Last week, a Jeep driver turned to Reddit to do what people do best on the site – Compliment. Whenever they hit the brakes on their jeep, they wroteA promotion for an extended warranty plan appeared in the central console. “Press the” Call “button to talk to a specialist,” they say that AD has encouraged, welcoming the user to use his Bluetooth connection to complete the upward sale then and there.
The advertisements are boring and sometimes insidious; An announcement that appears several times in its own car more. According to other online publications on Reddit And the Jeep forums, the problem dates back several years, affecting several models of jeeps.
Stellantis, who owns Jeep, says that the repetitive nature of the promotion was a problem. “This is an isolated incident affecting less than ten vehicles at that time limited to the United States,” said Dan Reid, spokesperson for the automaker. However, he recognized that Stelllantis also shows other vehicle promotional drivers. Dodge owners, for example, obtain an infotainment of infodivement after 60 days of purchase offering the “Dodge Complete Performance Package”, a full warranty offer. “Stellantis says that in average, customers receive approximately two messages in vehicles per year, containing information on security, maintenance or marketing.
Should ads appear inside the cars? Security experts have serious questions about practice. But while car manufacturers continue to explore how to earn more money on their increasingly scanned wheels and connected to the Internet, the temptation to sell on the central console can be too good to be transmitted.
Increased data sale
The new cars today are filled with 1,000 to 3,000 semiconductor chips which help control and coordinate everything, the drop in windows and the adjustment of mirrors to the deployment of airbags, Activation of collision avoidance systems, twinning phones with central consoles and screens and navigation coordination. Add internet mobile phones and drivers, and you get a continuous “conversation” of data between individual cars and manufacturers that build them.
The vision of these manufacturers of the future has been quite consistent in recent years, explains Mark Wakefield, the world automotive market of the Alixpartners consulting company. “In an ideal world, they have completely mixed the mobile phone and various services and applications in a large coherent ecosystem that goes from work to home,” he said. It is the perfect platform for advertising, for the venseuse and for pushing premium garnishes. As with the extensive jeep warranty offer, many services may appear with a simple remote software thrust.
Selling a car is a tight margin company; Sell ​​features compatible with software, less. Alixpartners Research estimates that the connected vehicle services market is worth more than $ 473 million worldwide this year, representing 11% of automotive income sources. By 2032, this could be worth $ 1.68 billion, or more than a quarter of manufacturers’ income.
Some of these parts linked to software have already worked for car manufacturers. General Motors reported some $ 2 billion in revenues last year from OnStar, its division of security and entertainment services based on the subscription, and The leaders stick With a prediction made for the first time in 2021, the car manufacturer will eventually earn more than $ 20 billion per year in software income. Customers have already shown that they are ready to Escape For services that heat or cool drivers cars before entering, or Light the garage lights When they return home.
