The idea of having a pop-up advertisement appear in your car for the latest lease deals at your local dealership or for a hot new offer for a subscription service may sound like a dystopian nightmare from the far future. But it’s not.
These exact kinds of pop-ups are appearing in people’s cars right now, in the today times. Stellantis, the conglomerate behind brands like Ram, Dodge, Jeep, and Chrysler, has caught a lot of flak for having pop-up ads appear in their vehicles this year. Making the pop-ups stop isn’t merely a matter of pushing a button; you have to call a toll-free support line, which feels pretty damn anti-consumer.
It’s not just Stellantis that does this. Subaru also pushes pop-up ads to its customers, as I found out this week. It turns out it’s been pulling this move for years to help sell SiriusXM satellite radio subscriptions.
Wondering whether this was a wider-spread problem than the world realized, I decided to take it upon myself to reach out to pretty much every automaker selling cars right now. My goal? Find out which are using their vehicle’s connected services to beam ads to drivers, and which aren’t. I got a wide range of answers, including a few very entertaining responses.
The Method
At the beginning of the week, I sent out just over 40 emails asking representatives whether their vehicles utilize pop-up advertisements of any kind and whether their company plans to implement such features in the future.
I didn’t discriminate based on company size or the types of vehicles it sold—Toyota got the same email as Pagani. I just wanted to know if this was something they were thinking about doing, seeing as how it’s a foolproof way to get your information into the hands of customers.
As of this writing, I’ve received just over 20 responses from various automakers, which I’d say is plenty enough to gauge the industry’s feelings on the matter.
Let’s Get The Boring Answers Out Of The Way
Of the answers I received, the vast majority responded with what I’d consider the correct answer: “No.” Most of those “Nos” arrived as a version of this message below, which came to me from Czinger (who, to its credit, responded very quickly):
We don’t have or plan to implement pop up ads on our vehicle.
Mitsubishi, Toyota, Lexus, Genesis, and Aston Martin all had similarly brief replies that covered both questions.
Honda and Volvo provided a bit more background for why they’d prefer not to have pop-up ads in their cars, citing safety concerns. Here’s Honda’s reply:
Honda and Acura vehicles do not utilize in-vehicle (“pop-up”) advertisements. In designing the user interface of our vehicles, we always prioritize the end customer experience and concern for driver distractions. At this time, we have no plan to add in-vehicle pop-up ads.
And Volvo’s:
Volvo Cars currently has no plan to implement pop-up advertisements in its cars’ displays.
We continually evaluate how to communicate applicable offers to our customers in the right place and at the right time based on their context and preferences.
The Volvo Car UX is designed for a safe, focused and personal in-car experience, making complexity simple for Volvo customers.
To me, that makes a lot of sense. Of those who reportedly received those pop-ups from Subaru I mentioned earlier, one person told me they even received it while driving, distracting them and obstructing the view from their navigation screen. That’s not very cool and seems borderline dangerous. Companies like Volvo famously rave about the safety of their vehicles, so having distracting pop-up ads might put a dent in its reputation.
Of the plain “No” responses I received, there was one that only answered my question about currently deploying pop-up ads but did not reply as to whether or not they might do so in the future: Ford. Here’s the response I got from its representative:
We do not have pop-up ads in our Ford or Lincoln vehicles.
Sure, neither Ford nor Lincoln has pop-ups right now, but it’s possible the company could be planning something down the line. When I followed up, Ford simply told me it doesn’t comment on future products. Take that as you will.
These Companys Do Have Pop-Ups, But They’re Used For Good
This next section consists of automakers that do have pop-ups, but they’re not used for advertising, but rather for stuff that’s actually useful for the user, like service reminders, software updates, and warranty changes. BMW and Hyundai were the two companies that replied this way. Here’s Hyundai’s full response:
We do not deliver pop-up ads to our vehicles’ infotainment screens. We can and do send messages to vehicles’ Bluelink ‘Message Center,’ but these are tailored communications regarding the customer’s vehicle (e.g. vehicle is due for an oil change, recall notifications, etc.).
I’m putting one of my favorite responses to this little survey in this section too, because it proves that modern cars and tech can still be fun and whimsical when there’s enough creativity involved. From MINI’s spokesperson:
While the answer is “no in-car ads” in the traditional sense, we’re actively serving up useful and fun content on the screen. For example, there can be service reminders with call to actions for scheduling service directly with their dealer all through the screen itself.
