Pop up adverts in your car!?

Imagine sitting in your new Jeep. The new car smell fills your nostrils as you pull up to a red light. But then, as you look down to change the air-con temperature, disaster strikes, and a dreaded pop-up advert appears.

Don’t worry; it won’t be someone trying to get you to download another war strategy video game or trying to get you to buy a new jumper for just £1.99 from Temu with free shipping for 2-3 business working years. There will be a little message on the infotainment screen about trying to get Jeep owners to buy Mopar’s FlexCare extended warranty.

Stellantis, the parent company of brands like Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Jeep, explains that it currently targets cars with under 36,000 miles on the odometer. They are also asking customers to create a Jeep Connect account to turn off the ‘In-Car Notifications’ option.

Stellantis further added that there was an issue that promoted these adverts in cars with higher mileage, and the pop-up appeared more than initially planned. These glitches have been patched and shouldn’t happen again.

With this in mind, could this be a sign that car companies are considering a new revenue stream? We have seen car companies hide performance or upgrade sat-nav behind a paywall subscription like Tesla and Mercedes. Could we see pop-up ads plague our dashboards and screens in our car?