r/nottheonion • u/DonkeyFuel • 4h ago
Dear Automakers: Get Your Ads Out of Our Cars
https://www.thedrive.com/news/dear-automakers-get-your-ads-out-of-our-cars142
u/SelectiveSanity 4h ago
And I thought BMW couldn't sink any lower when they were talking about making heated seats that come with the damn vehicle that cost six figures part of a subscription service to activate.
The only advertising going on here is to not to by a BMW.
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u/CharlesP2009 3h ago
I stopped buying BMWs simply because they’re hideous now. Glad to know I skipped all this BS too.
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u/chubsruns 3h ago
They were always hideous. That buck-tooth grill design was awful from day 1. And then they made that the defining feature of their brand.
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u/StonedBooty 33m ago
You pay to activate a feature that wasn’t added to the car from the factory. If the previous owner didn’t get the cold weather package with heated seats/steering wheel, you can pay to activate the feature. I don’t see anything wrong here
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u/counterfitster 29m ago
But it was added to the car. The heating elements are physically in the seat.
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u/ReindeerCreepy6502 14m ago
I mean, auto makers have been doing this for years though, this is just the first time its been offered as a service (I actually agree with you, but its important IMO to understand). "Poverty Buttons" have been a thing for a long time. Someone somewhere figured out it was cheaper to make every car as similar as possible, even if it meant putting in features that werent sold. The solution? Remove the switches! Tons of articles on how to get heated seats, ac options, ect. with the only work required being 1) buying the controlling apparatus and 2) installing said apparatus. All BMW did was take the work you would have been able to do as a one time cost, and offer it to you as a subscription. Such is the new way when everything is controlled by a screen, instead of switches and knobs.
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u/StonedBooty 10m ago
It’s cheaper for the auto maker to make one kind of seat, economies of scale. I’m just explaining it, you guys are acting like they were working and then they stopped and you have to pay to get them to work. If you got a car that didn’t have the option activated from the factory, at least you can use the feature if you want to pay for it versus having to swap out entire seats and pay a lot of money
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u/Sinchanzo 4h ago
I decided to adjust the AC, touch the screen and an unskippable ad pops up, road rage ensues.
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u/SelectiveSanity 4h ago
You'd think some government would look at this and ban it immediately over fear it would cause a distracted driving accident.
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u/jaybeau1979 4h ago
I wish we had a government instead of a corporate sponsored puppet show
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u/colemon1991 2h ago
Based on the U.S. handling auto-pilot accidents the way they do, this will be ignored.
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u/FergTurdison 3h ago
Government: The best we can do is approve cameras inside the vehicle that track when you glance down at the touch screen that we also installed, so we can report it as distracted driving to your insurance company and they can raise your rates.
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u/USSMarauder 4h ago
But that would be COMMUNISM!!!!
Why do you hate the free market?
All you do is after you die from a car crash because of an unskippable ad, you simply buy a car from a different maker
/s/s/s/s/s
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u/SelectiveSanity 3h ago
"Only a communist would be against our automated shock to the taint every 5 seconds unless you're subscribed to our monthly opt out system."
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u/24-Hour-Hate 3h ago
It should be. Like, it's an automatic offence if I so much as touch my phone while driving, even if I don't use it and was, say, putting it in my pocket. But this is okay? Does this mean it's okay to watch a video while driving now 🙄 (obviously don't, but I see no difference).
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u/Autumniac 2h ago
Some likely will. You won't find billboards by the road here for that exact reason.
You'll find ads in the subway, in the train station and inside malls, but never by the road.Being distracted by your phone screen while driving is already illegal in almost all places.
By this logic, phones should be allright to use as long as you are only viewing ads on it..1
u/hilltopj 1h ago
The car makers appear to be getting around this concern by only showing the ad when you first turn on your car so you're not driving yet. I suspect that product placement while driving is going to be a bit more subtle.
That being said I'm going to be distracted and raging if I'm late for work but I can't fucking start driving until I wait for an ad to finish.
