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Your Car May Soon Start Serving You Ads (siliconbeat.com)
An anonymous reader quotes SiliconBeat:
Santa Clara auto-tech firm Telenav has just announced an "in-car advertising platform" for cars that connect to the internet. Telenav wants to sell the system to major auto manufacturers. And although it's probably the last thing many consumers want, vehicle owners will pay more for connected-car services if they decline the ads. "This approach helps car makers offset costs related to connected services, such as wireless data, content, software and cloud services," a spokeswoman for Telenav said Jan. 5. "In return for accepting ads in vehicles, drivers benefit from access to connected services without subscription fees, as well as new driving experiences that come from the highly-targeted and relevant offers delivered based on information coming from the vehicle."
Auto makers including Toyota, Lexus, Ford, GM and Cadillac already use the company's connected-car products, the spokeswoman said. Telenav CEO H.P. Jin in a press release called the ad platform "an exciting new opportunity" for vehicle manufacturers to "monetize connectivity to cover service costs and even drive healthy profits while enriching the consumer experience with safely delivered, engaging and relevant offers"...
To prevent driver distraction, "ads only appear when the vehicle is stopped, such as at car startup, traffic lights and upon arrival," Telenav said... Of course, driver distraction won't be an issue in self-driving cars, and this technology suggests the captive audiences in those vehicles will likely be subjected to an ad barrage in robotic ride-sharing vehicles and automated cars whose owners decline to pay more to avoid in-car advertising.
Auto makers including Toyota, Lexus, Ford, GM and Cadillac already use the company's connected-car products, the spokeswoman said. Telenav CEO H.P. Jin in a press release called the ad platform "an exciting new opportunity" for vehicle manufacturers to "monetize connectivity to cover service costs and even drive healthy profits while enriching the consumer experience with safely delivered, engaging and relevant offers"...
To prevent driver distraction, "ads only appear when the vehicle is stopped, such as at car startup, traffic lights and upon arrival," Telenav said... Of course, driver distraction won't be an issue in self-driving cars, and this technology suggests the captive audiences in those vehicles will likely be subjected to an ad barrage in robotic ride-sharing vehicles and automated cars whose owners decline to pay more to avoid in-car advertising.
Guess I'm sticking with my '77 olds. But I already get served ads in that too, the radio still works...
You'll pretty much have to stop your car in the middle of the street, turn it off and then start it up again to get the badly programmed ad to go away.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
This is not a problem I'm likely to have!
#DeleteChrome
You people with DRM'ed center consoles are SCREWED and you deserve it for being consumer whores and not demanding better.
*Perhaps* for self-driving cars, but car manufacturers are SUPER paranoid about driver distraction to the point that there are strict rules about how fast stuff scrolls on a radio, and what types of information can be shown in certain colors, or flashing, or accompanied with sound. An ad blaring at you while you're waiting for a traffic light to change isn't going to happen. All it would take is one driver to say they were startled by the ad, hit the accelerator and smash into a semi truck, and the lawyers would be falling over themselves to file the first lawsuit.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
If you're marketing, kill yourself, kill yourself, kill yourself.
With the applcation of a suitably sized hammer.
I'm a plumber so I'm not a fancy guy who hangs out in corporate boardrooms and such. My office is a 97 Econoline.
When these people are all sitting around that big mahogany table, in their fancy suits, do they *really* talk to each other like this, or do they think that guys like me are that stupid? If someone came up to me on the street talking like this, I'd punch them right in the mouth.
"an exciting new opportunity" for vehicle manufacturers to "monetize connectivity to cover service costs and even drive healthy profits while enriching the consumer experience with safely delivered, engaging and relevant offers"...
Any car that comes with ads will not be purchased by me.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
I am getting my tool box/scope, etc out and disassembling removing and cutting wires ;)
Just my 2 cents
They can get my 2002 Honda to do that? These people are some kinda stable genius.
to take the duct tape with you when you take that 'self drived' trip.
"This approach helps car makers offset costs related to connected services, such as wireless data, content, software and cloud services"
You mean car manufacturers are currently giving these for free?
The problem is worse with self-driving computers. Who wants one more than 2 years old? Not even the state authorities who will license them.
Auto manufacturers would like to solve this by having everyone lease their car. An alternative is for the car to have plugs for self-driving and network features, allowing the user more control. The paper has more detail on the social and legal issues.
