The Dark Future of Out of Home:
Part 2 —The Bad 

What Happens When No One Is Looking at the Road?
The Future of Out of Home in a Self-Driving World

By Brent Baer, Publisher OOH Today and OOH Owner, baerboards, llc

The rise of Self-Driving/Automated Vehicles is the most serious threat our industry has ever faced. Yes, that sounds dramatic — but after 45 years in OOH, owning billboards myself, bleeding potato paste and vinyl ink, and talking with veteran friends who love their Teslas, yet fear for OOH, I can tell you: AVs are a real, looming problem.

And let’s be honest: they are coming. Whether it’s 10, 15, or 30 years out, AVs will arrive, and when they do, they will change how people see — or don’t see — billboard advertising. Pretending otherwise is denial or as my friend’s grandson says, “just stupid!”

I’m tired of industry leaders brushing this off. I’ve spent seven years raising the alarm, only to hear: “We know, but we don’t have an answer… we don’t want to panic advertisers… we don’t want to scare investors.” Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking.

The next 15 years will disrupt OOH more than digital ever did. When no one is driving, attention shifts. Passengers will default to screens, not scenery. Apple already patented an AR windshield — not because cars need bigger maps, but because the future of in-car entertainment (and ad dollars) lives inside the vehicle, not outside it.

Sure, some of us will keep looking out the window. But younger generations? They’re not even rushing to get drivers’ licenses. They’re growing up with their eyes glued to screens. On the road to Grandma’s house, we’re looking at billboards — they’re looking at TikTok.

And honestly, why wouldn’t they? In an AV world, people will read, stream, work, sleep, game, participate in a consensual sexual act that is considered outside or inside of the divine model for sexual intercourse between married individuals… well… entertain themselves, while the car handles the driving.

So what do we do?
We act now. Form a task force. Appoint a leader. Build a plan for an AV world before it arrives — not after.

Because ignoring this won’t save OOH. Preparing for it might.

The Dark Future of Out of Home:
What Happens to Billboards When No One Is Looking at the Road?

The Bad 

The rise of autonomous vehicles is not a distant science-fiction scenario. Waymo is already completing millions of fully driverless miles in Phoenix and San Francisco. Cruise (even with setbacks) continues development. Zoox and Tesla are racing toward mass deployment. Within 15 years, self-driving cars will be the dominant mode of transportation in major U.S. metros.

For the OOH industry, this is an inflection point — and possibly a breaking point.

Because the truth is stark:
If billboard companies do not adapt — rapidly — they risk becoming obsolete.

Below is the uncomfortable outlook no one in the industry wants to discuss openly, but everyone senses is coming.

1. When No One Drives, No One Looks Up

Today, OOH depends on a simple reality: drivers are captive viewers.
Even with smartphones in the passenger seat, drivers still glance at the road, the horizon, and the environment around them.

In a fully autonomous world, that reason disappears.

Passengers won’t be looking outside.
They’ll be watching shows and scrolling social feeds. In video calls. Working. Sleeping. Gaming. Wearing AR glasses. Immersed in whatever screen is in front of their face.

The windshield becomes irrelevant. The landscape becomes background noise.

And a static billboard — unmoving, unlit, unconnected — becomes invisible.

2. Usage of Waymo and Autonomous Fleets Will Explode — Bad News for Static OOH

Self-driving mobility will create:

• Fully automated commutes
• Autonomous taxis replacing personal cars
• Vehicles with no steering wheels, facing inward
• Wraparound displays inside the cabin
• Entertainment-first interiors designed to pull attention inward

Waymo already records rising repeat usage from people who don’t even own cars.
Imagine millions of daily riders across dozens of cities.

These riders will not look out the window.

And that means millions fewer eyeballs on highways, roadways, and arterial corridors where static billboards live.

3. Static Billboards Become the New Newspaper

Static boards have survived everything — the internet, smartphones, and DVRs.
But autonomous vehicles represent a fundamentally different risk:

They remove the driver’s gaze.

OOH’s foundational audience assumption collapses.

If the industry clings to static posters without investing in digital conversion, data connectivity, or dynamic creative, those boards will:

• Lose relevance
• Lose viewership
• Lose advertiser confidence
• Lose CPM value
• Lose entire categories of brands looking for measurable audiences

Just as newsprint evaporated when readers moved online, static OOH will fade when audiences move inward.

4. The Real Threat: Mobile and In-Car Screens Will Outcompete Billboards

OOH has long benefitted from mobile companions — billboards drive search, and phones capture the conversion.

But in a driverless world, the relationship flips.

The phone will dominate the commute.

This isn’t a supplement.

In-car screens will:

• Capture all top-of-funnel impressions
• Deliver personalized ads
• Respond to behavior, routes, and user profiles
• Convert instantly, without looking outside
• Become contextualized through real-time data

Why look at a static vinyl board on I-17 when your car is feeding you:

• restaurant options
• shopping prompts
• travel deals
• streaming content
• personalized ads

Billboards can’t compete with:

• personalization
• interactivity
• attribution
• targeting
• immediate conversion

Unless they evolve.

5. The Most Dangerous Scenario: Cars Ignore the Billboard, But the Billboard Doesn’t Know

In 15 years, every autonomous fleet will be:

• networked
• sensor-driven
• data-rich
• fully aware of its passengers
• feeding information to cloud systems
• delivering context-based advertising

Meanwhile, unchanged billboards will be:

• blind
• offline
• unable to respond
• unable to adapt messaging
• unable to link with in-car experiences

A static billboard will be like a silent actor performing in a theater where the audience has left the room.

6. Without Connectivity, Billboards Lose Their Reason to Exist

Advertisers will ask:
“Why pay for impressions no one can verify?”

If the OOH industry doesn’t integrate with:

• autonomous vehicle data
• real-time traffic patterns
• passenger behavioral signals
• mobile conversion paths

…then OOH impressions become guesswork.

In a world of hyper-precision marketing, guesswork is worthless.

Advertisers will shift budgets toward:

• in-car displays
• mobile video
• dynamic DOOH with data triggers
• augmented reality ad overlays

Traditional OOH will be bypassed entirely.

7. The 2040 Billboard Landscape if the Industry Fails to Adapt

Imagine the future that could happen if billboard companies stay passive:

Highways lined with fading static boards.
Advertisers migrating to in-car media networks.
Valuations of OOH companies are collapsing.
Cities are refusing new permits for “obsolete visual clutter.”
Younger planners are ignoring OOH entirely.
Budgets are shifting permanently to digital ecosystems.
Static boards are becoming relics — the telephone poles of advertising.

This is the future no one wants to believe — but it is absolutely possible.

Conclusion: The Warning Is Clear — Adapt or Disappear

Autonomous vehicles won’t kill out-of-home.

But they will kill the parts of the industry that refuse to evolve.

The winners will be:

• digital operators
• data-integrated networks
• dynamic content platforms
• companies building direct pipelines to in-car media ecosystems

The losers will be:

• static billboard owners
• operators unwilling to modernize
• companies denying what’s coming
• organizations hoping the old model will “hold on”

The OOH industry has about 15 years before self-driving cars become the default.

Fifteen years to evolve into a connected media platform — or fade into irrelevance.

The warning signs are already here.
The question is whether the industry will take them seriously.

Check back with OOH Today tomorrow, for ‘The Ugly’, Part Three of our Three Part series,  The Future of OOH in a Self-Driving World —the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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