Hi, it’s Jeep again, texting about your car’s extended warranty…
Jeep owners took to social media this week with a new complaint: many are receiving repeated pop-up ads on their cars’ infotainment screens asking them to sign up for an extended warranty. The ad, some say, appears every time their car rolls to a stop.
“Purchase Peace of Mind,” the ad reads, encouraging owners to click a button to call about a FlexCare Extended Care Premium Plan. The ad notes that cars must have less than 36,000 miles on the odometer to qualify, but owners whose cars are over that limit say they’re getting the intrusive ads, too. Clicking X to close the screen just brings it back at the next stop.
Jeep parent company Stellantis has acknowledged the issue. MSN reports, “They at
42 Comments
ypeterholmes
Advertising has gotten out of control. What's bizarre to me is that the people violating us are literally the ones who want something from us. Is there no way to boycott anyone advertising in our car? AND the car itself of course.
autoexec
Can they take the car back? I'd want to return it. No one should reasonably be expected to ask if their car is going to shove ads in their face before buying. Was this something they saw during test drives?
Increasingly, it looks like my next new car is going to have to be an old car.
recursivedoubts
you will live to see man made enshitification beyond your comprehension
mikestew
Speaking of ads, my Pi-hole about caught on fire when that page loaded, and there's still ads that it missed. The irony, given the article topic, is not lost on me.
spudlyo
You wouldn't run an ad blocker on your car…
> But the problem could presage a more significant issue for future drivers. Last year, Ford filed a patent for an in-car advertising system that would use the car’s speakers and display screen to serve ads to drivers and passengers. That system would also use the car’s GPS tracker to serve ads relevant to the driver’s route.
This is some Black Mirror type dystopian vision of the future for me. Just like nowadays you can't buy a "dumb TV" I imagine in the future it might be impossible to buy a dumb car that doesn't have these kinds of features built into the head unit.
mfro
Year of The Adult Depend Undergarment
EGreg
As I was reading this story, a pop-up advert appeared.
They’re everywhere, man! Isn’t it time to have an alternative to capitalism? UBI and cooperative gift economies (science, open source etc.)
LeoPanthera
Previouslies:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43009682
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43163333
doublerabbit
lol, you think Jeep care?
Backlash sure, but five years later they're probably put advertising in your steering wheel.
NickC25
Absurd that cars are now seen as an advertising platform by car makers. A car's stereo or display system randomly blasting ads at you (the driver) should be treated for what it really is – intentionally distracting the driver when the vehicle is in operation. That shit should be illegal. It's dumb at best, and incredibly dangerous at worst.
micromacrofoot
Someone should try to press this as a lemon law issue
> A vehicle is considered a lemon if it has at least one defect that substantially that impairs the use, safety, or market value and the car has not been repaired after a reasonable number of attempts.
throw94040
There are legal sanctions for refusing to update software in a car, and for blocking it from internet. There is no way out!
reverendsteveii
It used to be a compromise: a product was free and ad-supported, a one-time cost up-front or a subscription. Now these capitalists think they can have it coming, going and staying right here with a car that you buy, that has subscription services in it and still shows you ads. I won't ever buy a car that shows ads and if all the cars on the market show ads I will break mine so that it stops doing that.
elzbardico
Find out the addresses of Jeep Executives. Get a car with giant loudspeakers and outdoor projectors and display ads at their houses 24/7.
ImJasonH
> Get More From KBB.com / Simply choose the content you'd like to receive below and we'll send it straight to your inbox.
The irony.
jmward01
> “They attributed the persistent nature of the ad to a temporary software glitch that affected the opt-out functionality in certain cases…"
I attribute the glitch to the fact that ads are being presented at all. Seriously. Why would anyone buy from these people? How can someone look at the electronics in a modern vehicle and not think that they are a huge negative and not a positive? I Would love it if those electronics were there for me but it has been clear for a long time now that they are there to take advantage of me. Every touch screen/gps screen/etc makes me think 'this vehicle tracks everything I do, sells it to my worst enemy and will advertise/nag me to make more money and not to help me out'
vondur
Ha, maybe they will reduce the price of the vehicles if the owner agrees to ads? Much like the Amazon Kindle with the ad supported versions.
gregw134
> Last year, Ford filed a patent for an in-car advertising system that would use the car’s speakers and display screen to serve ads to drivers and passengers
I've owned Ford stock for 10 years, I think I'll finally sell it today
polski-g
If you are unhappy with these, you should contact your state legislators to have this practice banned. Particularly if you are in California.
notatoad
will stuffing them full of ads finally be the thing that convinces people to give up the emotional attachment they have to their cars?
jklinger410
Somewhat tangential: JEEP products that are not the traditional Wrangler and all of it's myriad variations are most likely the worst American vehicles ever made. I'm talking the Grand Cherokee, Wagoneer, Compass, etc.