I have a 2007 Prius, a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and a Trailmanor travel trailer. Obviously I commute in the Prius and save the big SUV for tasks that need it. When I bought the Jeep, I rejected the connected version and went for a model with a dumber radio. I doubt I'm alone in making that choice.
Bruce Perens.
If I test drive a car that serves up an ad, not only am I not buying that car - I'm black-listing that brand forever.
Bring it on punk - see how fast you can drop market share.
Waze does this today (sometimes), which I find pretty annoying. If it happened in a car that I purchased I think I would be tempted to take the car back. If the car were free, maybe I'd accept it.
I can definitely see this happening in subscription cars though. Still might put up with in in that case, tape cardboard over the screen.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Makes you pay more to avoid services you didn't want in the first place? Coming next, car seats lined with spikes - you pay extra to reduce the frequency of their springing out and jabbing you in the spine. I hope car buyers will avoid vehicles tricked out like this - spiked seats AND advertisements - and Telenav vanishes quickly.
That is all
I will go out of my way to prevent this. Iâ(TM)ll figure out how to block ads in an automobile and open source the solution.
I already have a mobile ad serving platform that I pay for the bandwidth for. It's called a cellphone.
If a car serves me ads I expect:
Free oil-changes
Free towing
Free gas
Free insurance
Free car-washes
Service to Pay for 60% of the car
If this is "mandatory" I guarantee that I will either use USB and disable the "infotainment" system altogether, or find creative ways to sabotage it while "under warranty". Antennas can disconnect, cables can corrode, etc.
If my 'car' (I'm a truck guy) starts 'serving' me ads, I will go ballistic. A man's truck is his own private kingdom. We live in a broken world. Surely there can be somewhere that we can be free of FUCKING ADS! I was in a pretty foul mood before I read this article, but now I am really depressed. Why can't they leave me the fuck alone?
The add stays
> ads only appear when the vehicle is stopped, such as at car startup, traffic lights and upon arrival
God, no. It's all we can do to make it through an intersection because the first person in line is playing on their phone. They don't need the car automatically distracting them as well.
Distracting people behind the wheel of a one ton death rocket is a bad idea, period. Please, oh please let common sense prevail, just this once...
Cha cha cha chia! The cock that grows
List the news cars that do this and rank them below the most defective decades of car designs.
Ensure customers looking for a new car online find the warning about ads in cars before they consider that new car.
Defective by design and to avoid will be the results found, not your brands good reviews.
Sell ads with a car, enjoy the online comments and news about the car with ads to avoid.
The more a company tries to sell a car with ads the more the internet will inform people considering that brand and year of car.
Your brands good engineering reputation cultivated over decades of safe design and style excellence vs the year of the ad.
Was it worth it?
Show the ads and people will reconsider what your band is really worth.
Your brand becomes a warning sign, a joke not a trusted brand of car.
A car joke shared by generations of people who would have once considered your brand. They now stop, point and LOL at your car with ads.
They could have been your loyal customers who would have told their friends about your car design, low costs and good price.
Want to risk people creating images of the ads in your car with your brand as a funny meme that never gets boring for decades?
Every new ad in your car, your brand shared as a new joke in real time?
What did your car brand try to sell its captive audience today? Shampoo? Dog food? Lipstick? A big boat? Heath insurance? A coat? A message from a charity? NGO? The political policy of another nation? That last one gets interesting.
Will a car brands upper management really want to face the US government about spreading "fake news" in their brands cars that millions of US drivers/passengers had to watch everyday all over the USA?
Did upper management know about the fake news in their ads? Did they report the attempts at fake news to the US gov as required? When did they stop the fake news in their cars ads? Did they accept another nations direct funding to keep the fake news in their cars?
Have they ever visited the nation that spreads fake news? Do they have a factory in the nation that spreads fake news? Is their brand selling new cars in the nation that spreads fake news?
If upper management thought questions over catalytic converters, software, crash reports was fun for the brand over the decades, wait for the party political questions about the politics of the ads their once trusted brand showed.
Your brands upper management, another nations fake news ads displaying in every car sold? Even the security services might take an interest in that ad sale.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Within this vale
Of toil and sin
Your head grows bald
But not your chin
Burma Shave
Fuck you! I'm eating!
>> owners will pay more for connected-car services if they decline the ads.