Additionally we serve up periodic fun videos that go out to the latest generation cars which are meant to be a surprise and delight, for example for MINI’s birthday and a Winter Celebration video is coming in the next few weeks. One that I enjoyed was on Valentines Day. When I entered my home destination in the navigation system, a Cupid arrow flew across the screen and landed on my home destination on the map which was marked with a heart.
MINI also has more fun easter egg stuff you can interact with, like the one shown above. That’s in-car entertainment done right.
“We Don’t Even Sell This Car Yet, But The Answer Is Still No”
Two of the companies I reached out to about this, Bugatti and Scout Motors, don’t currently build any cars (Bugatti is an ultra-low-production manufacturer that’s between models right now, and Scout is still developing its first modern cars for release in 2027). But they still had answers for me! Let’s look at Bugatti’s first:
Bugatti will not have pop-up adds in the Tourbillon, which is the only current model to have an infotainment screen.
Bugatti prides itself on its vehicles’ lack of screens, with its former design boss saying back in 2022 that the amount of screens in cars these days “scared” him. The one in the Tourbillon can retract and hide itself inside the dashboard, which gives you a good idea of how little designers care for the device’s position in the cabin. Meanwhile, here’s Scout’s reply:
Initial production of Scout Motors’ vehicles is targeted to begin in 2027, but the company does not intend to implement pop up ads in its vehicles. The user experience in Scout branded vehicles (Community UX™) is being developed to bring people together while in the vehicle and enabling a better user experience for drivers and passengers.
How an infotainment system will “bring people together,” I’m not entirely sure. But at least it won’t bring me any updates on lease deals, which is what matters.
This Company Might Kinda Be Doing Pop-Up Ads?
I only received two responses that sort of danced around my questions. Depending on how you read them, you might think Kia and Nissan are, in fact, using their infotainment system to push pop-ups to occupants. Let’s look at Kia’s first:
Our connected Kia vehicles have the ability to trigger a pop-up with a short message and image, i.e. a QR code. We have used this functionality for new product information and availability on connected vehicles.
To me, this sounds like Kia has used pop-ups to communicate new products to drivers. But I haven’t been able to find anyone complaining about such an experience online. This is the type of stuff people love to complain about, so if it were happening, I’m sure someone would’ve chimed in on a forum or a Facebook Group somewhere. It’s possible the representative meant something different, like pop-ups for stuff like warranty updates or recall work mentioned above (I’ve reached out for clarity, but have yet to hear back). In the meantime, here’s Nissan’s response:
“We want drivers to have a safe in‑vehicle experience, free from unnecessary distractions. To support that, Nissan and INFINITI do not deploy third party ads and limit pop‑up messages in the infotainment system so drivers can stay focused and enjoy the drive.”
While this statement certainly covers Nissan for any safety-related concerns involving pop-ups, it also reveals that the company is using pop-ups on its infotainment system, albeit in a limited capacity. What information those popups convey, though, is unclear. Again, I haven’t heard any complaints on the matter, so it may just be a case of getting some more clarity from the automaker. Before you ask, yes, I followed up. And no, I haven’t gotten a response yet.
The “Are You Friggin’ Kidding Me?” Section
I’ve reserved this section for my two favorite answers. Not only did these brands say “No” to pop-ups, but they made it clear that pop-ups are something that shouldn’t be in any car, ever. These are the types of responses I wish I could’ve gotten from every automaker. First, we’ll look at Lucid, which was the first manufacturer to respond to my email out of every company I emailed:
Lucid has no plans whatsoever to introduce pop-up ads to its infotainment systems. Zero. Hope that helps and hope that echoes what you’re hearing from other automakers.
Quick, decisive, and to the point. Love it. If this Lucid rep is reading, they’ll be happy to know that yes, this same sentiment is what I’ve been hearing from pretty much every other automaker.
This next reply requires a bit of explaining. You see, small brands like Hennessey Performance and Gordon Murray Automotive often don’t want to spend a bunch of money on a press relations team of their own, so they hire an external team to handle PR. Oftentimes, these PR companies handle several brands at once.
As a result, the PR for Gordon Murray and Hennessey is handled by the same person—a common occurrence for small or new brands. I reached out to this person for individual, separate comments from both manufacturers, and they got back to me with precisely the type of response you’d expect from automakers propped up by pure, raw passion:
Ha! Well, you could have guessed … ads and the thrill of driving don’t mix so both brands strongly shun the idea.
