Technology

What do you mean? Gmail been injecting ads disguised as email in your mailbox for ages.

Nitpicking, but I'm not sure that it was ads that killed dash sat navs. At least in my experience, they never really developed to that point where car companies would put ads in.

It was more that they were expensive options to install, a pain to keep updated, and generally weren't all that good.

Even before the live traffic and automatic detour features, phones didn't cost money to keep the onboard maps up to date, and you already had one, so you didn't need to either buy an add-on, or get a special unit for it.

With android CarPlay and Apple Auto, you could just put your phone map on the screen, which was basically the same thing, but a cheaper equivalent, since the hardware was on your phone instead.

In Virginia, at least, it's not a meaningful distinction.

There used to be an exception for GPS, but the state changed the law a few years ago so that any non-hands-free use of a phone in a non-parked is a ticketable offense. Swiping away an ad at a red light would technically be illegal.

Waze has popped up ads on me plenty of times while I'm driving. Yes it knows I'm driving, the map is still scrolling along my route. At one point it was bad enough that the ads were remaining after every stop light, and finally clearing about half way to the next light. I haven't seen it happen in awhile though, maybe they finally got it fixed.