Apparatuses for displaying information on vehicles

Abstract

A system for publicly displaying messages can comprise an automotive vehicle having an automotive electrical system including an ignition system and a generator and a publicly visible electronic display; video drive circuitry for generating images (which can include advertisements) on the display; display-power circuitry for receiving power from the vehicle's automotive electrical system, supplying that power to the display, and automatically reducing the power supplied to the display after the vehicle's ignition is turned off. The display-power circuitry can automatically increase power to the display when the vehicle's ignition is turned back on. A computer can control the images on the display and the display-power circuitry can automatically reduce power to the display independently of whether the computer is operating. A system for publicly displaying messages can also comprise an automotive vehicle having a publicly visible electronic display; a computer for showing various messages (which can include advertisements) on the display; an input device which can be used by an occupant of the vehicle to generate one or more emergency signals; and a connection supplying such emergency signals to the computer. The computer can respond to the emergency signal by showing an emergency message on the display. A radio can be connected to the computer to supply information to the computer about messages to be displayed and to respond to the generation of an emergency signal by sending an emergency message to a remote electronic system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.