I could have used this today. I was travelling up a single track road near Glastonbury in Somerset when I came across a very large camper van stuck blocking the entire road. There was nothing else for it but for me to reverse for 1/4 mile back to the main road where the road widened. However every car that came up behind was flashing their lights angrily and couldnt get what I was trying to do. Some LED's with a message relayed back to the first car could have saved a lot of anger and time.
Trouble is, the UK Police and authorities are against even hands free phones (https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/hands-free-mobile-phones...) , let alone a mechanism to communicate visually with other drivers. I could see it getting banned here before it even takes off, which is a shame.
>> I could see it getting banned here before it even takes off, which is a shame.
Maybe in the UK, but there are some interesting legal debates to be had. This is a freedom of speech issue. This is an electronic bumper sticker, one that can be changed on the fly but still a form of speech.
See Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77 (1949) for the debate re "sound trucks", vehicles with PA systems for making public announcements. They upheld the ban, but it wasn't a simple case. Freedom of speech goes a long way. A silent sign that can only be seen by a handful of cars behind you? Imho the 1949 court would have allowed it.
The only reason why it would be banned in the EU is if the display was made out of Red or Blue LEDs - you cannot have any lights in those colours that are not already part of the factory equipment(that law exists to prevent people from having flashing red and blue lights and impersonating police cars).
If the display was made out of white or green LEDs then I can only assume there would be no issue using such device.
Just get out of your car and tell them if they aren't moving. It's not that scary. I don't get why people don't just get out of their car except in extreme anger. You'd really sit there and type something up to communicate with a person ten metres behind you?
Perhaps he did that. And then a third car arrived behind them both. By the way, the driver of he third car might be not able to read the message on the LED. So what.
Trouble is, the UK Police and authorities are against even hands free phones (https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/hands-free-mobile-phones...) , let alone a mechanism to communicate visually with other drivers. I could see it getting banned here before it even takes off, which is a shame.