This crap is being tried on that vehicle because JEEP drivers are some of the least discerning car buyers on the market. A perfect test bed for the most toxic features American manufacturers can imagine.
So it's a great sign that they are noticing and complaining. If this group can't handle it, hopefully they will consider it a failed experiment. For now.
hu3
Reason #999 for preferring home office.
Soon long commutes will mean even more exposure to ads.
It was already the case with billboards anyway.
Now billboards are being forced inside your car.
pavel_lishin
Is there anything new since this story 22 days ago that seems to cover the exact same events?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43009682
i1856511
I cannot read this article because of a pop-up ad on the website.
gotoeleven
Its this kind of stuff that made me a little disappointed when they figured out that that meteor was going to miss earth.
lenerdenator
This seems like something a car company would do if it were hurtling towards bankruptcy for the third time in a human lifetime.
And lo, that's exactly what Jeep's parent company, Stellantis, is doing.
motohagiography
we are in a cultural nadir of car design. vindicating that I bought a jeep with stick, rolldown windows, no bluetooth, no infotainment, no electric locks.
guess I'm about to become a vintage car collector.
ge96
I had a similar experience with a used Ford car I bought from CarMax trying to shove SiriusXM down my throat like please man.
aCodeCrafter
This makes me so glad I own 2003 Toyota Corolla
osmsucks
The distracting nature of ads is a problem here: on a computer or smartphone, it's merely an annoyance; behind the wheel of a massive and fast moving vehicle, it could lead to deaths.
IMHO ads in a car infotainment system should be outlawed. Let me focus on the road, and if I need to stare at the infotainment screen, let it be just for the GPS navigation.
rurp
This is disgusting. It's already getting hard to find new cars that don't include a bunch of "features" that make the experience worse. Something as greedy and adversarial as turning a personal vehicle into an ad platform is a hard no from me; I will never purchase a car with this included.
My one hope is that there are enough car manufacturers on the market for competition to stifle this. That doesn't work in many areas of tech because they are controlled by a monopoly or duopoly. Chrome is free to dump all over users because Google leveraged their other monopolies to drive out competition and gain a browser monopoly.
This kind of anti-consumer behavior that tech pioneered has really lowered my opinion of the whole industry.
GuestFAUniverse
Bill Hicks "seeds" didn't seem to have bloomed yet.
So here we go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHEOGrkhDp0
SJC_Hacker
Many industries have run out of ideas for new products/features. The only card they have left is more and more control of the lives. At least until AGI is reached when we're not needed and can be disposed of.
rpcope1
This among many other problems with "Jeeps" feel so profane given the marque's heritage. I guess there's good reasons you'll probably see a significant number of XJs, TJs, YJs, CJs and ZJs probably still rolling down the road (with basically all of the sheet metal replaced) long, long after the current crop of garbage has been crushed.
That all said, I would gladly fork over whatever money someone wanted just for a new XJ, just the way they were in 04 or 98, or a similar time machine GMT400 or GMT800 truck from GM.
jsight
My ad blocker was detected by their site that refused entry. I find that kind of stuff more annoying than an occasional notice that they'll let me extend a warranty.
Workaccount2
The likely outcome of this is going to be cars that will shove ads in your face, play repeatedly over the ad-fotainment system, and will track every movement you make, every place you visit, and require you to sign in with an account in order to drive it.
This will allow the car to be sold for thousands less, effectively allowing you to trade your soul for a $1000 down $150/mo lease of an otherwise bare bones car.
akomtu
Corporations is a clever way of organising people in such a way that all humanity in them is suppressed and whatever little evil in them is empowered. Corporations do so by putting a mask on employees that lets them act anonymously, on behalf of the corporation, and creating the only objective metric – profit. Anything that goes against this metric is ignored, and the few ideas that grow this metric are empowered. No normal person would dare to approach a Jeep customer face to face and try to poison his car with ads: such a confrontation would be unbearable to anyone with a somewhat functioning moral compass. However the same person can do this easily when covered by the corporate mask: not needing to confront the customer openly makes it much more bearable. Corporations wouldn't be able to do this with a bunch of saints – those would just sit idle and refuse to do this evil shit even under the mask of anonymity, but so long as some employees have a seed of evil in them and a bit of creativity, corporations will make that seed grow.
booleandilemma
What does the company's CEO drive? Does he get pop-up ads too?
blinded
That is so lame of them. Image having to watch an add before being able to turn on heated seats.
globular-toast
When I scrolled down on this page a thing popped up asking me to give my details to them. Nice.
inahga
I brutally ripped the cellular modem out of my Jeep and have not had this problem since then.
See https://sandsprite.com/blogs/index.php?uid=7&pid=462&year=20….
It has the drawback of breaking the GPS and compass. Also I imagine any recalls that are fixed via over-the-air updates won't apply. Hopefully that never happens, because I don't want to have to try to explain to the dealer that I need them to apply the update locally.
Molitor5901
https://archive.is/WZGea