Well folks, it finally happened. The screen in your pickup truck… your last bastion of peace from the chaos of unskippable advertisements… now plays popup ads. Not even subtle ones. We’re talking full-dash, head-unit-commandeering infomercial panels in your RAM 1500, like you’re driving a Times Square billboard on wheels.
@KayLeadfoot “You’re either the customer or the product.”
Ford: “Let’s not be hasty…”
Well don’t worry your brand new Dodge will last about 5-7 years max. So you won’t be seeing those ads too long.
They’re truly horrible horrible machines. GMC is about the only American brand worth anything and even they suck now.
Honda and Toyota is the way to go anything else and you’re just wasting money.
Sucks they don’t have super duty trucks for people that need those like hot shotters though.
As a Toyota truck owner, can confirm.
When did ads become the one commodity to rule them all. They are used more like a threat rather than information. You have to pay to see them or pay to make them go away. Doesn’t make sense. Have adverts replaced gold as the dollar standard? Weird. I guess they are good for money laundering due to the subjective nature of costs for “production”, “design” and “talent”.
Looked at my car radio the other day to see the name of the song playing. Evidently, it was called " injured, get ‘xxxx’ lawyer."
So now this is an ad? But when Apple does similar it’s just letting you know about services offered. I consider both an ad.
I think all people that see that ads need to pickup a phone and call them asking stupid questions and waste their time, they clearly ask you to do that.
I don’t live in the US but the last time I rented a car there the UI was festooned with functionality for Sirius XM that couldn’t be removed or hidden. Not small icons, but big fucking chunks of the screen. I find this kind of thing intolerable. It’s one thing to plug a service but if people don’t want it, then hide it away and don’t nag them about it ever again.
I’ve driven many makes of vehicles and never seen this. Sure the buttons are there but just like the AM)FM. Or you don’t want them their at all it’s just an audio source and purchase a vehicle without satellite radio they still exist.
I think the issues is that you can’t pick and choose exactly what you want in your new vehicle. You can’t say, get just a simple AM/FM radio and get bluetooth. You buy a package of accessories.
This was a Toyota RAV 4 IIRC and despite the vehicle having no subscription to this thing, it occupied the right hand side of the infotainment system and was prominent in the menus too. I had the car for nearly a month and I played around in the settings but saw no way of getting rid of it.
I think the issues is that you can’t pick and choose exactly what you want in your new vehicle. You can’t say, get just a simple AM/FM radio and get bluetooth. You buy a package of accessories.
So if you want just that simple radio, not only don’t you get the bluetooth, but you have to give up the power seats and windows too. It’s an all or nothing choice.
There was a time you would order your new car with individual accessories and then a couple of months to get it. I’m pulling for Slate to be successful and bring that freedom of choice back.
I remember a while ago when this started appearing in chargers and they tried to act like it was an accident.
This is the defacto stance of advertising agencies doing horrible things.
“OOHHHH, You mean you DIDN’T want ads on your coffee maker or vibrator??? Our bad. This was a technical error we will fix immediately!”
They don’t admit it’s a mistake, call it an error, or try to fix. They call it a feature.
Vote with wallet
It’s an “opportunity to see special offers.”
They’re aggressive parasites.
Back at the office:
So it seems people don’t like ads on their vibrator which means they are viewing them. Let’s wait a couple of years for the anger to die down then do it again.
“Accident”
Feel like ads in cars should be illegal, but the US doesn’t have a government that believes in good things.
If it’s like the other cars with this same shit then it only plays when fully stopped.
Which will result in even more people not coming to a complete stop if they think they can get away with it, and that will result in more accidents.
And that somehow makes it better?
I never said it was an improvement.
Better, as in less bad, but not good.
Absolutely?
Absolutely fucking not.
My attention is not free and they have no fucking right to my attention.
And second, fuck them for thinking they do.
It’s obviously better not to show ads while you’re driving. How could anyone think otherwise?
The question was if it is better to show ads only when the car is stopped. Your answer is for a different question: should it show ads at all. Being angry at me isn’t going to make Dodge stop this stupid idea.
I’m not mad at you at all. I’m mad at the motherfuckers who think they have a right to my attention.
But to respond - it’s not better, because either option is detestable. I reject both.
You correctly called it that we’re answering different questions. I reject the question you’re answering, because I do not accept advertisements in my vehicle, that I own, as a foregone conclusion. You accidentally’d a step in accepting their bullshit.
I literally would rather threaten legal action, or show up outside their advertising executive’s house with a megaphone to try to sell them some scammy bullshit while they expect privacy. Maybe I’d even read off the advertising I get on the console. (Not that I’d ever buy a RAM truck, but still.)
New Business Idea: Buy unzoned property that can be used to block scenic overlooks around the homes of scummy advertising executives. Put up billboards.
I’d invest in that.
That’s not true. Our government cares about something. They care about ads.
And that’s a good thing?
You serious?
I’m not the one who implied that caring about ads is a good, thing, you are.
Again… You serious?
Of course Stellantis was first to do it
“Hey guys our sales are falling through the floor faster than Tesla, maybe we should rework our pricing and reconsider our policies towards buyers to move more volume and improve our imagine.”
