In-car advertising glitch

Ars Technica reports In-car advertising glitch may be preview of a distracting future:

Last week, a Jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site—complain. Every time they hit the brakes on their Jeep, they wrote, a promotion for an extended warranty plan popped up in the center console. “Press the ‘call’ button to speak to a specialist,” they say the ad encouraged, welcoming the user to use their Bluetooth connection to complete the upsell then and there.

Ads and data collection are a key combination for enshittification; and denial always goes along for a ride:

Stellantis, which owns Jeep, says the repetitive nature of the promotion was a glitch. “This is an isolated incident affecting fewer than ten vehicles at this time limited to the US,” Dan Reid, a spokesperson for the automaker, wrote in a statement.

Any software bug becomes undistinguishable for malice. And then, there is the law: “Every piece of software will evolve beyond its intended purpose to sell you something.” It becomes hard to believe “it’s just a bug”. This excuse is the new “the dog ate my homework”.

We’ll see how far Stellantis (Chrysler) is willing to go. That’s another thing we need proper regulation. That one is easy, you file it under distracted driving.