I already won't buy any "connected car". I purposely avoid GM (onstar) and Tesla cars just for that reason.
If it gets to a point where you literally can't buy any unconnected car any more, I'd either build my own or only buy cars where you can still hack the connectivity hardware out.
"Auto makers including Toyota, Lexus, Ford, GM and Cadillac already use the company's connected-car products, the spokeswoman said. "
I don't know about the others above, but Ford's (you don't have any...) privacy policy SUCKS, so I don't use their services. It's only going to get worse. I can not use their services now, but it's not too far over the horizon where they're mandatory and you'll basically have a shrink-wrap license/privacy policy for you car that you'll have to accept in toto just to be able to drive it.
And get off my lawn.
> This approach helps car makers offset costs related to connected services, such as wireless data, content, software and cloud services
I just don't believe this. I have an advanced vehicle infotainment center. I won't pay for the services because it is expensive. It's not like I get the connected services for free from the auto maker. I had to buy the head unit as well as part of my vehicle's purchase price.
The real reason? Someone has figured out that they have a captive audience of millions of drivers in densely packed metro areas with poor traffic flow.
Sitting in an autonomous car being bombarded with ads? Not with the Privacy Hood. Just pull it over your head and tell the rest of the world to fuck off.
So you are distracted at the traffic light and don't see the kid on a bicycle that is riding along the line of stopped cars, and you then turn and kill him when the light turns green?
Or someone jogging across at the last moment during yellow light?
No. Drivers need to pay attention at the lights!
Imagine the dealers having to handle the complaints, which they will certainly pass on to the manufacturers.
I simply will not buy a product that advertises to me. I already don't go to the shell station nearby because it tries to make me watch ads and stupid celebrity news clips.
People vote with their wallet, and the dealer isn't going to want you to know that your car will advertise to you - that's going to be a huge buzzkill when you get in the driver's seat to test drive the car.
When customers find out, they WILL complain, and it's the deal they'll complain to.
Why, you ask? Apparently, advertising sells stuff. But I wonder what sort of personality sits around and waits for an ad from - the TV? The radio? a magazine? A website? His f-ing CAR? to tell him or her how to dispose of any cash or credit balance he or she may have lying around.
Shouldn't it work like: "Hmm. My shirt collar is frayed so I think I will go to Nordstrom's where I buy all my shirts and buy another one."?
Do people REALLY hear an ad for two fidget spinners for the price of one, forget about the frayed collar and rush to the nearest Dollar General to "save" a dollar and buy two fidget spinners for the price of one?
It's hard to believe that the public en masse is so malleable that advertising on every blank surface, every quiet moment, every damned thing you look at, hear or read is glommed onto by peddlers. But that's the acquisitive mentality in our world today.
... as well as new driving experiences that come from the highly-targeted and relevant offers delivered based on information coming from the vehicle."
What a HUGE pile of crap. Someone has been smoking too much crack and, quite frankly, not drinking enough Kool-Aid.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
... with several strips of duct tape. (Yeah, yeah... I know the display is used for other things.)
Seriously... with smartphone storage capacity as large as it is, who hasn't already downloaded a metric ton of MP3s to their phones that they can listen to in the car obviating the need for an online connection?
This company is selling a solution in search of a problem. I don't see this addressing any problems encountered by drivers.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
There is a reason Google is one of the corporations throwing a fuck load of money at self-driving cars; namely a captive audience.
Having a connected car makes no sense. We all have cell phones. This idea of connecting ones car to the internet is a 90â(TM)s idea that eeds to go away.
To whichever nameless marketing drone that wrote that: go fuck yourself.
do. not. want.
i don't even need or want a "connected car".
i know how to read a fucking map and prepare ahead of time for ventures into unfamiliar areas and cities... and if that preparation fails due to car breakdown, road closures, etc... you still have your phone to call for help or look shit up on.
KMA, advertisers!
I almost never go to the movies anymore...why ? Not overpriced popcorn, sticky floors, or blabbing kids...no, ads. I paid for the film, don't mind a few promos, but the long reel of ads before the long reel of ads that come with the feature turn me off so much that I don't think of going to the movies unless I REALLY want to see the film...otherwise I'll just wait till it comes out on disc or stream. There is NO way in hell that a vehicle, for which I've paid at least 25k for, has to serve me ads. Period. It's not a free product like radio or OTA TV or even a web page where the ads pay the bills....no, I bought this car. All you marketers working on this...let me be very clear....die...in...a...fire....