“ Uh… nah. How about instead, we put ads on the center console!”
I just got new neighbors out here in rural Kansas. They have two kias and a ram pickup for the man. If only they had a jeep it would be like a nearly complete set of the shittiest vehicles money can buy. Looking forward to exciting things here.
Kia is known for shitty locks, but that seems like a non-issue in rural Kansas? It’s not like they have ads in the dashboard.
Kia pivoted to EVs fast and early because they can’t make a ICE power plant that doesn’t catch on fire.
Gotta carry on the proud Chrysler traditions of shunning innovation and making poor business decisions.
They rolled it out foest with Jeeps earlier this year
It’s kind of sweet that they write that you need at least RAM 1500 to get these ads in your truck, so that the solution simply is to install less RAM in your truck if you don’t want the ads. (I’ve never owned a truck so I don’t know how much RAM is normal, but 1500 sure sounds like a lot.)
Boo. Lol
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They were joking.
So were they.
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Found the truck owner
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cool, didn’t ask.
why so hostile?
They already answered that.
I’m going to start pointing to this when I explain to people why I want “dumb” machines.
I don’t want AI to “summarize” my google search, I don’t want ads distracting drivers, I don’t want a washing machine that needs updates, I don’t want my TV to look at me, I want a submissive little machine that does task X.
Ngl bro but I’ve found some good uses for AI. My kids school gave me 2 bullshit pdfs with duplicate information for their school supplies. I uploaded them to chatgbt and asked it to simplify it by combining duplicates and putting it in bullet format that was easily copy pastable. Did it in 30 seconds with minor tweaking and made my back to school shopping so much easier.
AI is not universally bad. There are some things it does well. The problem is that there are a lot more things it does badly, often in harmful ways, and most people using it have no idea how to tell the difference.
You seem to be using it the right way, with caution and awareness.
and what the fuck does that have to do with predatory companies cramming unneeded avenues of fucking predation into EVERYTHING?!
Here’s an AI summary of your distain for AI:
I’ll begin saying this when people ask why I want “dumb” machines.
AI summaries lack quality, ads distract drivers, you want a washing machine without ads, you don’t want your TV to watch you, you want machines to be submissive.
How did I do?
You did well.
This message is grok generated and posted automatically, clank clank clank.
Why do they keep trying to sell us things to improve “my lifestyle.”
My lifestyle is pretty much work, then coming home to do errands, maybe video games. I don’t need tacky truck nuts or whatever they’re selling.
Please think of the CEOs—they need a new yacht for when they’ve flown in on their G4 to the Hamptons and their summer yacht is in San Diego.
How are they gonna pay for all these child sex slaves?!
I want one of those barebones trucks that don’t even have radios
no man, radio is a must.
but like the old 90s style replacement kind
You want a fleet vehicle.
Ill take whatever I can find for a reasonable price that has a towing package and, ideally, zero fuckin computers but ill have to compromise there im sure
Apart from how insane it is to put obtrusive ads on a car dashboard, having to link your phone to your car and then call a phone number to opt out of touchscreen display ads is 🤯
There is going to be a reason that they’ve set it up like that.
At that point, I would opt out with a hammer.
It wasn’t asking them to pair their phone to call the number to opt out, it was asking them to pair their phone so they could call the number to buy parts for their truck. You’d have to manually dial the number to opt out.
When calling that number, the caller will need somekind of proof that they are in control of the car that they are trying to opt out of ads. Afaik, the easiest way to accomplish that when requiring a phonecall, would be pairing phone and car. But obviously Stellantis is not going for easy with this setup, so this is purely speculation on my part.
Someday in a few years there will be an accident in the opt out service that routes 95% of attempts into a 500 error screen. All they have to do is underpay and never check on the server admin for that service for years until they don’t care.
This is why I’m not going to buy RAM / Dodge / Chrysler/ Jeep / anything Stellantis owns, and this is why I’m not buying any new car with “smart” / “built-in” junk.
I don’t know of any car that has an actually good head unit. Its either garbage because its a giant touch screen, making it super difficult to navigate without looking (that’s why all the controls in an airplane are different shapes and sizes), or its just a hub for you to run Android Auto / apples equivalent.
Now ads? Ffs…
My Honda civic 2012’s head unit firmware isn’t that bad.
It tells your input source, volume, if your trunk is open, if your tires are fucked, and includes a hookup for a backup camera that only made it into other models, making it ezpz to retrofit.
Could be a lot worse. Wouldn’t touch a modern one with a ten foot pole lmao.
“Front left tyre is fucked.” “Your fucking trunk is open.”
Now that I would not mind having shown when starting the car.
Actually the bastard won’t tell you what specific tire. Just that one of them has low air pressure.
Kind of a dick move since there’s no way the computer can’t tell which tire it is when they’re four separate sensors.
Mine will tell me the measured pressures of all tires. But only if at least one is low. I haven’t found a way to get it to just tell me the pressure in any tire if it’s not throwing an error at me.
Dear Mazda, you have a full user interface in your vehicle. Why can’t you let me see the tire pressure from just a menu option?
I’ve just been thoroughly unimpressed by all of the American car brands. Crap vehicles with lousy interiors the lot of them.
