Last week, a Jeep driver took to Reddit to report persistent ads for an extended warranty appearing on their car's display whenever they braked. Stellantis, Jeep's parent company, attributed this to a glitch affecting a small number of vehicles, though they acknowledge using similar promotions for other models. This incident raises broader safety concerns among experts about the practice of in-car advertising, especially as automakers increasingly integrate technology into vehicles to explore new revenue streams through upselling strategies.
Ads are annoying and occasionally insidious; an ad that repeatedly appears inside one's own car more so. According to other online posts on Reddit and Jeep forums, the issue goes back several years, affecting several models of Jeeps.
Should ads be showing up inside cars at all? Safety experts have serious questions about the practice. But as automakers continue to explore how to make more money off their increasingly digitized and internet-connected wheels, the temptation to upsell on the center console may be too good to pass up.
Stellantis says that, on average, customers receive about two in-vehicle messages annually, containing safety, maintenance, or marketing information.
This is an isolated incident affecting fewer than ten vehicles at this time limited to the US, Dan Reid, a spokesperson for the automaker, wrote in a statement.
Collection
[
|
...
]