The ads jumped on the screens of the drivers. There may be more on the way

Last week, a jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site – included. Each time they hit the brakes on their jeep, they wrotePromotion for extended warranty plan appeared in the center console. “Press the Call button to talk to a specialist,” say the ad is encouraged, welcoming the user to use his Bluetooth connection to complete the progress thereafter.

Ads are annoying and occasionally insidious; An advertisement that appears repeatedly in your own car more. According to other online Posts to Reddit And the jeep forums, the problem is back for several years, affecting several models of jeeps.

Stellantis, who owns Jeep, says the repetitive nature of the promotion was a problem. “This is an isolated incident affecting less than ten vehicles at the time, limited to the US,” Dan Reed, a spokesman for the automaker, wrote. However, he acknowledged that Stellantis also shows promotions to other drivers in the vehicle. Dodge owners, for example, receive an infoteer after 60 days of purchase, offering Dodge Complete Performance, a complete warranty guarantee. “Stellantis says on average customers receive about two vehicle messages a year containing safety, maintenance or marketing information.

Should ads appear inside the cars? Safety experts have serious questions about practice. But as automakers continue to explore how to make more money than their increasingly digitized and internet-related wheels, the temptation to the center console may be too good to pass.

The prolonged data power supply

Today’s new cars are filled with about 1000 to 3000 semiconductors, which help control and coordinate everything – from descending windows and adjusting mirrors to airbags, allowing systems to avoid collision, pairing phones with central consoles and Displays and coordinating navigation. Add the driver’s mobile phones and get a constant “conversation” of data between the individual cars and the manufacturers that build it.

The vision of these manufacturers for the future has been quite consistent over the last few years, says Mark Wakefield, the world’s leading car market at Alixpartners consulting firm. “In an ideal world, they completely mixed the mobile phone and various services and applications in a nice, large agreed ecosystem that travels from work to play home,” he says. This is the perfect advertising platform, for sale and to press first -class garnishes. As with Jeep’s extended warranty offer, many services can only be displayed with remote software.

The sale of a car is a strict business with a margin; Selling features with activated software, less. Alixpartners Research estimates that the services market for connected vehicles will cost more than $ 473 million worldwide this year, representing 11 percent of car revenue flows. By 2032 it could cost $ 1.68 billion – more than a quarter of manufacturers’ revenue.

Some of these software plays have already been obtained for car manufacturers. General Motors brought about $ 2 billion in revenue last year from Ostar, security and entertainment services department based, and Leaders stick With a forecast made for the first time in 2021, the manufacturer will eventually make more than $ 20 billion a year for software revenue. Customers have already shown that they are ready to Go out a few dollars for services that heat or cool the drivers’ cars before entering, or Turn on the garage lights When they return home.