Just what we needed, more distraction while driving.
... that advertisers don't seem to be willing to acknowledge that they are annoying, unwelcome, and unloved for the most part. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between (I thought the Bud Lite frog ads were kinda cute, but they got old fast. The Clydesdale ads were a bit better, but they got old too.)
I never use my smart phone to browse any sites but my own. The Madison Ave. crowd seems to go wild when someone uses an iPhone on their sites to the point that I refuse, absolutely, to do so.
It seems to me that those that wish to sell to us learn to romance us a bit before sticking right up our ... buying chute. If car manufacturers want to include a never ending stream of ads in the car, I may have to invest in a Taser to "discourage" such interruptions. Noting like 10Kva on a computer circuit to "suggest" submission.
But likely they'll make it so that if the ads don't play, the car doesn't run. Pity, that. I kind of gotten used to cars rather than horses for transportation.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Waze already does this.
It's fscking infuriating. A distraction is still a distraction, even when the vehicle's stopped. Fsck, it's even more of distraction when stopped, one of the few times I can actually devote attention to the map to see where I'm going next, only to have the whole $(GOD)-damned thing squatted over by a piece of paid vandalism screaming about the shitty chain restaurant six blocks away.
Drivers already have enough distractions. The NTSB should rule this stuff as impermissible.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?
Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.
#DeleteFacebook
"You can shift out of park after 20 seconds of this ad"
Even if you don't use it for anything other then phone calls it still harvests data about your movements and that generate profit for someone. You don't even really own it. You can't remove or turn off any of the "features". Ownership means control, and when the user cannot stop intrusive behavior they are no longer in charge.
Every other economic sector lusts after this monetization model. They want the profit that comes from the simple act of buying a device. You pay for the illusion of ownership, and their profit stream lasts for the life of the device.
Of course car companies are drooling over this prospect. So is every company that wants to put an always on internet connected device in to your life. There's money to be made on "smart" thermostats and light switches after they are installed. Your boss would love to know when you got to bed and combine that information with where you stopped after you got off work and how much time you spent watching the TV before you turned out the lights. That data could be a great help to an employer who is deciding who to promote or who to fire. And you will be paying to get every device. Sucker.
Why is Snark Required?
Not likely. Any device that tries to show/tell me ads is going to be disabled without question within the first days of ownership. There is a way around everything. Of course I won't pay for connected car "services" to begin with so that might make a difference. After the internet, I don't need any more services where I pay for those A-Holes to advertise to me. Then again, this is a prime time to invest and go all in on something so I can later sue someone into submission after "their product makes me crash my car". Hmmm.... another tough choice of what kind of person I am.
Because distracted driving is cool...
Of course not you silly silly, you buy a car without ads, then the mandatory update adds ads ;)
Someone should shoot about 5,000 nukes at Norway.
Now with ads on the inside of the hood to keep you company!
Its not just because Im cheap I drive a truck built in the 1970s. No BigBrother inside.
I drive a 90's VW TDI with no infotainment. The radio has had a blown fuse for a decade (I don't listen to music anyhow). This is as high tech of a car as I can stand. I will not buy a car with infotainment. It needs to get me from point A to point B, not entertain me.
I choose to not have a TV or any such entertainment device at home because I don't care for it. But a car is a necessity since the grocery store is 8 miles away. Fuck. I hope my VW keeps chugging along!
I ditched that the minute I was able to connect an MP3 player to my stereo.
You are a single male driving towards Bambi's Back-street Brothel: Would you like the location of the nearest ATM?
On the one hand, this advert system isn't for the driver, it's for passengers. On the other, we already have adverts in television, radio, magazines, web-pages and software. People won't care about adverts in a car entertainment system.
Any brand that was so desperate to make money that they would try such shit is not going to sell to me. Think about it, if they are that desperate for a few dollars what is their warranty plan going to be like? Sorry sir your wheel falling off is not covered because you rotated it past 360 degrees...
There you go mixing up your units again...
My car to be connected to the internet?
Why can't my car just be a car?
SCREW THAT. FUCK ADS.
Why? Someone going to sneak into my backyard and install a radio or something I can't turn off??
No ads in my car. In fact no ads in my life - I hate this annoying liars.
Yeah...no it won't. No car I own will ever send me adds.
