To whomever invented LED bus advertisements: I despise you.
submitted by
ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
lemmy.world/pictrs/image/6073c55b-7f59-47c1-86cβ¦
This has been shining in my eyes for the last 10 minutes whilst the bus driver takes a break.
Please donβt open my child.
Put the knife away Waltuh
I saw this, too, and I don't even have a child.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZsW8fR-kw
(psssst ackshually it says "for")
Why you gotta ruin it for us?
Alternate question: How powerful of a laser do you need to burn out the LEDs on those sort of displays?
At least three.
Maybe even four.
Looks like it's *supposed* to say that, but currently doesn't. Lol
Love your username π
Thankyou so much :) <3
Iβm surprised thatβs legal. Youβd think it would distract other drivers
freedom of expression does also matter, how much more distracting is this compared to if it was made with retroreflectors? Could these lights be confused for hazards? Is this any different than having a glowing "taxi" sign on a taxi?
Eat a dirty dick
In my area once in awhile I'll see this box truck where it's covered in LED screens with animated ads on it that drives around. Annoying at best, a road hazard at worst.
Same here, and great that itβs wasting gas and polluting at the same time! I hate it with a burning passion.
They drive these up and down the Las Vegas strip, which generally is snarled with traffic. So adding to traffic too.
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fuck being bombarded with literal propaganda all day.
I think such things are banned in Australia. Clearly not safe for traffic.
Which is strange since we have full size electronic billboards (in WA). I don't believe they can have scrolling text/animations etcs, but they will change once or twice in the time you can see them at fwy speeds.
They are super repulsive to me because they are more vibrant and attention demanding than traditional printed billboards (especially in low light conditions) and feel like late 90's pop-up ads.
Also i dont need a ~25mΒ² screen changing in my peripheral vision when im already busy keeping to keep an eye on some dickhead in a lifted ford raptor or Yank Tank who is cutting through traffic.
Yeah it's ok on a static object by law, but not on a moving vehicle.
And yes, even here in Armidale we have about four of them, and they don't seem to have night dimming so can be a bit blinding.
Ffs of all the colors they could have used too.
They do need to be that bright at daytime, and most indeed use automatic brightness by default. If only there was a technology that could use daylight instead of fighting it...
cons: significantly more expensive, don't work in total darkness, don't catch attention
They have an LED each in the top-right corner of the corresponding dot. The LEDs use different driving signals (much higher frequency and not just when the display changes) but are kept in sync with the slow-updating display to allow both technologies to complement each other: they do work in total darkness and faulty dots have LEDs as a fallback; the LEDs are half-brightness at night, full brightness at dusk and off in daylight.
Also, they were significantly LESS expensive than a sufficiently luminous LED display in the 90s before superbright LEDs existed.
As I said in another comment, they weren't designed for ads but info signage, so they don't actively catch attention, which is what you want to get a visually cleaner environment.
I mean, I don't think an advert needs to be illuminated at all, frankly
They also don't need to be visible, or exist at all for that matter. I despise ads.
Try going even one day without seeing a fucking ad..
First off, the only real way to accomplish that, aside from being in a coma, is to spend the day out in the woods somewhere.
Then, when you get tangled up in a thorny vine and pull out your knife, BAM, advertising logo!
Then when you want to start a fire, you bust out your lighter, and BAM, advertising logo!
I mean, I don't mind brands visible on purchased goods per se, it's the same as a maker's mark like artisans have added to their wares for thousands of years. It's no more an ad than a book including the name of its author on the front.
But it's my conscious choice to buy certain products from certain brands, with careful considerations to quality and price. If a product is good and it is reasonably priced, I don't care if they have a logo on there. But I don't go buying products *for* the brand.
Where ads are different is that they intrude into parts of our lives they have no right to be in.
I want to watch some sports, but no, ads everywhere.
I want to watch a movie, but I have to sit through all the ads first.
I am waiting at the bus/train stop and there's business posters everywhere, and then the bus/train pulls up and it's covered in ads inside and out, all during my commute.
I'm in the waiting room at the doctor's office having a panic attack about the results of some recent tests and there's a dumb ad on the wall with some smiling white lady staring directly at me, who has everything figured out and can now live life to the fullest thanks to her doctor having prescribed [DrugName]β’.
