How to ensure videos autoplay and play inline in a card carousel on mobile devices?

I am building a vertical card carousel where each card has a video background. It works perfectly on desktop browsers (videos autoplay and play inline as expected), but on mobile browsers the videos fail to autoplay reliably.

I have ensured the following:

HTML attributes: The muted, playsinline, and preload="auto" attributes are set on each <video> tag.
Explicit muting in JavaScript: I programmatically set video.muted = true for each video.
Autoplay attempt in JavaScript: Using video.play() after a user interaction or on page load.

Despite these efforts, videos don’t show until interacted with on a phone.

Autoplay: Ensure videos autoplay seamlessly on smaller devices.
Play inline: Prevent videos from opening in fullscreen on mobile.
Inactive cards: Ensure inactive cards show the first frame of the video as a still image while paused.

const cards = document.querySelectorAll('.card');
const body = document.body;
const elementsToChange = document.querySelectorAll('.elementor-button, .elementor-widget-container a img');
let currentIndex = 0;
let isScrolling = false;
let touchStartY = 0;
let touchEndY = 0;

const bodyColors = ['#191d1c', '#534d3f', '#959185', '#bdb8b4', '#bec5bd'];

// Funksjon for å oppdatere styling på spesifikke elementer
function updateElementStyles() {
  const activeCard = cards[currentIndex];
  const cardTitle = activeCard.querySelector('h2').textContent.trim();
  const highlightCards = ['Om oss', 'Kultur']; // Kortene som skal trigge effekten

  if (highlightCards.includes(cardTitle)) {
    // Endre utseendet for de valgte elementene
    elementsToChange.forEach((el) => {
      if (el.tagName === 'IMG') {
        el.style.filter = 'invert(1)'; // Øk lysstyrken for bilder
      } else {
        el.style.color = '#ffffff'; // Sett tekstfarge til hvit
        el.style.transition = 'color 0.5s ease, filter 0.5s ease'; // Glatt overgang
      }
    });
  } else {
    // Tilbakestill til standard utseende
    elementsToChange.forEach((el) => {
      if (el.tagName === 'IMG') {
        el.style.filter = 'invert(0)'; // Tilbakestill lysstyrken
      } else {
        el.style.color = ''; // Tilbakestill tekstfarge
      }
    });
  }
}

function updateCards() {
  cards.forEach((card, index) => {
    const relativeIndex = (index - currentIndex + cards.length) % cards.length;
    const video = card.querySelector('video');

    if (relativeIndex === 0) {
      card.className = 'card active';
      video.play();
      body.style.backgroundColor = bodyColors[index];
    } else {
      card.className =
        relativeIndex === 1 ? 'card behind' :
        relativeIndex === 2 ? 'card behind-2' :
        relativeIndex === 3 ? 'card behind-3' :
        relativeIndex === 4 ? 'card behind-4' :
        'card ahead';
      video.pause();
    }
  });

  updateElementStyles(); // Oppdater styling på de valgte elementene
}

function handleScroll(direction) {
  if (isScrolling) return;
  isScrolling = true;

  if (direction === 'down') {
    currentIndex = (currentIndex + 1) % cards.length;
  } else if (direction === 'up') {
    currentIndex = (currentIndex - 1 + cards.length) % cards.length;
  }

  updateCards();
  setTimeout(() => (isScrolling = false), 600); // Prevent rapid scroll/swipe
}

window.addEventListener('wheel', (e) => {
  handleScroll(e.deltaY > 0 ? 'down' : 'up');
});

// Touch events for mobile
window.addEventListener('touchstart', (e) => {
  touchStartY = e.touches[0].clientY;
});

window.addEventListener('touchend', (e) => {
  touchEndY = e.changedTouches[0].clientY;
  if (touchStartY > touchEndY + 50) {
    handleScroll('down'); // Swipe up
  } else if (touchStartY < touchEndY - 50) {
    handleScroll('up'); // Swipe down
  }
});

updateCards();

body {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  height: 100vh;
  overflow: hidden;
  font-family: "Neue Montreal", sans-serif;
  background: #f0f0f0;
  transition: background 0.5s ease;
}