Hennessey Special Vehicles focuses on delivering utterly extreme hypercars at the pinnacle of power and performance. Its customers buy Hennessey hypercars for their visceral, awe-inspiring driving experience, so there are no plans to divert any attention from this core mission.
Gordon Murray goes further still. Gordon himself believes digital screens in cars are distracting and unnecessary, pulling focus away from driving. Pursuing the purity of the driving experience, he insists on beautifully designed analogue controls and clear instrumentation that are intuitive to use and enhance the brand’s characteristic ‘driving perfection’.
Hell yeah. That’s exactly what I like to hear.
Those Who Didn’t Respond, And What We Learned
I got a healthy amount of responses, but I wouldn’t look at these as a strict analysis of the industry’s attitude as a whole. For a more accurate industry-wide result, I would’ve liked to receive answers from a few other big players like the Volkswagen Group, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, and Jaguar-Land Rover. But it’s the holiday season, which means information tends to move extra-slow.
I’d view this as more of a fun experiment to find out what some car brands were thinking, including those that you’d normally never think about when it comes to this type of stuff (like Czinger and Gordan Murray). And, as I kinda suspected when I started this mass emailing, most automakers are smart enough not to incorporate pop-up ads in their vehicles. And the few that do are immediately called out for it.
If you’re an automaker reading this, take notes. It might be tempting to chuck a new lease offer onto a car’s screen, but I don’t think the backlash is worth it.
Top graphic images: Subaru; DepositPhotos.com
“I just wanted to know if this was something they were thinking about doing, seeing as how it’s a foolproof way to get your information into the hands of customers.”
I wonder how well this will be received by potential customers on test drives.
One of the biggest reasons for trading in the 2023 Toyota RAV4 was the recurring screen that requested that I sign up for their “Connected Service”.
After seeing this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WiQAOmESH0 from Engineering Explained, I suspect Lucid is way too busy with their software to try and figure out how to get pop-up ads.
I’ll give you the response from Cadillac – hell, yes! When I had my XT5, if you weren’t signed in to the Infotainment, you would get pop-up nagging you to sign in or purchase if you didn’t have an account. It would also come up periodically while driving. I sold the vehicle to a friend and as of this summer it’s still doing it. Annoyingly covering the on-screen buttons, you have to dismiss the damn thing to use the built-in nav (which is on separately-paid for maps).
My Mercedes only seems to pop up service reminders, but they also do the “fun” stuff on holidays: hearts on Valentine’s Day, etc. The Porsche just pops up service reminders. “Look, we’re drivin’ here, don’t distract me wit’ cute!”
Eagerly awaiting the follow up video where someone from Lucid gets in touch with him and some of his cars problems magically get patched after years of not fixing them.
I can’t imagine the cynicism and pure disdain for one’s own customer when green lighting pop up ads in a vehicle they may have just paid 50 large for. Like, what overpaid soul less corporate exec thought that the long term negative feedback would be worth whatever short term gain was involved?
Actually I’ve talked to people higher up than I in companies I have worked for who make these types of decisions. And to a man they believe or have been convinced that this kind of marketing is developing a stronger and family like relationships with the customers. Kind of like when you call customer service and the representative wants to chat like you know each other.
For me just take care of my problem.
Yes, it is extremely important to realize the people making these decisions are either creating or following a narrative that this is the future, this is how they’ll make things “better”. The only “problem” with what Stellantis did, to a forward-thinking technology leader, is that their system/promotion was crude, dull, and untargeted.
The assumption driving most tech “innovation” these days seems to be that negative feedback doesn’t matter because every company will be doing the same shady things and you’ll have nowhere else to go.
If they keep up with the subscription based options and pop up ads, the only place I’ll have to go is the used car lot.
Just saw the Sirius xm ad in our Chrysler Pacifica yesterday. It only showed up when starting the car so it wasn’t very intrusive, and went away when pressing the “x” or “decline” or however the button was labeled. For something like that on a feature the car already has, I don’t mind it if it’s only occasional. I’m far more concerned about driving data sharing, such as GM was doing through OnStar, that is a deal breaker.
I’ve gotten that I think twice in five years with my Jeep. As you say, it was on first start, while parked, so the annoyance was minimal.
