A digital billboard company has the technology to make 3D ads on moving trucks

https://www.thedrive.com/news/new-nightmare-just-dropped-3d-animated-ads-on-trucks-in-traffic

by cf100clunk • 2 months ago

93 47 2 months ago

bushwart• 2 months ago

Where are my ad-blocking glasses...

Avicebron• 2 months ago

You have to get the subscription, PeaceAndQuiet(tm) is 299.99/month, LowImpact(tm) is 199.99, and Budget(tm) is a 99.99. Honestly budget cuts out most of the gratuitously violent tiktoks, but if you want to avoid the AI ads you have to get PeaceAndQuiet..

inerte• 2 months ago

If you haven't seen They Live... that's next level.

m463• 2 months ago

Aren't there specific colors of lighting that vehicles cannot use?

like flashing blue and red lights are reserved for police cars.

construction vehicles get flashing yellow/orange, etc.

I don't know why this doesn't get shut down by the police.

SapporoChris2• 2 months ago

It will go away once someone hacks it and shows inappropriate content.

everyone• 2 months ago

Goatse to the rescue! I'm sure someone can AI generate a 3d version

CamperBob2• 2 months ago

Better yet, project an image of the road ahead, Wile E. Coyote-style, and watch Teslas run into it.

spaqin• 2 months ago

The simplest solution of a video file on flash storage with the cheapest, minimum hardware required to display it would make it pretty much unhackable. On the other hand, I am not sure if the ad industry can resist getting it connected to the internet for maybe personalized (scan the plates around the truck?), most up-to-date ads they can serve.

SapporoChris2• 2 months ago

Like a personalized advertisement for a bail bonding service to the driver of the vehicle reported stolen.

mlhpdx• 2 months ago

I was under the impression that it was illegal to have any kind of light emitting signage on a moving vehicle. Does this vary by jurisdiction?

codazoda• 2 months ago

Yes. Video trucks are already common in Las Vegas, NV, USA.

rorylawless• 2 months ago

In DC too. Usually associated with political campaigns, although I recently saw one advertising Uber Teens outside a school.

pjc50• 2 months ago

Everything to do with cars varies by jurisdiction..

Difficult to work out what the law is for side visible displays is in the UK, though. Front and back ones may be limited to white or red.

I'm now wondering how camera only self driving cars are going to cope with this, too.

Spooky23• 2 months ago

For trucks, it varies by the trip. There is county/locality, state and federal jurisdiction.

Operators are adept at gaming the system. From Chinatown busses that use sequences of shell companies, to operators who operate out of friendly locales in a limited radius.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 2 months ago

Teslas will hate this

ctippett• 2 months ago

Black Mirror's Waldo anyone?

  > Appearing as Waldo via video screens on the side of a van, Jamie goads Monroe into confrontation as he campaigns [for political office].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment

puppycodes• 2 months ago

The crash lawsuit writes itself

Havoc• 2 months ago

I bet the Teslas are going to love that. What was that about not needing LIDAR?

rogerrogerr• 2 months ago

If your eyeballs can distinguish it, cameras can distinguish it. This looks like it’s probably a hazard for humans too.

tcoff91• 2 months ago

Human eyeballs and visual system are a whole lot better than Tesla cameras.

vitally3643• 2 months ago

Full self driving is only two years away, right?

gdulli• 2 months ago

What could a movement to directly punish advertisers look like? Ones who pass a certain threshold of ruining the venue they're sponsoring or generally worsen a community, online or off. Why do they get a pass, no matter how far they encroach on ruining environments and institutions?

hoppyhoppy2• 2 months ago

When lawful jerks become enough of a problem a common approach is to outlaw the worst of their jerk-y behavior. The state is set up to collect and investigate complaints, issue sometimes-escalating fines, hear appeals, etc., all on behalf of we the people, so that another organization doesn't have to manage doling out "punishment".

For example, my state doesn't have billboards, because they're illegal here and that law is well-enforced. That's a method of "punishing advertisers" who would go too far toward ruining our views.

I'm not sure what a legal, non-governmental solution would look like. Consumer boycotts can work, but are hard to organize and sustain. Egging their offices? Tar and feathers? Oh, wait, I said legal...

boothby• 2 months ago

I imagine that a thrown scooter would do the trick

Marsymars2• 2 months ago

What could a movement to directly punish advertisers look like?

By directly punishing advertisers, you mean e.g. punishing McDonald's for its billboard ad, rather than the owner of the billboard? If it's effective, we just get all the ads replaced with Taboola and gambling ads that are immune to negative public opinion.

AnotherGoodName• 2 months ago

They are bog standard 2D flat panels with 3d scenes on them to anyone wondering how they can possibly work.

