Stellantis, purveyor of name brands such as Jeep, Dodge, Ram, and Chrysler, has been in the news more than once this year for its cars displaying pop-up ads on their infotainment screens, much to the disdain of owners just trying to, you know, drive their cars without being subject to yet another form of targeted advertising.
As it turns out, Ram 1500s and Chrysler Pacificas aren’t the only cars subject to the dystopian marketing strategy of in-car ads (or as Stellantis calls it, In-Vehicle Message (IVM) technology). Subaru has a pop-up system of its own as well.
I learned this through a post published last week to the Subaru subreddit, which shows a photo of a pop-up ad for a free trial for SiriusXM satellite radio. According to the original publisher, the ad appeared while the car was moving, which is even more of an overreach than the Stellantis pop-ups, which reportedly only appear on startup.
Here We Go Again
According to Reddit user bajungadustin, the pop-up advertisement shown above appeared on the infotainment screen of their 2024 Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness while they were driving, leading them to become distracted. Here’s how they described the situation in the post:
I have got this Sirius XM ad a few times over the last couple of years. This last time was the final straw as I almost wrecked because of it. My entire infotainment screen changed which caused me to take my eyes off the road and since I was going 55 mph in winter I swerved a bit and slid and almost went off into a ditch. Something that would not have happened had this ad not popped up.
That seems pretty scary! I messaged them to see if this was, in fact, legit and to find out how many times it’s happened so far.
“I got my 2024 [Crosstrek] in October of 2023,” they told me over direct message. “I have since received about 6 to 8 ads specifically for XM radio in my car over the last two years. Most of them while I was driving, and one of them while I was in an unfamiliar city and using navigation to get around. It blocked navigation just before I was supposed to take an exit, so I could no longer see my exit, which is another issue.”
This Reddit user isn’t alone. Subaru’s been pulling this SiriusXM pop-up move since at least 2022, according to various forum posts, the oldest of which I could find traces back to May of that year on this Subaru Outback forum.
Subaru’s Response
Amazingly, despite pushing these pop-up ads for years, Subaru says it hadn’t directly received any negative comments from customers until now. In addition to asking about the frequency of these messages, I also asked about how to turn them off and whether Subaru was worried about the distraction aspect of it all. It answered only one of those questions. Here’s the company’s full response:
We will discuss those messages in an upcoming meeting and will always consider customer feedback. This is the first we’ve heard of any issue. Those messages happen twice a year: around Memorial Day and around Thanksgiving to alert customers that all channels are available to them for about two weeks.
I followed up regarding whether it was possible to opt out of the pop-ups or not, but I have yet to hear back. I’m especially curious about this because in Stellantis vehicles, you have to actually call its customer service department, which seems incredibly anti-consumer. This should be a one-touch solution. Instead, Stellantis makes you jump through hoops. And that’s not cool. I hope it’s a different story with Subaru.
While some might argue this sort of pop-up is a bit different than those showing up in Stellantis vehicles because the Subaru ad is a free trial offer, while the Stellantis ads are pure marketing slop, the objective is ultimately the same: Get people to spend money, using in-car pop-ups as a medium.
Just to rehash what my colleague Jason Torchinsky has already said about pop-up ads in cars: No one is asking for this, and I feel as if there’s a slim chance anyone actually enjoys receiving ads beamed directly to their car screens. People get enough of that already through all of the other screens in their lives.
Top graphic images: Subaru
As I said, it’s hardly going to stay a Stellantis issue. Every automaker will have some form of advertising in their connected vehicles soon enough.
What do you think it means for something to be a “connected device”? To be “proactive” and “personalized”?
It means presenting information to the user unprompted based on a profile of their interests. It means ads. How else will you get “magical experiences” like a pop up offering you discount Starbucks on your Uber commute?
Glad I haven’t felt the urge to own a Subaru in quite a few years.
Part of my criteria for my next vehicle will be that the vehicle either has no internet connectivity or it can be easily disabled. I lived through pop-ups in the 1990s, not going to do that again. Wonder what manufacturer will be the first to unwittingly serve up spam (not *their* spam, other spam) or viruses?
This has been occurring for years with Subaru, but it’s not that big of a deal once you get past the kneejerk reaction of it. I got maybe 4 messages for XM radio in my Crosstrek a little bit after my trial period ended. After that, they stopped and I have not gotten anything in years. It’s not like Subaru is peppering owners with adverts for this and that all the time.
My Bolt will pop up a screen warning me that taking my eyes off the road is dangerous and I should not look at the screen. Of course, it will do this at seemingly random intervals and just as I’m pulling out of my driveway or a parking space. No ads yet, but this is annoying enough already.