While we generally try not to make too many political statements on The Autopian (too many employees are staunch American Monarchists and I just can’t with that) but I’m going to make an exception here for two reasons: first, those political statements are being presented via an idea I had thought of way back in 2012, and second, the statements being made are in support of Ukraine in their efforts against the Russian invasion, and since my family hails from the ketchup-producing town of Torchyn in Ukraine, I’m biased. Also, it’s sort of a taillight-based form of expression, since someone has taken the effort to install a full-color LCD heckblende between their Mustang’s taillights, and that’s pretty cool.
I was sent this Telegram post that has the video of the rear-display equipped Mustang:
The video was shot in Kyiv, Ukraine, and I’m not sure if the Mustang owner’s NSFW license plate is real or not, but clearly someone is having fun with their Mustang, already an unusual choice for Eastern Europe.
The text displayed in the LCD heckblende is as follows:
Glory to Ukraine
Glory to Heroes
Russian fucked
Moscow fucked (referring to the sunken Russian warship, it seems)
The Bridge fucked (the exploded Kerch Bridge)
Mustang
I’d also like to point out that the running-horse animation is pretty badass and Ford really should be considering implementing a full LCD heckblende like this, because why not? Fun is fun, right? Even if you’re not using your full gaphical display at the rear of your car to say things about a miserable war, you absolutely could be using it for some fun automotive lighting experiments.
Plus, such a setup could offer real safety advantages, like allowing for special displays when an emergency stop is happening, announcing when the car is being partially controlled by a semi-autonomous system, displaying emergency messages, and more.
Look, this Ukranian Mustang owner has already done the hard proof-of-concept work! Maybe it’s time to consider display-taillight systems? I get that various regulations would need to be changed, but carmakers have been playing with external vehicle displays for years.
In fact, the general concept of a rear-mounted communication display goes back even further, such as this painfully misogynistic version from way back in 1951:
Yikes. I don’t think I need to say that no one here at The Autopian can defend that, but it was the earliest obvious example of a rear-mounted external display screen concept I could find, so, you know, sorry about that.
Anyway, get the hell out of Ukraine, Russia.
Take out the sexism, and that last bit applies to so many modern drivers unfortunately.
Am I the only one that remembers this Aerostar concept with a display panel on the back?
https://testdrivejunkie.com/1987-ford-hfx-ghia-aerostar-concept-car/
I’ve got a Rite Lite from the ’70s, an automotive knockoff of the then-ubiquitous Lite Brite. Changing the message means rearranging the pegs and it only came with red pegs (other colors sold separately), so I decided to wire it to the brakes and chose my message accordingly:
I don’t think it’s political to look at what has been happening to Ukraine since February and say fuck Russia, and double fuck Putin. I hope Putin dies of anal sores that somehow spread to the rest of his body.
Kinda reminds me of the neon designs in slab trunks, but sans the need to pop the trunk. Hells yeah. I keep wanting to put “It’s Broken” in neon in the 411’s trunk, but I need to figure out if engine heat would mess with it.
https://youtu.be/wJoU6Vbf-_o
Anyway, I’m extremely here for a “GTFO Russia”-themed slab, too.
Do I want the rear of every car to be someone else’s twitter feed? No.
Do I want my car to display a message to the driver behind? Maybe not, I think it would end badly.
I’ve wanted to do something like this for such a long time!
I’m just afraid my Target audience wouldn’t be able to read it.
Also sure that it would turn NSFW rapidly.
Brilliant idea sadly not practical at the moment 🙁
I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a long time, but not for anything so altruistic as this. Mostly, I’d just want to tell people to turn their high beams off.
Along with an automatically adjusting reflector that would reflect the high beam back into their eyes.
I love the idea but suspect it would get shot down in my country.
The safety nazis would say it’s distracting and -to be fair- many of my countryman would display ‘colourful’ language XD
I’m sure there’s not a lot of red Mustangs running around Kyiv. Pretty gutsy. Godspeed, Driver.
