8 ms·

Over Christmas, I spent several minutes trying to debug my beeping dashboard - it only seemed to happen sometimes while driving, so stopping didn’t let me figur

• prepend 2mo ago
  I wonder if these things are designed by people who do not drive. So they just implement to spec without thinking through whether the change produces the desired impact.
• torginus 2mo ago
  What happens if you bypass these systems? Does it have a separate speaker or does it use the infotainment? If the former, you can bypass it electronically. If the latter, I'm sure you can mess with the software of the multimedia head unit to silence the chimes. Will your car fail inspection if you do this?
• sixtyj 2mo ago
  Imagine driving thru night with kids sleeping and suddenly car starts beeping. Is there a way how to switch sensors off for similar situations?
  • ShellfishMeme 2mo ago
    You can switch them off but only until the engine is turned off again. Most manufacturers have a shortcut on the dashboard or steering wheel though. Eventually you just get used to doing that every time you start driving.
    • freetonik 2mo ago
      >...until the engine is turned off again Modern electric Volkswagens (and some other brands) have this amazingly awful feature where lifting your ass off the driver's seat turns off the "ignition". The car just shuts off immediately, AC turns off, CarPlay disconnects, those driver settings reset. Even if I sit back one second later.
      • Cthulhu_ 2mo ago
        ...even while driving?
        • gf000 2mo ago
          Fairly sure that it won't turn off while the wheels are spinning at any speed -- with the engine off, you also lose power steering in most cases and can trivially cause an accident. Car manufacturers are not this dumb.
    • londons_explore 2mo ago
      There'll be firmware hacks to force that mode soon enough.
      • ssl-3 2mo ago
        That hasn't broadly happened yet, and it's even less likely to happen in the future with encrypted comms and locked-down firmware increasingly becoming the rule instead of the exception.
      • Scoundreller 2mo ago
        You wouldn’t download a bookmarklet on your car
        • bigiain 2mo ago
          "Download NoBeepPro for Android Auto now! It silences all unwanted warning sound, and totally doesn't surreptitiously enroll your car into a residential proxy service or mine crypto currency using your main power or hybrid battery!"
  • fhub 2mo ago
    In my experience, rental cars are the worst. They are configured to make so much noise. My kids sleep in rentals more than daily driving too (longer commutes when traveling). My 2022 Volvo treats me like a adult and makes very little noise. Heads up display shows things that might be important.
  • petre 2mo ago
    The kids will wake up a few times, then just get used and grow up to ignore all the annoying beeps. My boss sometimes drives without a belt while the car keeps beeping and he succesfully ignores it.
  • goodpoint 2mo ago
    Maybe you should ask yourself why you are not looking at the road in the first place.
    • smackeyacky 2mo ago
      I think it was clear that the poster was distracted by all the useless bongs and beeps and that was what caused the extra distracted driving bong or beep
      • goodpoint 2mo ago
        That does not justify not looking at the road.
  • pontussw 2mo ago
    If it makes someone put their phone down, or pull over when they are too tired to drive, perhaps the bigger question is if it prevents you all ending up in an accident - a lot worse of a situation than the beeping, in my opinion
    • Cthulhu_ 2mo ago
      If it beeps when you're NOT using your phone then people won't care about using their phone to begin with.
• dylan604 2mo ago
  That sounds like one of those situations where you just keep turning up the radio until the beeping goes away
  • Foivos 2mo ago
    They have thought of that. The radio volume is reduced during the Beep.
    • fhn 2mo ago
      I'm deaf so they better shine lasers into my eyeballs
      • NonHyloMorph 2mo ago
        Hehe
        • lstodd 2mo ago
          I'm also blind so they can stuff those lasers where it doesn't shine.
          • allenrb 2mo ago
            Do you drive often, then? :-)
            • lstodd 2mo ago
              I don't drive, I ride whatever comes up. Still, I prefer something with at most two wheels and at least 60hp.
            • dylan604 2mo ago
              probably better than most people staring at their device
          • Paradigma11 2mo ago
• dumbmrblah 2mo ago
  So to play devil's advocate... were you taking your eyes off the road for too long? There are many many poor drivers and many many distracted drivers out there. I'm not accusing you of one, but maybe a little bit of self-introspection may be necessary.
  • gotski 2mo ago
    I had a similar situation with a rental car, driving on winding roads. The beeping happened periodically as I was driving around hairpin bends, and the eye detection was triggered by me turning my head to look towards the oncoming sharp corner. Not the best situation to have a "safety" alert start chastising you!
    • afandian 2mo ago
      I wonder if it’s malicious compliance on the part of the manufacturers. They can trivially determine if their tech is effective. Making it mandatory, despite the problems they must surely know about, might produce some democratic pressure for more nuanced legislation.
      • Tagbert 2mo ago
        more likely that this is a harder problem than regulators assume.