What I find to be a big problem, and a safety problem — and do you experience this and have a solution? — is this: while I’m using CarPlay for navigation, a huge black box will appear overlaying the middle 85% of the screen with the message and two buttons EMERGENCY VEHICLE APPROACHING [NOT THERE] [DISMISS], and I have to pointedly look over, and find the right button, and press it, and it usually pops up AGAIN half a minute later and maybe a third or even fourth time, and by then I have both taken my eyes off the road too much and am in danger of missing my exit, AND the emergency vehicle is usually on some nearby local street while I’m on a damned limited-access highway. It is a plain rectangular box with rectangular buttons which tells me it it is not Apple putting it up, and I have found no way to turn this cursed crap off.
Unless the automakers all conspire to do it at once, the first car I drive that starts forcing ads onto my commute will never see business from me again. I would make it my mission in life to let other people know just how awful your car company is.
“I would make it my mission in life to let other people know just how awful your car company is.”
Good luck. Even Mahk couldn’t take down Chevy.
One by one, you’ll run out of automakers.
> How an infotainment system will “bring people together” [in the vehicle]
Maybe they’re referring to driver and passenger bonding over playlists?
> Nissan and INFINITI do not deploy third party ads
Note the “third party.” This suggests they do deploy ads for themselves. Weasel language for a weasel practice.
Nissan has to make money any way they can, ya know.
Nissan turning into Jalopnik!
To the MINI folks:
“For example, there can be service reminders with call to actions for scheduling service directly with their dealer all through the screen itself.”
This is a targeted message with a call to action to purchase a service or good. Another word for this is Advertisement, usually shortened to “Ad”. What you describe is almost exactly the same as the promos that Subaru is running, just for a different service. You have pop-up ads in your cars.
This is quality journalism that the world needs more of.
If they feel if will increase profits, they will put ads in their cars. These statements are disingenuous at best, and lies at worst.
Here’s a headline you CAN believe:
‘We Strongly Shun The Idea:’ I Asked Every Carmaker If They Plan To Build Small, Economy-Focused Sedans in the US
I have a Subaru, and I did get the popup add for XM. But it only showed up once a couple weeks ago when I started the car, I hit the X and it hasn’t shown up since. Granted while driving CarPlay is usually active. While I don’t love getting ads in my car, this was at least for a service that is available in the car. I didn’t really find it all that offensive. It would bug the hell out of me if it showed up all the time or I was getting ads for ozempic or something.
Imagine how targeted in-car ads could be.
Seat sensing a weight increase? Ads for Ozempic and Dunkin Donuts.
Weight loss? Ads for SSRIs and a cancer center.
Friday night near a club? Ads for Trojan.
The possibilities are endless.
A billion years ago before everything was “connected” I took an e-commerce course in college. I think even then this was the ultimate dream.
Yeah, 20 some years ago when 4square and others were coming out, businesses were salivating at the idea they could pop an ad or coupon for mcdonald’s on your phone when you were near one, etc. The advertising industry has somehow convinced itself people enjoy it.
“The advertising industry has somehow convinced itself people enjoy it.”
It is difficult to get a marketer to understand something, when their bonus depends upon their not understanding it.
Offers for McDonald’s when you’re near a McDonald’s?
You’re thinking small, primitive, foolish!
The vision is to send offers for McDonald’s when you’re near any other fast food restaurant.
I feel I should make it clear that, while “McDonalds” was based on context and not my remembering a specific company, I know through someone in tech that companies have absolutely asked for that specific type of promotion.
I think Tim Horton’s also got sued over it. They had to give out a free coffee or something in the settlement, which is basically just one extra coupon they were trying to deliver anyways.
In was in media/advertising for a little while and showing a competitor’s ad against your product or vice versa is a great revenue generator (for the publisher, less so the person paying for the ads).
“Friday night near a club? Ads for Trojan”
And Bicillin L-A because it’s way too late for Trojans.
They were working on an app that merchants could buy that would sense any nearby cell phones and text or email an ad for the merchant. Can you imagine walking through a mall, if they exist anymore, and getting spammed from 50 stores?
Utopia!
How about walking through a red light district and getting spammed by 50 ummm…. ‘alternative’ businesses…
“The possibilities are endless.”
Including political/election ads… with extra fun when they get their targeting wrong…
All that said, I would much prefer it if Subaru concentrated on making the damn system less buggy instead of figuring out how to sell me things through it.
Slate: “yes, but you have to turn a crank to pop them up manually.”
COTD.
Congrats, that literally made me snarf water out my nose.
