to Nissan - no problems using iOS18, basically told me Apple broke it.
• Tried as different USB-C cable - no fix
• Tried unpairing the phone and repairing - no fix
• Tried changing different Siri settings and just made it more annoying when not connected to carplay
• Tried resetting to factory settings on my phone - no fix
• Tried wifi connection instead of cable - no fix
• Bluetooth seems to work fine for audio but lose functionality of carplay

Overall, there seems to be a problem with carplay connecting to the car's audio and microphone system while in Carplay. Please FIX THIS BUG ASAP!!!! It makes the car basically unusable in 2025 and it's because of this update. I was hoping I could reset the phone to the original iOS but unfortunately it just reloaded 26 and I am stuck since I foolishly didn't back up before updating (lesson learned).