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.

Comments

Help a simple guy like me out

[Anonymous Coward]

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"...
 

There is an alternative

[Bruce Perens]

I have a paper on Open Cars, written with Lother Determann (a Boalt Hall [Berkeley Law] professor). One of the issues I go over is just how fast the hardware in your car goes obsolete, compared to your phone. Manufacturers want embedded net features because they can have a continuing income after you have purchased the car, from wireless fees (the cellular company kicks back fees to the auto manufacturer) and from advertising and content. But you will end up plugging in a phone less than 2 years old instead of the built-in device.

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.

How to lose a customer for life

[MrLogic17]

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.

No. Just No.

[sgage]

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?

Stopped at traffic lights = IN TRAFFIC

[Anonymous Coward]

> 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...

Re:Stopped at traffic lights = IN TRAFFIC

[dohzer]

Making people angry before driving is not going to make the roads any safer.

Am I the only one who fires up an online video, and if a 15 second ad comes on before it, I think "I didn't actually want to watch it that badly", and close the video within 2 seconds.

at traffic lights??!!!!

[iggymanz]

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!

Re:If this works as well as ads in web pages

[rtb61]

People tend to miss the bigger picture. The bigger picture in this case, are ads winning customers or losing customers. Pretty easy to tell, if you and you are not alone, were targeted with an ad in this fashion, they would lose a customer. If the ads are not selling anything, than why pay for the ad. A lot of ads are now about convincing advertisers that ads work, not about selling anything to anyone, except ad space to advertisers. Right now jam a compulsary ad at me and you will lose a customer, no ifs buts or maybe, be wildly rude when trying to sell me something and your product is done, finished, wont be buying it and likely wont be buying anything else from your company.

It seems like they have gone insane recently believing all the digital ad B$ and lost sight of, is that ad gaining customer or losing customers.

Re:If this works as well as ads in web pages

[Calydor]

Pretty much this. Distraction will be a MAJOR issue.

If I'm stopped at a red light I do not need to be distracted by ads. I'm not allowed to whip out my cell phone and check Facebook in those precious seconds for that exact reason. I need to be aware of the street in front of me so that even when the light turns green I know in advance whether a nice old lady is slowly making her way across and just wasn't fast enough.

I've got enough of an issue with the lights here in Germany requiring me to take my eyes off the road and up to the side to see them rather than being set across the intersection so I constantly see the entire road - if I start getting blared with ads the moment I sit still that will NOT improve traffic safety in any way, shape or form.

Re: Sigh

[CrimsonAvenger]

You sound like an Ad for the Paperwhite....

Myself, I've always used Nooks, and have never had to pay extra to dispense with ads, since there are no ads in the first place....