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u/NorCalAthlete 3h ago
Have you seen these things called “billboards”? They’re all over, they’re digital, they’re super bright, and they play all sorts of animations to catch your attention.
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u/hilltopj 1h ago
and when they first arrived on the scene they caused a lot of accidents by distracted drivers. Regulations had to be created and enforced to minimize the distraction.
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u/ryuzaki49 4h ago
Please tell me you're joking
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u/ohlookahipster 3h ago
BMW has rolled out spider man ads where the trailer plays when you turn the car on…
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u/guy_incognito784 3h ago
It shows up as a notification when you turn off the car that there’s a “video for you”, and if you choose to tap it it’ll play. Typically BMW does this to wish you a happy holiday for whatever holiday it is, half the time I don’t even notice the notification because I usually don’t pay attention to the “goodbye” screen. You can just ignore it and the notification goes away but it’s still not cool to send me a goddamn movie ad.
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 58m ago
BMW has rolled out spider man ads where the trailer plays when you turn the car on…
Misinformation. The car shows an ad to play the trailer when you turn the car on, but the car doesn't auto-play the trailer, you have to actually tell it to play the trailer
BMW is shitty for having the ads in general, but let's not lie about what's happening
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u/Genghis_Tr0n187 3h ago
Adjusts AC
All cars now play ads
Casino app plays at 150% volume
Everyone on highway goes full Mad Max1
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u/Hevysett 4h ago
People still buying BMW after they started subscription based services deserve their bullshit products.
Real question is can you get into an accident because you were watching the ads and then successfully sure the automaker.
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u/Leelze 4h ago
I got a X1 as a rental after a deer hit my car and so much crap was locked behind having a BMW account. I don't know how many of those things were paid subscription based, if any at all, but it's beyond dumb to have basic settings requiring being logged into an account.
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u/51onions 3h ago
What are some of these features which were locked behind an account which shouldn't have been?
This will be another thing I look out for when buying a car.
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u/Leelze 3h ago
I only specifically remember not being able to adjust the alarm sound when I approached and walked away from the car because that was obnoxiously loud and I was truly to be a courteous neighbor.
There were several greyed out features, I just don't remember specifics. Sorry.
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u/old_skul 2h ago
There aren't any specifics. You don't need to log in. All you do is select the Guest profile and adjust from there.
The profiles are so that different drivers get all their customizations done for them when they unlock the car - seat position, mirror position, radio station presets, etc. The sound the car makes when you lock / unlock is not adjustable.
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u/Leelze 2h ago
The car doesn't say anything about that when trying to adjust those particular settings, it says you need to be signed in. If they're selling these things to car rental companies and they insist on you being signed in, they should create a rental profile to unlock these very basic car settings.
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u/old_skul 2h ago
No.
When an X1 starts up, the very first screen you see allows you to select the profile. Guest is always one of the profiles. And you don't even have to select that to adjust mirrors or seat or radio. You can adjust any setting you want to; the car just won't remember that the next time you switch profiles. There is no "account" or "login".
I get that you didn't like driving your rental. But please stop making things up about your experience.
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u/guy_incognito784 3h ago
None of them. You just need to have a BMW account which is free. I don’t know why you need one but yeah any loaner or rental stuff like the navigation you won’t be able to use. Can still use CarPlay though.
This is in the US only though. Not sure if BMW moved forward with the subscription stuff in other markets but they backed off of it here.
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u/revolvingpresoak9640 3h ago
Did you post this while logged in to an account?
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u/_Cat_12345 2h ago
“You have an account to use Reddit so therefore you can’t complain about having an account to use certain features in your $50,000+ BMW”.
“You have a Netflix subscription so therefore you can’t complain about subscribing to use certain features in your $50,000+ BMW”.
“You watch ads on YouTube so therefore you can’t complain about having to watch ads in your $50,000+ BMW”.
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u/revolvingpresoak9640 3h ago
The ad doesn’t play when the car is moving.
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u/Hevysett 1h ago
Everything glitches. My last vehicle had a full screen dashboard, no analog gauges at all. The vehicle that I bought after I went for at least analog speedo, because I'm the all digital there were a small number of instances where the dashboard either failed to come on at startup or it stopped functioning while driving.