When are fuckers going to figure out that I haven't paid attention to advertisement after say the age of 10 or so. I can't think of one time as an adult that I have bought anything based on an add.
And don't tell me that the ads "only" take up any amount of time that the driver could otherwise spend on recuperating from having to pay constant attention to traffic.
> I fully expect car manufacturers like Tesla and GM will soon be blatant
> about it and just make their (note it was never really your) car completely
> inoperable if the "always connected" feature is in any way tampered with.
Let's say you figure out where the antenna is, and sheild it. What are they gonna do? You lose connectivity with the mothership everytime you go through a tunnel or into an underground garage. Heck, even deep mountain valleys have similar connectivity losses. And what about people who drive in isolated areas, far from the nearest cell tower?
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
The purpose of advertising to to steal your attention away from whatever you are doing and focus it upon the ad. How is this going to end up in a happy place for drivers?
...To prevent driver distraction, "ads only appear when the vehicle is stopped, such as at car startup, traffic lights and upon arrival," Telenav said....
It is still distracted driving, even if you are stopped at a traffic light. Indeed, many, many distracted-driving tickets are issued at traffic lights. For example, if you're engaged with your device, how are you going to see when the light changes?
Ads are specifically designed to call attention to themselves. In cars, that calls attention AWAY from the road, and from concentrating on operating the vehicle safely. This should not be allowed to happen, full stop.
So "Fifteen Million Merits" (episode 2 of Black Mirror) is not that far fetched after all. We are already watching compulsory ads at the cinema.
Digital is a trap to set you up for subscription services and to monitor you.
Fun fact :
- digitial isn't a requirement for encryption, Analog signals used to be encrypted too (though they proved to be easier to crack).
- encryption isn't an obligation on digital signal : in lot of countries (e.g.: in europe), DAB is broadcast the exact same way as FM - freely for anyone to catch. No subscription, DRM or whatever. And public channels (those paid by public funds, like taxes or via a separate non-government taxation system - e.g.: in CH) never air advertisement.
The "free for all to catch" also applies to digital TV : at least in Europe modern DVB-T / TNT is as available for anyone to listen to as our grand parent's PAL/SECAM. You don't need to subscribe to some cable procvider if you need TV.
It's on your side of the atlantic pond that every single technology evolution is seen as a giant excuse to monetise the shit out of it.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Sept. 5, 2019, President Mike Pence into law to begin mandatory implantation of OLED displays inside the eyelids of all U.S. citizens with internal audio in the inner ear. This allow blipverts to be transmitted in the wink of an eye when you blink your eyes, transmission of government-sponsored True News and ads to be seen everytime you eyes close. ICE and other law enforcement officers will be able to determine identify of citizens and non-citizens remotely with embedded codes.
And people wonder why I say that if I ever bought a connected car the first thing I'd do is disable its communications systems. Sadly this was a virtual certainty the moment cars built in systems got connectivity.
those vehicles will likely be subjected to a barrage of shotgun blasts
For regular cars we all drive ourselves, I say NO! Even if the car is stopped it's unacceptable to bombard the driver with ADs while they're getting ready to go. We already have people sitting at lights and not going when they change from red to green and then almost hitting others when they do get going. That is just with texting and other mobile phone use. For autonomous self-driving cars, there should be less of a threat to public safety so I can see that being a thing especially if they're surfing the net on the dashboard. However, I still say NO! The space people have in which they aren't bombarded with ADs is shrinking so the line must be drawn somewhere.
There's nothing new with ads appearing in navigation services; my Garmin Nuvi displays ads for customers along the route, and Waze displays ads at stop signs and in heavy traffic.
Yet.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
The Cars advertisement distracted me and caused me to crash.... (wonder how much they'll get out of that one)
And if they catch you distracted, closing your eyes, covering your ears, or not buying in the next 24 hours, then you're banned.
And post it so we can post bills on every door and window of his house until they cannot be used?
When you see the first ad immediately drive to Telenav and shoot the CEO in the head.
I would never buy a product or service that advertised inside my car. I already boycott products and services with intrusive and obnoxious online ads
If I take a car for a test drive and it spams me, I will take it right back to the dealer and tell them to go fuck themselves in no uncertain terms.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The infrastructure and continued services cost money. If you want the goodies free you get ads if you want it ad free you pay and if you donâ(TM)t want it just disable it or replace the head unit b
Serve me up ads. I have a J2534 pass though and know how to use it.
