Over in Japan, some of the taxis now play ads (obnoxious audio included!) for the passengers to watch.

Yes, you still pay the full fare.

Yes, it is fucking obnoxious.

No, there is no power off or mute button; none that I could find, anyway.

Not sure if it’s common elsewhere, but many gas stations around my area have screen on the pump that play obnoxiously loud ads while you’re pumping gas. Most of them have a mute button at least.

If it is the eight button variety the 2nd from the top button on the right side will mute it. Even though it is unlabeled.

At the station by my house somebody used a label maker to label the mute button on all the pumps. I assume an employee who was tired of hearing the ads or hearing customers complain about the ads.

Euro-person her: the ones by me have a videocamera pointing at us...they just get the finger during my transaction.

I would feel no hesitation to tape or sticker over any of those.

Every camera I see gets the finger. Especially when I'm at Kroger / Fry's / Ralphs / Dillons and there's no manned cashier and I need to use the self-checkout.

UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA.

Some of them play the ads somewhat constantly. Really freaked me out the first couple times I walked to my local grocery store with a gas station at 5 AM, then suddenly heard someone loudly talking behind me.

* * *

I remembered the little dancer in Tetris.

> Not sure if it’s common elsewhere, but many gas stations around my area have screen on the pump that play obnoxiously loud ads while you’re pumping gas. Most of them have a mute button at least.

One of the many, MANY jarring things about going to the US. I jam my gas-gap filler cap in the handle and go check the oil so I can get as far away from that nonsense as possible.

All the gas pump handles I've used have a thingy that you can flip down to hold the trigger in place so you can let go and they will keep pumping. I've only pumped gas in Washington, California, and at a station that was on a Native American reservation in Oregon. Are there states where gas pumps don't have support hands free pumping?

> Are there states where gas pumps don't have support hands free pumping?

Yep, it has been taken away in a lot of places to prevent spilling.

When I did it in Australia the attendant turned off the pump and scolded me.

New York taxis played looping ads when i was there 8 years ago...

I went there a few months ago and around 80% of the cabs I took had ads. There also was a power off button accessible with a few taps in all of them (which my friends and I committed to muscle memory pretty quickly)

Same in NYC, been like that for years. However usually you can at least turn down the volume.

The lift in my condo in Bangkok plays ads with obnoxious audio.

NYC cabs have played ads for a long time now. However you can press a button on the screen to stop them for your trip.

Lyft and Uber drivers can setup tablets in their cars that blare ads. They're fairly common in Chicago.

I've only been in one car that did that. I turned off the tablet and left a negative review.

NYC and Vegas also do this, but most have some kinda mute

they've been playing ads for 15 years. It's not new. It is annoying but there IS always an off button on the screen - in Japanese.

> Over in Japan, some of the taxis now play ads (obnoxious audio included!) for the passengers to watch.

I was in Boston like 10 years ago and saw this.

In the USA the last couple times I've had to use uber/lyft, there have been touch screen tablets with ads and games at max brightness in the back seat, strapped to the back of the front seats. At night it's blinding.

Why stop at Taxis? You could be required to watch a short ad before pumping some gas or entering a restroom.

They already have pumps that play ads :)