This has been shining in my eyes for the last 10 minutes whilst the bus driver takes a break.

  • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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    7 days ago

    to whomever invented LED advertisements.

    fuck being bombarded with literal propaganda all day.

  • MintyFresh@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    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

    • cynar@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      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.

      • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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        6 days ago

        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

        • cynar@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          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.

          • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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            6 days ago

            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

            • cynar@lemmy.world
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              6 days ago

              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.

              • EddoWagt@feddit.nl
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                6 days ago

                It also depends a lot on the height of your car, my car is very low and the amount of times I get blinded is considerably higher than in a higher car.

                Also as a sidenote, low beams on new cars seem to be just as bright as the high beams. Turning on the high beams just raises the projection, whereas it used to actually increase the brightness aswell

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      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

    • desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      6 days ago

      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?

  • RandomStickman@fedia.io
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • cynar@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    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.

    • JackFrostNCola@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      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 ~25m² 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.

      • I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        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.

  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    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…

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I mean, I don’t think an advert needs to be illuminated at all, frankly

        • over_clox@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          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!

          • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            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]™.

            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.

          • Know_not_Scotty_does@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            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.

            • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              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. It’s wild to me that there’s an application for being a fucking weirdo, but I don’t have any visible ads on my person.

            • over_clox@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              Look at this fat cat that can afford clothes!

              Sad LOL though, but yep, it’s practically impossible to avoid logos and ads anymore ☹️

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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        7 days ago

        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.

      • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org
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        6 days ago

        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.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      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 Škoda 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.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    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.