Nothing quite says “high-performance muscle car” like a popup ad for a Mopar Extended Warranty covering your whole center console. That’s right, Dodge Charger owners are now experiencing an exciting new feature: pop-up ads that appear every time the vehicle stops at a light. This absolute garbage feature was spotted in the wild, take a look here.

  • PeteWheeler@lemmy.world
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    3 天前

    If we had actual regulation here this would be illegal for distracting driving.

    Illegal to look at phone (I know everyone does it and isn’t enforced, but still illegal on paper) but not illegal to watch this short message from our sponsors?

    I hate living through a bad joke. Much rather read about this shit and laugh then wondering what the next stupid thing is.

  • sixty@sh.itjust.works
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    3 天前

    It’s so insane how seemingly every company wants to fuck over all their customers these days. Their obsession with fucking infinite growth.

  • LuxSpark@lemmy.cafe
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    4 天前

    Damn, I would be pissed if my car started showing ads. I hope this enshitification doesn’t spread.

    • KayLeadfoot@fedia.ioOP
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      4 天前

      Dodge dropped 29% in sales in the USA last year, and something tells me, this isn’t going to have folks lining up to buy Chargers in 2025. Watch the free market* take care of this one.

      *Unless you’re Tesla, in which case the market costs $277 million to purchase.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        4 天前

        Free market doesn’t work if all car brands are owned by like 5 companies and all of them agreeing to add ads.
        That is why we need to regulate cooperations as well as enforce them properly.

      • SecondaryAnnetagonist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 天前

        I think that has more to do with ending production on the LX Platform Challenger / Charger tbh. They haven’t quite managed to gather the same hype among domestic car nerds with their replacements as those old boats had.

        • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 天前

          Despite their reputation, the LX platform was serious value, offering stupid power for cheap. It had the “classic American muscle car” vibes, and responds nicely to modifications.

      • hddsx@lemmy.ca
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        4 天前

        Hornet, Journey, Charger. That’s it. Hornet is a piece of cheap, charger has ads. Journey…?

    • Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world
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      4 天前

      Narrator: “It spread. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Really you wouldn’t believe how much it spread. It spread like Domino’s™ all new creamy red sauce on only the freshest of dough seasoned wi—”

      *car crashes*

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    4 天前

    It seems like displaying an ad at a stop light would be a safety issue since it makes it so you can onky look at the screen while moving.

    • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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      3 天前

      Not to mention it has the potential to completely distract the driver when the light turns green and other traffic starts moving again.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    3 天前

    I’m surprised Dodge is trying this considering the thousands of memes of BMW implementing pay to use features on their vehicle ever since they added subscription heated seats.

  • elatedCatfish@lemm.ee
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    3 天前

    Blows my mind that this kind of stuff isn’t a safety issue… I guess as long as it’s “touch-free” it’s not considered distracted driving lol

    • tehn00bi@lemmy.world
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      4 天前

      That was my idea as well. You are providing a negative feedback for following the rules.

  • Devadander@lemmy.world
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    4 天前

    I thought GM foregoing CarPlay in favor of their own proprietary UI was a great way to kill sales, this is absolutely genius. Way to ensure I would never purchase your products!

    • vortic@lemmy.world
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      4 天前

      You know, I was annoyed by that when I had to pay for an out-of-warranty update but now I’m pretty happy that my car is one year too old for automatic updates.

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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        3 天前

        How is a software update a warranty claim? They should be free, like a recall. Maybe a DIY option with a USB or SD card. Either that or whatever they’re adding probably isn’t worth the update to me.

        • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 天前

          Often it’s controller remapping to resolve transmission or engine issues. Those are typically recalls. The software updates you’re thinking of are typically for the infotainment system, which gets data from the rest of the vehicle and controls any wireless connectivity (if equipped).

          • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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            3 天前

            Well I think in the case of controller remapping, that’s a recall. But an infotainment update should also be free and possible to do yourself. If it isn’t, that’s terrible.

            • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              3 天前

              Toyota hasn’t offered an update for our 2015 Highlander’s Entune system since 2017. I snag the map updates for cheap from eBay, but that’s about it. The system sucks so bad… My parents’ 2015 Camry has the same system and they don’t use the navigation at all, choosing Google Maps or whatever instead. I mean there is absolutely no reason why entering one address needs to be divided into multiple ambiguous fields over multiple screens, completely dependent on what region you select on the first screen, which may or may not be correct since it looks for exact matches and not a “general” area; and stopping the navigation should be “stop navigation”, not “delete destination” ffs. Garmin, TomTom, Magellan, etc. had this figured out 20 fucking years ago.

              I get why Toyota likes to stick with “old but proven” tech, but that Entune system…jesus fucking christ what a dumpster fire.

          • Petter1@lemm.ee
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            3 天前

            😄my infotainment is only a "dumb” touchscreen radio with android auto / carPlay support anyway

            • lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              3 天前

              That’s how my minivan is. It’s a 2008 Toyota Sienna with an Alpine ILX-407 and iDataLink Maestro RR for vehicle integration (i.e. steering wheel controls and OBD-II). Works great.