alt.hn

5/16/2026 at 12:21:09 AM

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

5/17/2026 at 10:53:03 PM

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).

by AnotherGoodName

5/18/2026 at 12:15:11 AM

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

by karlgkk

5/17/2026 at 11:56:46 PM

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.

by int0x29

5/18/2026 at 1:03:06 AM

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

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

by gravelc

5/18/2026 at 1:31:18 AM

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.

by taneq

5/18/2026 at 12:33:54 AM

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.

by mc32

5/18/2026 at 4:25:38 AM

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).

by rerdavies

5/17/2026 at 10:57:57 PM

> 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.

by gus_massa

5/18/2026 at 12:28:43 AM

> 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.

by maplethorpe

5/17/2026 at 10:00:35 PM

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

by ctippett

5/17/2026 at 10:06:52 PM

The crash lawsuit writes itself

by puppycodes

5/18/2026 at 12:57:34 AM

'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.

by Fnoord

5/16/2026 at 1:52:14 AM

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.

by m463

5/18/2026 at 12:49:49 AM

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

by tsumnia

5/17/2026 at 8:58:56 AM

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

by SapporoChris

5/18/2026 at 2:38:49 AM

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.

by spaqin

5/17/2026 at 10:38:02 PM

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

by everyone

5/18/2026 at 12:10:55 AM

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

by CamperBob2

5/18/2026 at 12:58:09 AM

And if/when someone ports DOOM to it, they can do a Show HN

by cf100clunk

5/17/2026 at 10:28:50 PM

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

by Havoc

5/17/2026 at 10:31:54 PM

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

by rogerrogerr

5/17/2026 at 10:47:07 PM

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

by tcoff91

5/17/2026 at 10:49:02 PM

Full self driving is only two years away, right?

by vitally3643

5/17/2026 at 10:57:37 PM

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.

by terribleperson

5/18/2026 at 12:27:01 AM

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

by userbinator

5/17/2026 at 9:49:08 PM

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?

by mlhpdx

5/17/2026 at 10:05:14 PM

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.

by pjc50

5/17/2026 at 10:02:32 PM

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

by codazoda

5/17/2026 at 10:30:10 PM

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

by rorylawless

5/18/2026 at 12:22:17 AM

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.

by Spooky23

5/17/2026 at 10:39:08 PM

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?

by gdulli

5/18/2026 at 1:20:49 AM

> 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.

by Marsymars

5/17/2026 at 10:51:47 PM

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...

by hoppyhoppy2

5/18/2026 at 12:03:55 AM

I imagine that a thrown scooter would do the trick

by boothby

5/18/2026 at 1:07:18 AM

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

by arkis22

5/16/2026 at 1:17:28 AM

Where are my ad-blocking glasses...

by bushwart

5/17/2026 at 10:01:49 PM

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..

by Avicebron

5/17/2026 at 10:12:25 PM

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

by inerte

5/17/2026 at 11:55:20 PM

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.

by thisisthenewme

5/17/2026 at 11:08:59 PM

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.

by snozolli

5/18/2026 at 1:25:46 AM

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.

by Marsymars

5/17/2026 at 11:08:06 PM

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.

by Grimblewald

5/18/2026 at 1:17:12 AM

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.

by jawns

5/18/2026 at 1:14:03 AM

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.

by samplatt

5/18/2026 at 12:18:11 AM

[dead]

by sieabahlpark

5/17/2026 at 10:59:33 PM

The shark still looks fake.

by actionfromafar

5/17/2026 at 9:50:59 PM

Teslas will hate this

by 2OEH8eoCRo0

5/17/2026 at 10:39:16 PM

[dead]

by iamalizard