It’s a threat.
That’s only fun for idiots and only once or twice.
The insurance industry, on the other hand, will have a field day.
I dream of the day all marketing people are flung into a mass grave.
I mean, this is just crap marketing from incompetent idiots.
A better marketing strategy would be to have Spiderman themes for the infotainment, and i don’t just mean a generic Spiderman wallpaper and icons, no, make an Avenger’s computer UI design that fits the theme, complete with themed sound and lighting effects. The tech is there, don’t just limit it to just displaying a video.
You could easily do that for different movies/brands without it being seen as marketing slop.
I mean if they wanted a themed UI from the Agents of Shield franchise they could make a Shield one and a Hydra one. When selecting the Hydra, the lightshow could make it look as if Hydra is taking over the car.
But good marketing today is a lost art, slap a video on everything, produce a shitload of crappy stickers with the generic logo of the film, produce from low quality “limited edition” collectors item…
This is just boring, but make the movie universe seem real, and you got a hook that will not only work, but actually be praised.
Marketing isn’t designed to be effective. It’s designed to be hated. While we bitch about this. Spider man and BMW keep being mentioned. The marketing people got what they wanted by being invasive and arguably abusive to their customers.
There isn’t much luxury in a car that annoys you with ads, is there?
But hey, maybe there’s an extra-super-luxury subscription that lets you turn off the ads. You know, like YouTube Premium or something, except that the free version already costs several tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s a win-win: insecure rich guys can feel superior again and BMW gets $.
It’s not an ad it’s an exciting premium experience.
I would absolutely hack a car to remove garbage like this. The people who paid the cost of entry for these cars may be putting up with it now, but that won’t go on forever as it slips down the model line into cars normal people can acquire.
I intentionally bought a car with the least intrusive ipad and if a company ever comes out with a car that is all analog I will only buy that car. Honestly the ipad wouldn’t even be needed if they just gave me a place to dock my phone.
Sounds like you’ll be buying a Slate.
i have an aging wrangler 2015jk. I am not looking forward to a new car payment but if i can get something with no bells or horseshit I might!
And then they will all be asking, why are people buying chinese cars
Chinese cars won’t be immune to this. My TV in China played ads every time it was turned on. No choice. The elevator played ads as I went to my floor in a private residential building.
Not sure why you’d think Chinese cars would be better.
I’d be shocked if it wasn’t illegal to hack your own car by now. People are very authoritarian about vehicles. They’re fine with unreasonable prices, mass surveillance, facial recognition, endless registries, and forced subscriptions (yes, that’s insurance) and eat up any justification the government gives them for it.
Y’all aren’t following gear head news, huh? https://www.slashgear.com/2092803/doj-no-charges-diesel-engine-delete-tune/ Yes, I hate coal rolling.
And I also LOVE using Forscan on the family truckster. Thing is, some big companies think it’s a good idea to make rules about what you’re allowed to access (open software, repair ability) instead of what you can do (emissions, road rules), and that’s the wrong way to have a free and organized civilization, but it’s great for profit.Tl;Dr right to repair is right to hack, don’t ban that but do enforce limits on how things are actually used.
See also, laws that are intended to limit 3d printing in the name of gun control. We don’t have gun use control in the US, but boy do we have lobbyists with reasons to restrict what we can print. Maybe even some gun manufacturers!
The first one to make a safe bare bones electric vehicle with no dash screen and solid state batteries wins.
slate.auto
This is one of those things that might actually serve to push the notion that digital devices (including cars now) should be required to be capable of installing independent operating systems, especially open source ones.
I’d absolutely require military devices to be driven by open source software. And yes, that’s a security liability, but security-by-obscurity is an even greater liability.
In the case of consumer devices, open-source access would be a means of protecting the end user from predatory software rife with dark patterns.
And yes, that’s a security liability
Hardly. If anything it’s a benefit to security. You don’t have to run all the secret stuff using FOSS stuff. Just anything that runs the hardware (like the OS itself).
The most amazing thing about all this is the execs that came up with the idea genuinely seem to think people want this.
How out of touch can you get?
Nope. They didn’t think it was a great idea because people will like it. They thought it was a great idea because of money.
If you have worked with marketing or brand of a large corp, those people are always the furthest away from the real work a company does. They have no idea of the real customer base, only numbers on engagement and NPS reports.
No, they think shareholders want it. They don’t care about consumers at all. The shareholders are the only people companies care about. The consumer doesn’t matter at all.
If this shit came on while driving I would wreck the car ans sue the shit out of BMW.
But I’m not an asshole, so I’ll never own a BMW…
It is illegal to show anything like that while the car is in gear.
However, it’s completely fine as soon as you turn it on, or are sitting parked, or in aux mode.
Fine, put it in park in a drive through. Suddenly McDonald’s bans BMW drivers from the drive through because it won’t go into gear until the commercial ends, which becomes more of a a problem than either brand wants to admit. The internet does what it does and now BMW becomes the new Chevy Beretta.
Let’s play this game. I am powered by spite and way too much accumulated PTO.
Turn on car, forced to watch an ad before you can shift into drive. Turn off car, forced to watch an ad before the doors unlock and let you out. This is the future…
BMW exec just came in his pants
I though it was illegal to even do that. For example, parked at a read light and texting is definitely illegal. You need to pull over completely off the road to do that.
So I don’t see how a car can show you ads at a read light or stop sign, this literally diverts your attention away from the intersection and surrounding area.
Park, like not just braked but fully parking gear, so not at a red.
I’ve always wanted to test drive a BMW, but now I’m certain I’ll never want to own one.
One of my friends had one as a rental the other day. Even though I was the passenger I could tell it was fun to drive. Maybe I’ll get one next time I need to rent something, if it’s not much more expensive.
I’m certainly not going to buy one. Expensive to own and maintain.
They won’t let you play YouTube videos but they can play this shit? Fuck that
This and the fact that you have to pay subscription to built in features you thought you’d bought. Sold mine and bought an MG. Can’t see myself buying another Beemer unless BS this gets fixed.
The EU should ban this crap as soon as possible, it is clearly a distraction from driving
Given EU have created laws to require physical knobs for key features, I’d imagine this will be stopped as well.
BMW is the brand that tests for profit initiatives to see if they stick, I recall them being reported to attempt seated heating as a subscription a few years back
Wasn’t the EU going for cameras on drivers at all times?
and the mandatory microphone with cellular connection, for automated emergency calls or something like that
It’s Hammer Time
Cars have gotta be the worst possible place to put ads. Distracted driving is already a problem, this is just going to make it worse
You’re missing the point: that’s where the autonomous driving comes in! People are now just sitting there watching the road, while they could be spending that time watching ads…
- Some BMW exec probably
At this point, it would be better to just lease the car. What’s the point of buying it if the manufacturer still controls it and it’s not actually mine?
At this point it’s better to get a bicycle.
