BMW Is Showing Full-Screen Ads on Its Cars' Main Dashboard Control Display

Has anyone actually seen these ads in the BMW, as described?

This article seems fishy to me. Especially this part:

The ad has been available in more than 70 markets since July 27, 2026, scheduled to run through August 10, 2026, on any suitably equipped BMW running Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or OS X built after July 2020.

“System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or OS X” are exact versions of MacOS, dating back to 1991. Why would BMW’s software versioning match Apple’s exactly? I mean it could be a coincidence, but it’s weird. Especially “OS X.”

Not that I’d put it past any car manufacturer to do this, capitalism gonna capitalize. But I thought the EU was more obnoxious about controlling/preventing things like this. Or does BMW get a pass since they’re a European brand?

I went to the first source of the article that is mentioned

…bmwgroup.com/…/bmw-brings-modern-mobility-to-the…

So what this means BMW is partnering with Disney for spiderman.

As far as I understand it the spiderman animation is not presented in a disturbing way and rather something one can access when they want to.

So yes it is an ad but also not yet intrusive advertisement that disturbs the usage.

Yeah I should have clicked through to the source article. Good call.

My theory on the System / OS numbers being suspect was nothing. Just a coincidence. I should’ve known.

The article does seem to be rage bait though. Or at least its enraging to those who didn’t read the article thoroughly. It’s not as if the driver is being pestered with ads. An unobtrusive banner on one screen that is only visible when the vehicle starts up is hardly a “full screen ad” being forced on drivers.