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”.
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 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.
Looked at my car radio the other day to see the name of the song playing. Evidently, it was called " injured, get ‘xxxx’ lawyer."
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.
Real question is what cable or fuse can I pull to disable this?
Bitch all you want about RAM drivers, but this is coming to all cars. Start resisting now.
Would be the modem. I already do this because of the tracking.
Time to go get a Kei Truck and put an Android tablet in it.
Order a Slate pickup. Buy what you want and only what you want. And add things later as you want or buy that tablet from amazon and a bluetooth speaker and install it yourself.
Kei Kei’s delivery service.
I sometimes feel shortchanged as an American (no healthcare, FUUUUCK), but I only get real mad about it when I think about how we don’t get Hiluxes and Kei trucks.
This is why the argument that paying for something would prevent ads falls apart. If they can squeeze more money out of people then they will, even if those people are paying $80k+ for the damn thing.
Yes I hate that argument and it’s not true. Cars are collecting tons of data and we pay for them, people “pay” for Windows one way or another and it’s collecting data.
Capitalism will innovate!
Capitalism:
If they can in a crash, they can blame it on the advertisers’ distraction. Insurers will love that.
Remind me later.
It’s an ad to call a phone number, are people buying things on the phone like this?
If someone were, it’s someone getting the latest model Ram.
The odds of a Ram 1500 driver drunk-dialling the number on the popup ad blocking their backup cam is low… but never zero!
Stellantis doing Stellantis things…
It’s remarkable that anyone buys Dodge/Ram/Chrysler/Jeep given how crappy Stellantis has been.