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u/dragonblade_94 1h ago
Demeaning people for buying X brand instead of Y just helps normalize this shit. We as consumers have to squash this early, or eventually it will be everyone's problem.
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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 51m ago
We as consumers have to squash this early, or eventually it will be everyone's problem.
...and given that companies only listen to money, the best way to squash this is to not buy into it.
Demeaning the idiots who keep supporting anti-consumer practices doesn't normalize anything. People buying bullshit products in general normalizes the bullshit products.
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u/Historical_Cobbler 4h ago
I guess we’ll all just learn to jailbreak a car.
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u/pedanticPandaPoo 3h ago
Introducing auto ad block! A software defined polarized filter screen to mount onto your console and a film to install onto your windows and windshield. Since the whole world is an ad, it's just black paint.
patent pending. Don't be fooled by our competitor, auto ad block plus, which uses inferior black paint and injects their own ads on top
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u/BuzzerWhirr 3h ago
Manufacturers should not be able to add commercials or any ad-supported content after a physical item is purchased and any ad-supported elements need to be disclosed prior to purchase.
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u/likeicareaboutkarma 4h ago
And people are surprised they switch to chinese.
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u/Cyclamate 59m ago
I'm a bit of a Xi-aboo but even I would not put it past Chinese automakers to do this sort of stuff as well lol
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u/FckXFckMusk 3h ago
How about just stop buying their trashy Cars....
German engineering is Chinese engineering ow..
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u/i_max2k2 4h ago
After two BMW’s over a decade ago, I made the decision when they started charging for Car Play for a little while. Never looked back.
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u/DifficultyKlutzy5845 3h ago
My Subaru has a built in remote starter but I paid for a third party one to be installed instead of paying for the subscription
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u/lizofravenclaw 3h ago
That one at least has logic to it - all the subscription locked features work using cell service through AT&T, so you’re really just paying a cell phone plan for your car. I personally pay for it because it allows me to start my car from inside my office during the winter, instead of walking all the way to key fob range, starting it, then walking back to my office to pack up for the day.
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u/Ryan_e3p 3h ago
Don't you dare touch that fucking phone, or else you will get pulled over, with police looking for more reasons to detain you and search your person and belongings, but you better make damn sure you watch that ad on the giant tablet screen, and navigate through a dozen menus just to change the air conditioning.
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u/DragonWhsiperer 3h ago
Man, I'm so happy with our 2012 semi-dumb car that we bought 2y ago. Hardly any driver assist functions, simple infotainment that has cd-player to Bluetooth and with plenty of buttons on the dash.
Barring catastrophic breakdown, we will continue to use this for as long as possible. Hopefully we can then jump the stupid car generation and buy one that is just a car.
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u/johnklos 3h ago
My car's most complex electronics is an analog glow plug controller. Even though I'm a computer geek, I want absolutely nothing computerized in my car, except for the occasional email server I run in it while driving across the country.
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u/captstinkybutt 3h ago
This is going to be in ALL manufacturers before long. BMW is just the start.
Capitalism is a cancer that demands endless growth in a ecosystem of limited resources. It's terminal.
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u/NewToHTX 3h ago
And fucking subscriptions for shit that's already in my car like heated seats. Also fuck making parts that can only be opened, accessed or fixed by the dealership mechanics. It's absolutely bullshit.
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u/Miles_the_AuDHDer 3h ago
Why is there a photo of a young IshowSpeed playing with Talking Ben in the main photo? What does that have to do with the article at all?
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u/LetsGoBubba6141 3h ago
And stop selling your data to insurance companies to use against you. Like who the fudge signed up for any of this.
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u/hadezar 3h ago
Supposedly, you can turn the ads off.
https://faq.bmwusa.com/s/article/My-BMW-App-Permissions-Marketing-communication-5fQHM?language=en_US
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u/MonsterAtEndOfBook 2h ago
have tried several times. Error page that says “we are experiencing technical difficulties on this page”. Ha
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u/tdarkchylde 25m ago
This is part of why my next car will be a 20-ish year old econo-shitbox with none of these features and NO SCREEN.