.carousel {
  position: relative;
  perspective: 1000px;
  height: 100vh;
  display: flex;
  align-items: flex-end;
  justify-content: center;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.cards {
  position: relative;
  height: 70%;
  width: 70%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

.card {
  position: absolute;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  border-radius: 30px 30px 0 0;
  box-shadow: 0 10px 20px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  transform-origin: center;
  transition: transform 0.5s ease;
  display: flex;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.card .c-cards__media {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  z-index: -1;
  overflow: hidden;
  background-size: cover;
  background-position: center;
}

.card .c-cards__media video {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  object-fit: cover;
  pointer-events: none;
}

.card .c-cards__media-overlay {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  z-index: 2;
}

.card a {
  text-decoration: none;
  color: inherit;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: flex-end;
  align-items: center;
  position: relative;
  z-index: 3;
  padding-bottom: 40px;
}

.card h2,
.card h3,
.card h4 {
  color: white;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  margin: 10px 0;
  text-align: center;
}

.card h2 {
  font-size: 18px;
}

.card h3 {
  font-size: 120px;
}

.card h4 {
  font-size: 18px;
}

.card {
  transform: translateY(50px) scale(0.8);
}

.card.active {
  transform: translateY(0) scale(1);
  z-index: 5;
}

.card.behind {
  transform: translateY(-80px) scale(0.9);
  z-index: 4;
}

.card.behind-2 {
  transform: translateY(-150px) scale(0.8);
  z-index: 3;
}

.card.behind-3 {
  transform: translateY(-215px) scale(0.7);
  z-index: 2;
}

.card.behind-4 {
  transform: translateY(-275px) scale(0.6);
  z-index: 1;
}

.card.ahead {
  transform: translateY(300px) scale(0.9);
  z-index: 0;
}

<div class="carousel">
  <div class="cards">
    <a href="https://ozeta.loddo.no/om-oss/" class="card">
      <div class="c-cards__media">
        <video muted="true" loop playsinline preload="auto">
            <source src="https://ozeta.loddo.no/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/about.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <div class="c-cards__media-overlay"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="c-cards__content">
        <h2>Om oss</h2>
        <h3>About Us</h3>
        <h4>Learn More</h4>
      </div>
    </a>
    <a href="https://ozeta.loddo.no/kultur/" class="card">
      <div class="c-cards__media">
        <video muted="true" loop playsinline preload="auto">
          <source src="https://ozeta.loddo.no/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/culture.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <div class="c-cards__media-overlay"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="c-cards__content">
        <h2>Kultur</h2>
        <h3>Culture</h3>
        <h4>Explore More</h4>
      </div>
    </a>
    <a href="https://ozeta.loddo.no/prototype/" class="card">
      <div class="c-cards__media">
        <video muted="true" loop playsinline preload="auto">
          <source src="https://ozeta.loddo.no/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/prototyping.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <div class="c-cards__media-overlay"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="c-cards__content">
        <h2>Prototyping</h2>
        <h3>Prototype</h3>
        <h4>Discover</h4>
      </div>
    </a>
    <a href="https://ozeta.loddo.no/produksjon/" class="card">
      <div class="c-cards__media">
        <video muted="true" loop playsinline preload="auto">
          <source src="https://ozeta.loddo.no/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/production-1.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <div class="c-cards__media-overlay"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="c-cards__content">
        <h2>Produksjon</h2>
        <h3>Production</h3>
        <h4>Details</h4>
      </div>
    </a>
    <a href="https://ozeta.loddo.no/baerekraft/" class="card">
      <div class="c-cards__media">
        <video muted="true" loop playsinline preload="auto">
          <source src="https://ozeta.loddo.no/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/production-1.mp4" type="video/mp4">
        </video>
        <div class="c-cards__media-overlay"></div>
      </div>
      <div class="c-cards__content">
        <h2>Bærekraft</h2>
        <h3>Bærekraft</h3>
        <h4>Details</h4>
      </div>
    </a>
  </div>
</div>