The billboard ads on buildings shown in the article are also 2d. They look really bad in person unless you close one eye and watch exactly at the intended perspective (or instagram it with a misleading “omg wow new 3d billboards” caption as many do).

karlgkk• 2 months ago

To be fair, the companies that install these often choose locations where large amounts of people are exiting or encountering the billboard at the intended angle.

The trick also works much better if it's a surprise (your brain doesn't have time to overanalyze) and in a position that is at a sharp angle.

So, exiting a train station, for example.

The animators and designers also perform a lot of tricks (such as parallax tricks and cinematic framing) to really sell it. For example https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-YKfFEL1vjg

terribleperson• 2 months ago

This is a terrible, awful idea. Playing videos on the side of trucks is what I would come up with if I was intentionally trying to cause accidents. Even if they only play when stationary, it's a terrible idea.

gus_massa• 2 months ago

Invidis quotes CEO Jonnathan Trilleras. “With a super-fine pixel pitch, a high refresh rate, and a curved-screen design, we create a much wider viewing angle that makes anamorphic content look indistinguishable from reality.”

Ok, it's not real 3D, but only fake 3D. It looks annoying and dangerous anyway.

actionfromafar• 2 months ago

The shark still looks fake.

Grimblewald• 2 months ago

If I find myself in a jury panel for someone who took a hammer to these, I already know im voting not guilty, and recommending they get keys to the city.

samplatt• 2 months ago

While I agree utterly and completely, the possibility of such a case needing a jury is low, when there's almost certainly going to be several camera recordings available from the vehicles in question as well as surrounding buildings/vehicles.

jawns• 2 months ago

Should you ever find yourself a juror for such a case, it means you've probably perjured yourself during voir dire, in which case you'd better hope no prosecutor finds out about your biases, or you could be the one who ends up doing time.

snozolli• 2 months ago

Five or ten years ago, the local Kroger introduced 3D, photorealistic, shaded stickers as advertisements on the floor. I once nearly fell over because, after peering at something on a shelf, I went to take a step back and caught sight of a floor sticker out of the corner of my eye. I instinctively tried to step over this fictional obstacle, even though I had just noted it moments earlier as I walked up.

I assume I wasn't the only one to have this problem, because they were gone by the next time I went shopping.

That said, there are so many drivers already distracted by their phones and 'infotainment' systems that I don't know if obnoxious advertisements will make things any worse.

Marsymars2• 2 months ago

That story reminds me of curling — there've been instances of professional curlers tripping over in-play curling rocks because the rocks were sitting over similarly-coloured ads under the ice surface.

thisisthenewme• 2 months ago

I have a new personal policy of avoiding any products that advertise to me blatantly. Yes, use these trucks, force me to watch the ads and help me avoid these products forever.

int0x29• 2 months ago

Ignoring whether the 3D effect is good or not, moving video on a moving billboard in moving traffic is a terrible idea which should be banned.

mc32• 2 months ago

In Asia these things have been around for decades -both for regular advertising but also for political advertising. That said, I would not be against banning them stateside. We already have too many ads.

gravelc• 2 months ago

Banned in Australia (or at least in most states).

https://www.drive.com.au/caradvice/are-mobile-billboards-leg...

taneq• 2 months ago

I would hope so. If I can’t use my phone in the car because it distracts me from the road, they shouldn’t be putting an attention-grabbing movie on a truck.

userbinator• 2 months ago

The real question is, how long before the driver of one of these trucks is itself distracted and causes an accident.

maplethorpe• 2 months ago

And they sure are effective—it’s very difficult to walk by a billboard that appears to be popping out of the wall without being captivated by it.

This isn't really how they work, in my experience. In reality, people on the street who are interested in seeing the billboard attempt to gather at a single vantage point where the illusion works. If you stand anywhere else on the sidewalk, the image becomes distorted, and the illusion breaks.

My guess is that the trucks in question exploit the fact that when I'm driving behind one of them, I'm stuck at that single vantage point where the illusion works.

tsumnia• 2 months ago

I've seen one of these in person and it was really cool...

on the other hand, I'm curious if using the depth illusion effect will impact drivers

Fnoord• 2 months ago

'Moving ads' should be illegal, since they distract and are unsafe. I don't think we should want ads on the street either, but that is not so much related to safety.

arkis22• 2 months ago

I would very much like it to be illegal for radio ads to have car horns and sirens as well

rerdavies• 2 months ago

Had them already for a couple of years in Ottawa, before the pandemic. City council made them illegal. They are expensive as heck (six figures?). So I guess they lost a significant capital investment. No sympathy. (Actually they problem just sent them to YOUR city instead :-( ). The also come with MASSIVE sound systems as well, blasing thousands of watts of audio as they drive through your neighborhood. Although that was already illegal, thankfully (as they quickly discovered).

A digital billboard company has the technology to make 3D ads on moving trucks

Related Stories