This lines up with most of the brands I’d consider, current, future and lottery win future. I’m sure GM would do ads, they sold my GMC Sierra driving data and yup, I saw my driving habits on my Lexus Nexis report. A pop up as would have felt better frankly… I’m sure GM in their quest to make a bunch of money on subs from connected vehicles will somehow implement ads, directly or indirectly. And that’s fine, my GMC was so terrible and the OnStar data sales cemented my plan to never buy GM ever again. And I come from a GM family… GM might as well go Private Equity while their at it, why not go full on shady?
“We don’t plan on putting pop-up ads in cars” actually means “we’re definitely planning on it, we just haven’t yet found a good way to make money off of them”.
Having a nose for BS or side stepping I fear that they all mentioned no ads. I wonder where the line is for separating ads from pushing a service appointment.
It is a sad day when we are forced frdpop up ads in our vehicles but can’t get get Pop up headlights.
“Pop-ups? Hell, we gotta steal some screens for our cars before we can even think about sending ads.” – Hennessey Special Vehicles
The only popup I will accept are maintenance or recall reminders.
You’re giving the benefit of doubt to those who didn’t answer, citing holiday communications slow downs. The others, responding with a ‘we have no plans at this time‘ should worry you. Bold emphasis mine. Lucid had the only proper answer for this troubling issue: “Lucid has no plans whatsoever to introduce pop-up ads to its infotainment systems. Zero.”
Any time you get a response like that, “at this time”, simply means they haven’t finalized the process yet. They’re thinking about it, working on it, and know the pushback will be coming.
My Golf R constantly pops up on the gauge cluster every morning now telling me that its 39 degrees or less out. Not particularly intrusive, but also very much “danke Herr Obvious”
Yea, my car always chimes once when the temp is below 39°. Not sure why they felt the need to do that, but I suppose it makes me look down and check my speed.
My Audi did the same. Ancillary but some of my German colleagues would use this as a trigger to switch to winter tires.
Can be off. A dry day above freezing according to the car had water frozen across the road from a hose.
I’ve had cars that do that. I assumed it’s because the chance of ice in the roads and bridges increases.
This is the answer – it’s a warning the ice may start forming in certain areas. My BMWs do this once per drive, though.
*BONG* *PANIC*
OBD-Eleven, get one! It’s a godsend for VAG products. One of the first things I did w/ my GTI is program off the stupid cold warning.
My Chevy does the same thing. It’s a bit obnoxious and not super useful, kinda like the counter-productive “hey, pay attention to the road instead of the screen”, but still drastically less obnoxious than any sort of pop-up ad. Even Ford’s avalanche of alerts every time I hook up a trailer is better than that.
My e36 does this at 37 deg. It also uses the same gong tone as the check engine light.
Just yesterday I got a pop up on the screen of my Kia letting me know that my promotional, unsolicited trial of SiriusXM had expired. It wasn’t necessarily intrusive, but I did have to press an on-screen button to dismiss. I got a similar one when the trial began, but it was nothing like what Stellantis is doing. Anecdotal, obviously, but it aligns with what the Kia rep said.
I get a bunch of e-mails from SXM telling me about deals for my Escape. They don’t seem to be able to figure out that I subscribe in my Ram truck for a low price of $3/month which includes access to the app – so I used the app in other vehicles which all have Android Auto.
Message Center pop-ups such as “Oil Change Required” don’t really count in my opinion. If they pop something up that asks you to scan a QR code like Kia said? That better only happen at start-up or ignition off, never when the vehicle is in gear.
Displaying a qr code on an internet enabled display so you can scan it with your internet enabled device is a special kind of perverse.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave.”
Cars are able to lock you in, either through bugs, malfunctions, or remote control. Ain’t that grand?
Kudos on your public service Brian. If any of the no-response manufacturers eventaully get back to you, maybe an update?
I never saw that video of the dog in the Mini before. It’s cute as F, and I’ll probably watch it again at some point, but it won’t make me actually buy a Mini since each gen of Mini gets less appealing (to me, a curmudgeon) than the one before it. I do like the dog though, and appreciate them licensing the music, and that round screen is cute too. I’m not made of unfeeling stone.
If they do. Their PR departments, in conjunction with legal, are scrambling to create and give a nebulous response.
just append the silent yet to those no responses and you’ll have the answer.
if it works for bankrupt motors, the others will have to follow to ‘remain competitive in the ever changing landscape of the customer experience’.
I’m very much with Gordon Murray on this one. I really hope to never again buy a car that even has a screen capable of such nonsense. Only 1/5th of my cars have one currently.