Okay, now I've seen everything. Anyone catch tonight's episode of Rides on TLC?

The episode featured Chip Foose tricking out the new Cadillac XLR and SRX for SEMA. The cars were displayed at the MHT Wheels Booth where the head of MHT got some air-time to promote his company.

Two of the new products are what he called "floater" wheels, where the centers remain stationary while the rim and tire spin AND - get this - LED wheels where with the aid of a PDA, you can display messages on the wheels as you drive.

Any bets as to how long it will take the cities to ban them?

 

Never know the Police Officers might just be interested in having that one on their cursors

 

heh, thats funny.

about a year ago, i made a clock that works the same way..

you have a row of LEDs that spin.... you calculate where they are, and have it light up like a column in a sign.. changing as it changes "columns"


they're neat and all.... but kinda gay for car rims... lol.

 

Yeah, the technoligy has been around. We've used LED frisbees in advertising. The frisbee has a single column of LED lights and you program in your message. When you throw the frisbee, you can read the message. That was cool. Now, the car rims – cheesy.

Imagine the messages that will be appearing when these things hit the streets and the younger kids get ahold of them.

 

You can rest assured that if these things start showing up in numbers, the CHP or CalTrans will move to have these banned. Even the large illumininated message signs (like the ones car dealers have along freeways) are heavily regulated by CalTrans with respect to hours it can be on, illumination intensity, length of time a single message can stay lit (usually 3-4 seconds max, with a 1 second blank interval), etc. etc.

Much like Bubb Rubb and 'the whistler' (going 'wooo woooooo'!), I see this as a passing fad... kinda like mini trucks in the 80's.

 

Interesting about the Sign, but I think Mark Christopher in Ontario must have the cash to skirt around the regulations. Because that sign is always on, bright, but it does only display message for the intervals you indicated

 

Seriously, I went by one time there at night and thought the sun was out. It's like the entire city of Vegas in one dealership

 

Yeah you in a good traffic jam on the 10 you could get a tan from the lights in that sign