Could Pop-Up Ads Invade Your Dashboard? Stellantis Faces Backlash

It feels impossible to escape advertisements some days. Every screen you look at seems to bombard you with notices to buy one thing or subscribe to another. But the screens in our cars are typically a reprieve from that. After all, it’s a safety concern to have something playing on the screen while you have your eyes on the road… isn’t it? These days, certain car owners, primarily Jeep drivers, have started running into pop-up ads while driving.

Since March 2024, Jeep owners, as well as drivers of other Stellantis-brand cars, have reportedly started to encounter these ads when the car is stopped, like at a red light. According to angry posts across car forums, when the vehicle comes to a stop, the screen displays an advertisement for an extended warranty. Drivers are rightfully concerned about the danger of distracting pop-ups obscuring the display.

Which Stellantis Vehicles Have Ads?

So far, only Stellantis drivers have reported this problem. The majority of the complaints are from Jeep drivers who are concerned about the pop-up ads and looking for workarounds to eliminate them. However, Stellantis also owns Dodge, Chrysler, and Ram. So far, the company has not yet commented on the possibility of expanding the pop-ups to those brands. If they can continue to push the ads with no consequences, drivers fear that it could set a dangerous precedent going forward.

Distracted Driving

There are currently laws on the books about driving while texting, calling, or otherwise holding your phone. And for good reason. Looking away from the road is incredibly dangerous. You can miss stop signs, other drivers, pedestrians or animals that may cross your path. And even if you do see them, they’ll have slowed your reaction time enough that an accident is unavoidable. Pop-up ads, even ones that only appear while the car is stopped, seem just as dangerous.

According to forum complaints, the ads pop up when the vehicle comes to a stop. They will override whatever else was currently on the screen, like your GPS. You can’t just wait for them to end, either. If you want to see your screen while stopped, you must manually close them. These aren’t the exact same as the ads you might see during a commercial break. However, they are still a distraction when they pop up and when you click to dismiss them.

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Just because your vehicle is stopped doesn’t mean you can afford to be distracted by unnecessary clutter on your car’s screen. You should be paying attention to the stoplight, or the other drivers at the stop sign intersection. Checking the screen briefly to confirm the next direction on your trip should be a brief and hands-free task, not one that requires you to find and press an “x” to close out a pop-up.

Stellantis’s Response

Stellantis has commented on the pop-ads, claiming that they were the result of a glitch.Jason Torchinsky of the Autopian reached out to a Stellantis spokesperson and got the following response: “This was an in-vehicle message designed to inform Jeep customers about Mopar extended vehicle care options. A temporary software glitch affected the ability to instantly opt-out in a few isolated cases, though instant opt-out is the standard for all our in-vehicle messages. Our team had already identified and corrected the error, and we are following up directly with the customer to ensure the matter is fully resolved.”

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