*That's* the shit I can't stand. When it's not possible to simply exist in life without some entity trying to extract capital from you at every turn.
Don't look at your shirt, shoes, socks, pants, hat, water bottle, or even you camera either. If you packed your lunch, you likely see a brand there too in the wrapper.
Look at this fat cat that can afford clothes!
Sad LOL though, but yep, it's practically impossible to avoid logos and ads anymore βΉοΈ
I have a sensory thing about tags, only purchase undecorated, monochrome clothing, and have worn the paint off of my water bottle. Plus, I make my own lunch and pack it in metal Tupperware whose branding is also worn away. Itβs wild to me that thereβs an application for being a fucking weirdo, but I donβt have any visible ads on my person.
Those aren't ads...
This is in general for LED text signs. The "inventors" (more like engineers because they just combined multiplexing with superbright LEDs) OP mentioned probably didn't specify a purpose, they just wanted a more reliable alternative to mechanical or manual signage but yes, most are for ads.
We for real need to start legislating and enforcing brightness laws. These headlights are out of control. This thing is an abomination.
There is no rhyme or reason for anything beyond a reasonable street lamp and headlight. We kept asking could we, it's time to ask should we? If nothing else I miss seeing stars at night
The issue with a lot of LED lights isn't brightness, its beam dip. The light should be angled downwards so it never shines into the oncoming traffic.
Unfortunately, a lot of retrofitted brighter bulbs don't play nicely with the beam dips. Car companies also err towards helping their diver, rather than the oncoming ones.
The brightness is absolutely a problem, it doesn't matter how well they are adjusted, when the car hits a bump or comes over a crest, it's going to blind oncoming traffic
That's still a problem, but it's not a new one. There's always been the issue that lights bright enough to see ahead reliably are also bright enough to dazzle. It's also a lot easier to cope with a quick flash, however, rather than continuous glare.
Im not sure if you've actually seen bright German LED headlights, because they are otherworldly. Older lights, even bright Xenon lights are no match for those blinding LEDs
I fully agree, there's some stupid ones out there. But they are actually less common than you initially think.
I spend far too long going up and down the motorways. I get bored and start comparing the various problematic cars. Most lack the nice clean cut off line, or it's set so high as to be invisible. I've rarely been dazzled by cars with a properly set beam dip. It's either high beams, or messed up beam dip.
In Mexico they have 10 x 30 meter (say, 30 by 100 foot) led billboards that you can literally see 10 kilometers away.
Fuck. Everything. About. That.
Those should just "accidentally" get painted
It looks like a UK bus. If you want to help make the bus company's life miserable there is a useful trick. This is the sort of thing a lot of parish council members will get disproportionately angry about. They also tend to have far less to do than higher bits of government. They also know a lot more about the inner workings of local government, and who's ear to burn about it. A politely written letter (or a few from several people) can get them up in arms about it.
Once you set that in motion, wait a week or 2, then also contact the local papers about it. I've seen them roll with far smaller stories than this.
Neither group has much/any hard power, but the soft power of the NIMBY croud can be extremely effective against public facing companies.
Edit to add.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/artificial-light-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints
It could be argued that that light is a statutory nuisance.
I saw one of those big rig trucks where the trailer was completely covered in LED advertising displays, on the left, right and back.
One of the ads was regarding broken phones, saying something along the lines of 'broken glass is a good thing'. Don't quote me on the exact wording though, I only saw that ad once, but it was regarding trade-ins and upgrades.
Kinda ironic to have such an ad displayed on a truck where you're tempted to bust their display with a sledgehammer...
Shit thatβs bright af.
I read
"Technical Education Opens Doors
OR
Your Child"
I though it was a threat to either go to college, or satan takes your child as a sacrifice for being ignorant.
Same goes for LED headlights. "Enjoy looking directly into lasers at night."
Multi-beam and Matrix LED headlights will cut oncoming traffic out of their beams. They'll blind you less than any other type of headlight. You can see it best when driving in fog. It's not expensive tech in 2025 either, that' a damn Ε koda Octavia in the video, I rode in one the other day and it had cheaper plastics in the interior than my first car, a 1992 Audi 80.
It's mis-aligned headlights that cause the most problems. And people retrofitting HIDs or LEDs into enclosures that are not meant for those.
