Whenever there’s an ad on TV, you switch the channel. When it’s over the radio, you would do exactly the same. You use ad blockers with your web browsers and smartphones. And for those videos which play with an ad, you’re always ready to click the ‘skip-ad’ button. But what do you think will happen when such ads make their way into your car?
It may sound impossible especially considering how distracting ads can be and severely affect road safety. A company known as Telenav has launched a connected in-car advertising platform at the Consumer Electronics Show. This would allow for OEMs to offer connected car services for free while they generate their revenues from ads.
They argue that this wouldn’t hinder road safety as the ads would only play when the car is stationary. They would disappear whenever the user wants to interact with the infotainment system, whether it be for tuning the radio or programing navigation. But come to think of it, wouldn’t this make you dread every time your car would come to halt in fear of that ad popping up again?
The company responsible for its development says that this would provide a tailor-made experience for their consumers. This maybe from an eatery or a one of those high street brands whose stores you cross on the way to work and back. What this means is such a mechanism would adapt itself around your routine and splash your car’s screens with promotions running on your daily commute. While they also claim this would enable car-makers to as a source of revenue, who in turn may be able to offer premium infotainment services at lower costs.
Automakers may be wary of adopting this technology as this would lead to discontent amongst drivers at large. In the near future, however, in-car advertisements with autonomous cars may seem normal. As with autonomous vehicles, the passengers would turn to the cars infotainment systems to wind away their time and people are already used to ads coming in the way of their entertainment across different media, so how would screens on cars be any different?