This is one of those things that might actually serve to push the notion that digital devices (including cars now) should be required to be capable of installing independent operating systems, especially open source ones.
I’d absolutely require military devices to be driven by open source software. And yes, that’s a security liability, but security-by-obscurity is an even greater liability.
In the case of consumer devices, open-source access would be a means of protecting the end user from predatory software rife with dark patterns.
Yeah, there’s a guy in the crosswalk, but are you happy with your hemorrhoid ointment?
The first one to make a safe bare bones electric vehicle with no dash screen and solid state batteries wins.
slate.auto
I would absolutely hack a car to remove garbage like this. The people who paid the cost of entry for these cars may be putting up with it now, but that won’t go on forever as it slips down the model line into cars normal people can acquire.
And then they will all be asking, why are people buying chinese cars
I intentionally bought a car with the least intrusive ipad and if a company ever comes out with a car that is all analog I will only buy that car. Honestly the ipad wouldn’t even be needed if they just gave me a place to dock my phone.
Sounds like you’ll be buying a Slate.
I’d be shocked if it wasn’t illegal to hack your own car by now. People are very authoritarian about vehicles. They’re fine with unreasonable prices, mass surveillance, facial recognition, endless registries, and forced subscriptions (yes, that’s insurance) and eat up any justification the government gives them for it.
Y’all aren’t following gear head news, huh? https://www.slashgear.com/2092803/doj-no-charges-diesel-engine-delete-tune/ Yes, I hate coal rolling.
And I also LOVE using Forscan on the family truckster. Thing is, some big companies think it’s a good idea to make rules about what you’re allowed to access (open software, repair ability) instead of what you can do (emissions, road rules), and that’s the wrong way to have a free and organized civilization, but it’s great for profit.Tl;Dr right to repair is right to hack, don’t ban that but do enforce limits on how things are actually used.
It’s Hammer Time
this isn’t a problem for me, I have a Honda.
How considerate, after you watch the ad, they leave a new button on the dashboard, so you can watch the ad again and again
How long until you have to watch an ad before you can start going with the car?
Driver awareness camera detects inattentive driver. Ad restarting, please pay attention
McDonald’s \o/
Totally safe from this as I can’t fucking afford a new car.
How much can we pay to buy a PSA about using the fucking turn signals?
It’s a threat.
It doesn’t make things much better, but:
the ad appears when the car is started, with an option to play it or not being displayed on the screen. I suppose that’s better than it autoplaying, but just barely.
Also, it doesn’t play while you’re driving.
BTW, according to BMW it’s not an ad, lol:
To celebrate the partnership with Spider-Man™: Brand New Day, BMW has a special surprise for its drivers. The Spider-Man™ Animation will be available (in participating markets) to all customers with suitably equipped vehicles … bla bla bla
Once again: since there’s no way of getting around surveillance & IoT bullshit in cars, I’m just going to have to take extremely good care of my old clunker.
This would be a neat gimmick if it came with free tickets to the movie. Considering the price of the cars and the fact that only newish ones get the ad, they could afford it. It might even be positive PR.
I will continue to pray for Slate to not completely suck. There’s a “smart” module that has a cellular modem, but it’s something you have to opt into and pay for it.
Same. I have a 2016 Subaru Outback that I wouldn’t mind giving to my daughter, but like hell am I buying anything connected to the Internet and tracking my every drive (for profit). Slate and to a lesser degree: Rivian are my only EV choices right now.
Ah yes, this is a partneship, not an ad.
Some marketing executive earned their paycheck for the month by coming up with this…
I already hate the random length warning to obey road laws.
There isn’t much luxury in a car that annoys you with ads, is there?
But hey, maybe there’s an extra-super-luxury subscription that lets you turn off the ads. You know, like YouTube Premium or something, except that the free version already costs several tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s a win-win: insecure rich guys can feel superior again and BMW gets $.
There’s nothing like the freedom of having a car, trapped in a traffic jam, being forced to watch adverts. At least you won’t notice all the cyclists going past you.
What an awful “premium” brand. They’re the same ones trying for subscription access to heated seats, remote start, or driver assistance features among others.
What a crap brand.
If you willingly paid a premium price for a car where there’s a subscription to use built-in features that even “non-premium” brands have, then are ads on your screen really going to be a dealbreaker?
Especially if you can get rid of them for a small monthly fee.
That is the weirdest thing. I can understand bottom of the barrel economy brand going “The initial cash is small, but we will nickle and dime you on the service fees and show ads. What can you do, afford a different car? Don’t think so.”
Premium brand like BMW? What you smoking there in Bavary?
Your customers can afford to choose another car. Your price is high enough people expect smooth nice experience. Not annoying ads or clear pointless cash grabs like charging for already installed seat heaters. Sell the trim package or not.
What people will accept is “okay the maintenance and service at garage costs, if one wants to maintain this in nice condition”. Those suspension bushings, dampers, springs, tires and so on still need the normal amount of premium garage priced maintenance.
Exactly stupid nickel and dime cons like this are the fastest way to destroy brand image that takes decades to build, when I was ready to buy my first expensive Android phone I bought a Samsung Galaxy as I thought Samsung built good quality premium phones, and then I noticed that they had ads built into it through their default apps just like the budget android phone makers like Xiomi etc and I immediately lost all respect for the Samsung brand, my next phone was an iPhone after that
I leased a BYD seal for the last few weeks as an extended test drive and it has adverts on the screen you use to change the climate control so…
This is much more acceptable when the product itself is cheap. See also: “smart” TVs for a hundred bucks.
You’re lying.
Dunno why, but it’s kinda lame
Adverts for BY D own products are still adverts.
Truth hurts?
Ok you do you.
The adverts that I have never once seen when I drive my car?
Pretty cool how we live in some parallel reality
Or, you could just be full of shit
Tech companies do something called A/B testing where they will release a “feature” such as Ads to a segment of the user base and not to the others to see how they respond to decide if they want to release it to everyone, so yes in many instances we do live in parallel realities.
Maybe some have them, some don’t?
I think it’s already the case on turn signals, but nobody noticed