I'm sure I've seen them with the side panel showing the route the bus was travelling on.
No surprise that they eventually gave that up for ad money.
Next step will be to have that screen in colour and animated. And speakers.
You mean like these?
Wake up babe, new Ad Block just dropped.
Slingshot would give you more range
I always keep an eye out for the comments that would be the most incomprehensible shown in the last century.
Saw one of those yesterday. Should be super illegal, they're so bright.
road advertisement in general should be illegal, it's literally MADE to distract drivers
I'm fortunate that the bins on my street are collected twice-daily. The trade-off is that the bins lorries have LED sides. Lights up my entire bedroom when they pull up. I'm also opposite a pub, so every Wednesday morning starting around 7 it's non-stop clanging from barrel deliveries. I live above two shopfronts, so every morning through midnight is bullshit noises. I live under a lamppost, so the council putting up Christmas lights means a cherry picker staring through my windows. I'm just bitching, but the LED buses and lorries are fuckin wild.
How does your city produce enough trash to justify pickups twice daily? Thatβs fuckinβ wild lol
It's London mate, twice a day rubbish pickup on my street and the fuckin place is still full of rats. Still, cheap protein in a pot noodle innit! Some of those fuckers are bigger than cats, fearsome bastards.
here just the city lights, and city street high beamers, and tall trucks that have only high beams and higher beams... anyway those are blinding enough as it is
Wait until you see the ones with video screens...
https://technoframe.com/led-bus-screens
Having been to Manchester very recently, I can think of bigger things to complain about.
(Not that I have room to talk, being in Blackburn.)
How is your move to the UK going? How do you find it compared to the US?
I love it so much more than the U.S., but I really need to find a job that pays enough to get my wife over here and get my daughter off a tourist visa. But it has only been two weeks.
Anyway, just the fact that, despite the British having a reputation for rudeness, people here are so nice and helpful compared to everyone's "fuck you, I got my own shit going on" attitude in the U.S. We have had *so* many people, total strangers, help us in one way or another in the past two weeks.
The rudeness comes from London mostly. When you pack people too close together, they tend to develop a bunch of social rules, to keep sane. Those rules are unspoken and dynamic. That also cause an impressive reaction when you break them by mistake. It's quite common worldwide, but London it particular about them.
Once you're clear of the big smoke, and get a feel for the lingo and etiquette, we are actually quite a friendly bunch.
It's not that they're LEDs, it's that they're too bright.
At the very least, can they not be blue? It's the worst color at night.
Red would be best--it fucks with your eyes the least--but there's often legal limits on red lights (besides brake/turn signals) on non-emergency vehicles. Something in orange or yellow would be less harsh.
Whoever*
Whom is an object, who is a subject. An object usually follows prepositions like βtoβ, so itβs good instinct to use whomever here, but in this case the object is the entire clause βwhoever invented β¦β, so the whoever is the subject of the verb invented.
seriously though whom the fuck cares
But what if someone doesn't see it? What then?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=TTAU7lLDZYU
Stage coach?
I haven't had the displeasure yet.
Anyway here is how to tell if LED sign is cheap
Truly mildly infuriating. Nicely done.
FYI, your post title should use "whoever", not "whomever".
A good trick to tell whether to use "who" or "whom" is to replace "whom" with "him" or "who" with "he". It'll be immediately obvious (to a native English speaker) which is correct.
*Whomever invented LED bus advertisements* becomes *Him invented LED bus advertisements*
Vs
*Whoever invented some stupid shit* becomes *He invented some stupid shit*
Clearly someone needed a technical education as a child.
It says "to". To *whom*.
Yes, that's normally a good rule to follow, since "whom" is for a sentence's object, but this is a special case. The clause in question is either a salutation that has no subject or object, and so either "whoever" or "whomever" is correct, or it's a subject clause (a noun phrase, really) with an unnecessary, stylized "to" for the sake of comedic impact, in which case "whoever" would be correct.
What made you unable to look in a different direction?
Sir, this is c/mildlyinfuriating, let me whinge in peace.
Really? Count the things you're not allowed to show in public. It's almost like you can't go through life with your eyes literally closed so the world doesn't bother you.
You have to know that, though, so you must be trolling.