BMW Is Showing Commercials On Their Car's Dash Screens And They Want You To Think It's A Treat - The Autopian
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You know what would be terrible? Terrible in a sort of dystopian, capitalism-run-amok sort of way? Imagine buying a brand-new, fancy, premium-grade car. From an automaker with a respected name. Like, say, BMW. This is a machine with some status! Let’s say it costs, oh, $61,500, and you’re paying, what, about $1300 a month? Something […]
  • Cypressed@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3 months

    I hope the slate truck does phenomenally well for several reasons, but one of them is most certainly to spank the fuck out of these shit-ass manufacturers who want to gaslight us into thinking screens were ever a good fucking idea for an automotive interface.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    3 months

    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.

    • CeeBee_Eh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 months

      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).

  • jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    The first one to make a safe bare bones electric vehicle with no dash screen and solid state batteries wins.

  • THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    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.

    • Benaaasaaas@group.ltEnglish
      3 months

      And then they will all be asking, why are people buying chinese cars

    • cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3 months

      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.

    • BillyGruff82@lemmy.dbzer0.comBannedEnglish
      3 months

      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.

      • T3CHT @sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3 months

        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.

        • T3CHT @sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          3 months

          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!

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3 months

        This isn’t a problem for me, I have a bicycle and the subway is… already… filled with ads. 🙁

  • Wispy2891@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    How considerate, after you watch the ad, they leave a new button on the dashboard, so you can watch the ad again and again

  • zergtoshi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    How long until you have to watch an ad before you can start going with the car?

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipEnglish
    3 months

    It doesn’t make things much better, but:

    the ad appears when the car is started, with an option to play it or not being displayed on the screen. I suppose that’s better than it autoplaying, but just barely.

    Also, it doesn’t play while you’re driving.

    BTW, according to BMW it’s not an ad, lol:

    To celebrate the partnership with Spider-Man™: Brand New Day, BMW has a special surprise for its drivers. The Spider-Man™ Animation will be available (in participating markets) to all customers with suitably equipped vehicles … bla bla bla

    Once again: since there’s no way of getting around surveillance & IoT bullshit in cars, I’m just going to have to take extremely good care of my old clunker.

    • gedfromgont@piefed.caEnglish
      3 months

      For now you can skip it. Later you need verification fuel for your car to do that.

    • boonhet@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      3 months

      This would be a neat gimmick if it came with free tickets to the movie. Considering the price of the cars and the fact that only newish ones get the ad, they could afford it. It might even be positive PR.

    • Badabinski@kbin.earth
      3 months

      I will continue to pray for Slate to not completely suck. There’s a “smart” module that has a cellular modem, but it’s something you have to opt into and pay for it.

        • BandDad@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3 months

          All electric, modular pickup truck starting at $24,000. The truck is highly modular in parts and accessories as well as mods to turn it into more of a crossover/2 row vehicle. Stock vehicle comes with crank windows and no radio by default. All things you can add (or remove/modify) at any time. It’s a startup, so it has yet to be seen how good of a reception it has.

      • comador @lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 months

        Same. I have a 2016 Subaru Outback that I wouldn’t mind giving to my daughter, but like hell am I buying anything connected to the Internet and tracking my every drive (for profit). Slate and to a lesser degree: Rivian are my only EV choices right now.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3 months

        Some marketing executive earned their paycheck for the month by coming up with this…

    • Squizzy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 months

      I already hate the random length warning to obey road laws.

  • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 months

    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 $.