2024 Subaru Wrx

On 12/3/2025 at approximately 9:46 am, I was driving at about 30 mph when a SiriusXM advertisement suddenly appeared on the infotainment screen. The pop-up took over the entire display and required manual dismissal to regain access to navigation and audio controls. This interruption forced me to divert my eyes and hand from the road. I have video evidence showing the ad appearing while the car was actively moving but can only attach a screenshot in this report. This poses a significant safety risk, especially at highway speeds or in poor weather conditions. Other Subaru owners have reported similar issues, indicating this may be a widespread software or UX defect. I am submitting this complaint to request investigation into whether Subaru’s infotainment system violates safety-critical UI standards by permitting advertisements to display while the vehicle is in motion.

While driving a full screen advertisement for SirusXM takes over the entire screen on your infotainment system. You must select to close or accept the sales offer to close the advertisement and have access to the controls or navigation on your infotainment screen. This is a dangerous distraction as you are driving to have something take over the display and then it shows as a sales ad.

On Dec 4 around 6pm driving in Chicago area. Weather has been very bad, with snow and extreme cold, leaving roadways and especially alleyways (as they do not receive regular city plow/salt) covered in snow and ice. While creeping over hardpacked snow and ice down an alleyway to access my apartment parking area, the dashboard screen suddenly came on in order to display an ad for SiriusXM. I keep the dashboard screen off specifically because I find it extremely distracting, even when static. When it came on suddenly, I experienced a crisis response, slamming on the brakes, resulting in slide forward and to the side. In this instance, I was fortunate not to hit anything or have anything further occur, but it could easily have been very different. Why can an ad server turn this screen on when closed by the owner? Why can it serve ads in private vehicles at all? I attempted to contact the dealer regarding this and they placed me on hold and eventually hung up on me. I have scheduled an appointment with legal counsel to discuss my further options.

Sirius XM advertisement took over driver infotainment system while driving casuong a significant distraction in driver attention. Infotainment system handles some car functions such as climate control, navigation, and relays information for eyesight system to other modules of the vehicle. There have been other complaints from drivers. The sudden change in display locks drivers out of climate control and other functions until advertisement is acknowledged.

I’m driving with my eyes on the road and out of my peripheral vision I notice a change on my cars information screen. I instinctively respond and it’s an advertisement from Sirius XM taking up my whole screen. This of course distracted me momentarily and luckily there were no other cars close enough to cause an incident. It made my blood boil. This is completely unacceptable and unsafe. Shame on Subaru for allowing this.