Fantastic idea. Let’s send all Mustangs to Russian cars and butter tea meets to fight for freedom!
As a Mustang driver, I just want to know…
Where can I get this?!?!
It’s not on Amazon or eBay. Um, according to a friend.
Z
I have a bumper sticker mounted on the back window of my Jeep JKU (as seen in my profile picture on here). It is in Cyrillic which basically nobody out here in Antivaxxistan can read. I did find a Ukrainian woman taking a photo of it in a grocery store parking lot and laughing quietly. Translated it says “Russian Warship Go Fuck Yourself.” In tribute to the Snake Island occupation resisters.
God, “Antivaxxistan” hit HARD. I feel your pain.
Putin has replaced a certain American Monarch Wannabe as the current object of my most venomous and vitriolic hatred. I sure didn’t see that happening.
As someone who lives in an area that has more than its fair share of brodozers, I cannot support the idea of a programable taillight display. Those bros are insufferable enough as it is.
In a panic of offendness, I tried to stop the 1950s video and accidentally rewound it. The beginning is even worse and more offensive and of course I was trigerred and offended x 2, so I spazzed out and clicked “share” and spazzed out again. The video sent out to all 3 girl members of my karaoke friend club. Thanks, Torch.
I remember watching that whole cartoon on looney tunes compilations growing up. There’s much worse parts, like the “woman’s car” having a plunging hoodline that shows off a lot and a car with a retractable bench seat for date rapists to sexually assault women with ease. According to folks who think things got too woke and snowflakey, those were the good ol days….
“I remember watching that whole cartoon on looney tunes compilations growing up.”
Sorry, but Looney Tunes as well as Merrie Melodies are Warner Brothers based, you would not see an MGM-based cartoon in them.
Sure, next you are going to tell me q-tip is a brand name. Either way, I vividly remember watching this and other Tex Avery “Of Tomorrow” shorts on a cartoon compilation show. Looney Tunes was the only one I really watched so can’t think of what else it would have been on….
So apparently there is an auto-comment moderation feature on here. Never knew! In case my other reply never gets through, I’ll just sum it up thusly:
Don’t go watch the whole cartoon. There’s far worse than the garage and blinker jokes in it. Looking at you, retractable bench seat.
At least the Torchyn ketchup ad is for actual ketchup, and Jason is no longer disrespecting his Carolina heritage by speaking of ketchup-based barbeque sauce.
I mean tomato ketchup came a century after other variants like mushroom ketchup if we’re arguing what’s real ketchup.
Your teammates are trying to pull in the Curtis Yarvin stans, I suppose?
I’ve wanted to do a laser light show display on my back window for along time. I’ve never had the EE chops to pull it off though. Anybody want to collab?
I’d just do a mini projector driven by a Raspberry Pi and point it at your back window. Not hard at all. Push the pattern you want as an image out of the HDMI port, simple. Lot’s of cheap LED/Laser driven units out there now. (Full disclaimer: yes, I’m an engineer. No, I don’t recommend doing this in a moving vehicle. Further disclaimers apply, please see dealer for details. Offer not valid in all states of mind.)
I have long wanted to do a semi-programmable LED taillight for the back of my truck.
I’m sorry, did I say “taillight”? I meant tailgate.
You said “taillight” to ensure a response from the taillight lord.
Being able to program it to say Pass or Back Off would be nice
And turn your lights on…
I can’t believe home many people drive with no lights on, or just the DRLs.
oh man! I came here to comment the exact same thing! either lights off or high beams on constantly.
Or the number of people who think that parking lights are the same thing as fog lights, so all you see during heavy fog conditions are little pinpricks of amber coming toward you. :/
There would be an unspecified amount of set phrases, yes. “Thanks for letting me in” would be one.
I thought about ways you could send a new message to it while moving, bluetooth maybe? That starts to get above what I’m comfortable with, though.