Driving safely requires your full attention. Yet, a new vehicle feature by some car manufacturers, such as Jeep, Fiat, and Chrysler, are asking drivers to divert their attention while on the road.
These manufacturers have introduced advertisements on the infotainment screen — a feature that drivers have found extremely frustrating and dangerous.
One Redditor shared a YouTube video posted by YouTube creator Regular Car Reviews (@RegularCars) to the r/ABoringDystopia subreddit. The YouTube video covered the latest ad feature appearing in the Stellantis network of cars, which includes well-known brands such as Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, and Fiat.
(Click here to watch the video if the embed does not appear.)
"Stellantis is putting ads in your car (I wish I were kidding)," the video's title read.
These ads show up loaded on the car's infotainment center when drivers turn their car on. The ad contents, which disguised as an urgent message on the screen regarding the car's function, attempt to upsell drivers on additional vehicle coverage. While these messages allow you to opt out of the screen, users reported that the ad would reappear anytime the car wasn't in motion.
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This ad infotainment feature appeared in a Jeep owner's car as early as February 2025. Initially, Stellantis wrote off the concern for this feature as a software glitch.
However, this problem — what Stellantis calls "in-vehicle messages," designed to deliver vehicle health information — was recurring for many other Stellantis car owners.
Stellantis explained that drivers can permanently opt out of these notifications by calling customer care, but there is no way to do so from the car's infotainment screen.
Aside from the dangers of a pop-up ad appearing randomly while on the road, this marketing feature highlights larger underlying problems, including the prioritization of company profit over driver safety and a loss of ownership.
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$200 or more 💰 The Regular Car Review page described that "the problem with popup ads on infotainment screens isn't the ads themselves, but what they represent." The creator continued: "What they represent is the transfer of control from the driver to the manufacturer. It's essentially a reminder that you don't own the experience of driving anymore."
The creator pointed out that when you buy a car from a manufacturer, you don't typically think about the manufacturer after you've made your purchase. It's your car.
However, with the constant heckling of these infotainment ads, drivers are either forced to give in to these ads and pay for additional coverage to stop the messages from reappearing or spend extra time and effort to call customer care to permanently opt out of the notifications. The remaining option is to simply endure the recurring pop-up ads.
The corporate greed here is clear.
Unfortunately, other large corporate brands are also accused of prioritizing company profits over the customer experience.
Plastic product manufacturer, Reynolds, recently came under fire for allegedly misleading customers into buying clear, blue "recycling" bags that are not actually recyclable.
Large chain thrift shops like Goodwill and the Salvation Army have been caught egregiously inflating designer brand purses and other name-brand products, seemingly in an attempt to squeeze every last dollar from shoppers.
"Really stupid way to make absolutely sure I will never buy or even rent one of your cars," one commenter wrote under the Reddit post.
"'We have removed your physical buttons. We have covered the touchscreen with ads. We hope you enjoy your experience,'" one user commented under the YouTube video.
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