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Jeep Introduces Pop-Up Ads That Appear Every Time You Stop

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  • Article Summery:

    In a move that has left drivers both frustrated and bewildered, Stellantis has introduced full-screen pop-up ads on its infotainment systems. Specifically, Jeep owners have reported being bombarded with advertisements for Mopar's extended warranty service. The kicker? These ads appear every time the vehicle comes to a stop. Imagine pulling up to a red light, checking your GPS for directions, and suddenly, the entire screen is hijacked by an ad. That's the reality for some Stellantis owners. Instead of seamless functionality, drivers are now forced to manually close out of ads just to access basic vehicle functions.

    One Jeep 4xe owner recently shared their frustration on an online forum, detailing how these pop-ups disrupt the driving experience. Stellantis, responding through their "JeepCares" representative, confirmed that these ads are part of the contractual agreement with SiriusXM and suggested that users simply tap the "X" to dismiss them. While the company claims to be working on reducing the frequency of these interruptions, the damage to customer trust may already be done.

  • Completely unsurprising while at the same time completely unfuckingreal

  • I think I'll just stick with my 2016 Civic and the infotainment system that just occasionally freaks out, but at least it doesn't show me ads.

  • This is not that new.

    Android auto would allow apps to play ads when the car was in park.

    After using the ad support version of Pandora for most of a decade, when the full screen video ad popped up on my 2016 work truck, it was immediately and permanently uninstalled. I used 128gb microSD in my phone instead.

    I've never used a streaming service for music again.

    • Yeah, that's another thing that bugs me about products that can be remotely-updated and especially those which don't currently represent an ongoing revenue stream. I think that it's a broader problem, too, not just cars.

      I was kind of not enthusiastic when I discovered that TenCent bought the video game Oxygen Not Included and started pushing data-harvesting updates into it via Steam. As things stand, that's optional. But any company could do the same with other games and not have it be optional. If you figure that all the games out there that have already been sold aren't actually generating revenue but do represent the option to push and execute code on someone's computer, they have value to some other company that could purchase them and monetize that.

      Then you figure that the same applies to browser extensions.

      And apps on phones.

      And all those Internet of Things devices that can talk to the network, cameras and microphones and all sorts of stuff.

      There's a lot of room for people to sit down and say "what I have is a hook into someone else's stuff...now what things might I do to further monetize that? Or who might I sell that hook to who might be interested in doing that?"

      Like, if I buy a product, all I can do when I make my purchasing decision is to evaluate the product as it is at purchase time. If the vendor also has the ability and right to change that product whenever they want, then what I'm actually buying is a pretty big question mark. And unless they've got some kind of other revenue stream on the line, their only real incentive to avoid doing so is the reputational hit they take...which for failing brands or companies, may not be all that large.

      One constraint for efficient markets is that the consumers in it need to be informed as to what they're buying. If they don't have that property, you can get market failure. And a consumer can't be informed about what he's buying if the person selling them the product can change that product at any point after purchase.

  • This isn't a new thing because even my decade old Toyota car with the SirusXM car radio automatically switches to the XM 1 radio station that advertises the SirusXM subscription service about once a month ever since I cancelled the subscription a year after the original three month one expired. Fuck that company and their monthly resubscribtion demand letters also!

    Hmm. I think that this is maybe kind of a fundamental problem with buying something that you want to keep with attached hardware from a company with a subscription service that you don't want.

  • Ah, just on the screen. If they had those HUD windshield projectors, they could put them on the windshield too. I mean, that's pretty much just unused eyeball space!

    EDIT: The car has an audio system too, and here, the ad-displaying system also controls the audio, so this muting nonsense that one runs into with web browser ads isn't a problem! They could have ads with an audio component!

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