Come to think of it, a new business opportunity - turn off ads in cars.
Fuck. That.
i see them all the time on billboards when driving, i hear them all the time coming out of my radio, i don't need any more ads while driving, i'm overloaded already!
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Since most states in the US prohibit video displays within sight of the driver, this will not be a video ad feature. Audio ads are, well, like radio, and that's pretty well ubiquitous and already happening, so this competed with OTA and Internet sources.
Feh. This is a nonstarter for me. Not a big deal.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
as is all the other consumer-fucking / spying that companies are doing to people. Fuck them.
And how is this business going to deal with lawsuits the result from accidents caused by their product distracting the driver?? Or is it only going to put ads up when the car is stopped and turned off.
Get the popcorn out!
They're going to use locations services and cookies to track where you've been and never forget it, just like with the web.
So, if you happen to stop by an adult toy store one day and the next day drive your boss to a meeting, there's going to be an awkward silence when the ball-stretcher ad starts playing.
Not gonna happen...
Ferret
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc
Good reason to turn media OFF!
Unlike FM, DAB is buried under a patent pool which requires licensing.
It might surprise you, but actually FM *is* licensed.
Not the technology per se.
But the actual frequency bands used by FM, DAB, TV, DVB, etc. are all subject of heavy licensing.
You are not allowed to through whatever you want on any frequency. Some are reserved, and that's the case with those used by public broadcast (radio, television).
(Though some European region like UK tend to have lots or "pirate" unlicensed radios).
Currently, the licensing is a big part of the cost of operating a small radio. And FM bandwidth is very congested all over Europe - which increases the bid for frequencies.
By grouping lots of mid/low bandwidth radios in a single DAB emitter, DAB is actually *reducing* the costs of lots of small-scale radios. Lots of them have publicly mentioned being happy to do the switch, there are example of small regional radio who where about to lose their FM license, but still managed to keep on air thanks to DAB.
The only radio actually suffering from the FM to DAB switch are the "pirate" unlicensed radios.
Once you remove the cost of bandwidth license, equipment is the next big cost, and currently emitting a unlicensed DAB radio requires a tiny bit more equipment than an unlicensed FM radio (but even that is changing, there are opensource project for SDR to emit DAB). There have been (very low-power) public "happenings" emitting locally DAB in public places.
Regarding the patent pool :
We're speaking about DAB and DVB. i.e.: about things happening in Europe, not in the US.
In lots of local jurisdiction 100% pure software patents are a no-no. (e.g.: France doesn't recognize pure software patents, but only recognize patents that cover software as part of the implementation of an actual physical invention. - i.e.: you cannot patent AAC in France, only make a patent for a hardware codec module that a radio station will screw into their rack).
As far as I know, the only patented bit is the AAC codec that's available on DAB+.
(and as a pure software patent, not something easily enforceable in most European countries).
Also, there are actual experiment of bringing OPUS to DAB.
It's not something that is actually part of any official standard, but it's experiments going on, due to absence of patents and overall better audio quality.
They also seem hell bent on obsoleting it periodically so new receivers have to be purchased.
Technically, not much has changed since the introduction of the first DAB variants.
The latest DAB+ is still more or less the same signal.
Even the OPUS based experiment mentioned above are STILL the same signal.
The only difference is the audio-stream used by the radio channels.
Older DAB used MPEG Audio Layer II (i.e.: MP3's grand-dad), current DAB+ adds the possibility to use AAC.
Any receiver is actually able to receive both.
The problem is lots receiver were done in a very stupid manner (to diminish the costs) using single chip solution.
And although the media system in your car is actually already able to decompress and play an AAC audio stream (e.g.: when reading a file from a USB drive, when using a digital connection to an Apple iPhone/iPod, etc.) the radio part is done stupidly and not future proof - i.e.: it doesn't send a digital stream to the media player to decode, but the DAB receiver decodes the sound it self on the fly and send the audio.
So when the compression format on the DAB gets upgraded (to something that the media player component supports already any way), instead of just changing the decompression, you need to throw away and rebuy the whole DAB receiver.
That's as stupid as being forced to upgrade your laser printer just because you upgraded your word processing software.
If OPUS ever gets accepted into an actual official standard (DAB++ ?), you'll be sure to see the same shitshow (device which actually can play OPUS
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]