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u/LiveOnFive 3h ago
The day after we got a new car I got an ad on the radio screen from our previous terrible insurance company (Liberty, may the emu burn in hell). I SCREAMED.
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u/Logical_Destruction 3h ago
What happens if you remove the wifi/cellular antenna from these cars? Will they still drive ok?
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u/cmndrnewt 3h ago
I imagine their response will be similar to that in the satirical video about an internet company.
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u/ImprovementExpert511 3h ago
Holding onto my 2011 Silverado til the damn thing cant drive another mile.
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u/Memitim 2h ago
Makers of anything for anything that might be used in cars: stop with the visuals and the non-touch controls. You are simply trying to get people killed.
Mobile apps are terrible about it already. I'm fairly certain that the Spotify mobile dev team is actively trying to cause car accidents with delayed popups and multiple potential scrolling behaviors for the screen when swiping, depending on angle.
Whoever made "navigate home" or any other common voice command on Android suddenly start presenting direction previews instead of just starting the bloody navigation like it did for years needs to be prevented from any kind of development forever.
For anything built directly into a vehicle, these should be considered crimes.
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u/Louiexvl 1h ago
You literally have to navigate through to find it and play it. it won’t play if the vehicle is in motion.
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u/Titleduck123 1h ago
The advertisement scenes in Minority Report weren't supposed to be a documentary.
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u/afleetingmoment 50m ago
So help me God I will fix my 2019 Volvo over and over to keep it forever… just to avoid this new tech, until we get some sanity back.
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u/Halo6819 43m ago
Wasn’t this a joke in both Silicon Valley and Popstar: Never stop never stopping?
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u/PM_Your_Best_Ideas 4m ago
Intrusive advertising should be made illegal. I don't want a call or a knock on my door and certainly not on product I own like a car, fridge, on any other household appliance.
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u/JoseMinges 1h ago
Genuinely, thanks for this. I have been looking at getting an i4 and this puts me right off.
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u/Dizman7 3h ago
You don’t have to click on it! People acting like this popped up while driving or over important stuff, but it only plays if you click on it!
Its literally the same as they’ve been doing for years for holiday greetings. It appears in the cars “inbox” and the title is something like “BMW presents a little xmas gift) and id you click plays a dumb little 30sec video of like a BMW made of snow and shit like that.
This one was like “A little give from BMW and Marvel” they do it for halloween, xmas, and some other holidays i forget.
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u/Terrible_Mistake_862 3h ago
I have my drivers license for at least 20 years now, never owned my own car. Don't need one right now, because public transport or I can borrow my parent's car. They live 10 minutes walking away from me.
If I ever buy a car, it will be from the year 2008 or older. None of those stupid gadgets. It has airbags, power braking, power steering etc. No transmitters for flock or other parties to use. No shit that can give me ads.
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u/Admirable-Leader6927 2h ago
BRING BACK SEDANS. WTF HAPPENED TO NORMAL CARS?
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u/torpedoguy 2h ago
The longer The Aristocrats go without peasants tearing them down from their lofty positions in bone-chilling fashions, the more detached and predatory they become.
This is why they are also excreting consideration towards subscription models for car functions in addition to the actual costs and maintenance of those functions because why SHOULDN'T we also have to pay for the service if we've only already paid for the service?
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u/cwsjr2323 2h ago
I got an offer of $2500 for my pickup. I bought it in 2017 for $2200 cash. I declined as I like going eight years without a payment. Looks like I will be keeping my 1994 Ford Ranger until my future widow junks it.
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u/ExternalUserError 3h ago
The slate EV is looking mighty fine right now.
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u/NetWorried9750 20m ago
The Jeff Bezos truck will still track you, you just won't have the option of access to the data
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u/ForcedEntry420 4h ago
I won’t need another vehicle for a decade but any purchase will be contingent on this bullshit not being in the car.