      • mothballed 2mo ago
        Why would the manufacturers care though? You will still buy a car and now the barrier to foreign competition is higher, increasing profit, and the price goes up to pay for the dooo dads which increases financing kickbacks even if margin is same.
      • giantg2 2mo ago
        "might produce some democratic pressure for more nuanced legislation." Nah, you just get knee-jerk, feel-good laws because the masses never dig deeper and the elected only care about being reelected.
• throawayonthe 2mo ago
  ngl i think people should just read their car's manual
  • Brian_K_White 2mo ago
    ngl I think you should and then try to say that again
    • throawayonthe 2mo ago
      i don't own a car but i have read through most of a car manual at some point, it had many useful detail on maintenance and configuration if the parent commenter read the manual, they would know what the beeping means
• moffkalast 2mo ago
  Driving4answers had a similar rant recently about the 2024 Prius, where there's an always-on warning beep every time you enter an intersection, which intrusively pulls away your attention in the exact moment when you need to be focusing on the road the most. I'll be surprised if it doesn't cause someone to die in the coming years. Laws for drivers written by people with chauffeurs.
  • prepend 2mo ago
    I had a prius and every time I started it up, it would display a big warning prompt that blocked out the rear view camera. So you had to tap ok before backing up. Every time. My current car shows this once per driver. I always thought toyota engineers were stupid for designing such a system.
    • mcv 2mo ago
      Toyota is terrible at this. Various Toyota's we've had required you to either agree to obey traffic rules, warned about data costs when connecting your phone, or a variety of other things. Super annoying and distracting. As soon as the car starts moving, all the parts should be doing their job. That's no time to nag the driver.
  • cucumber3732842 2mo ago
    > Laws for drivers written by people with chauffeurs. Not even that. They know the laws are stupid. They don't care. It's just another day at work for them. They're trying to surgically write laws to garner support/votes from shorsighted hand wringing Karens (plenty of examples in HN comments) while also not actually hurting industry/donors. So stupid rules and stupid beeps are what you get.
    • whatsupdog 2mo ago
      Women's suffrage was the stupidest thing humanity ever did. And the general populace is still not ready to admit the mistake, as proven by the expected incoming downvotes.
• LtWorf 2mo ago
  I gave up and just ignore all the blips. It also sometimes invents speed limit signs.
• ghastmaster 2mo ago
  Do you know if the law prevents you from modifying the car to disable these devices? Caveat to anyone considering this: Modifying could be used against you in a liability case. Additionally if your insurance contract has some stipulation about not removing these safety "features" and they find out, I would think you could be dropped.
  • martin8412 2mo ago
    All cars in the EU has to pass periodic inspections. All safety equipment must be in working order to pass.
    • ghastmaster 2mo ago
      Therefore, to skirt the law, one would have to be able to reverse the modifications.
  • petre 2mo ago
    Does soaking the beeper with water trigger a modification clause? Annoying alarms trigger driver distresss which has equally negative effect on attention while driving. We had a replacement Yaris that had the speed alarms but one could lower the volume to the point where it didn't matter much. Much better design than the older Toyotas which would beep incessantly and louder if you didn't put belts on, back seats included.
    • letitbeirie 2mo ago
      > back seats included I ended up buying loose seat belt buckles for my wife's car from a pull and pay to stop this. Evidently nobody at Toyota has a dog.
      • petre 2mo ago
        We carry the dog in a crate fastened with straps. This is the safest way to transport a dog in a car. The seatbelt was not practical to fasten the crate. The crate sits in the trunk of our hatchback crossover with the seat in front of it collapsed, so I can visually keep it in check and the dog gets AC. There are also dog "seatbelts" if you carry it on the back seat. It's like a leash with a seatbelt buckle at the end.
• skhr0680 2mo ago
  > I feel like there’s some lesson here in building to the lowest common denominator, and giving people products rather than tools (tools are more dangerous, but more useful), but maybe I’m just grumpy. It's from a culture that says more alarms = safer. Perhaps the people who design these things need an alarm to warn them of "alarm fatigue".
  • benj111 2mo ago
    Yeah I don't like alarms and random beeps. I now have a Peugeot 106. The only thing that beeps is the cd player to remind me to remove the front plate. I need to sort that. Grrr.
  • laughing_man 2mo ago
    I used to work on a military base in the US. They have a similar culture, but with warning signs. Where I worked there were glass doors that were so festooned with signage that you couldn't see the other side. Floors are slippery when wet. Smoke free facility. Phone calls are monitored. Etc, etc. Every few years they do a study and realize you quickly get to the point that people simply ignore all the signage when you do that, and they take all but the most important signs down. Then the sign creep starts again. It's a cycle. I know when I drive I ignore all the beeps and dinging noises my car makes. I haven't even bothered to find out what they mean.
  • ffsm8 2mo ago
    I disagree, It's about treating people as sheeple that the politicians need to supervise and teach. Basically these brainrotten politicians consider themselves the only responsible ones that need to remove choices for the simpletons they administer because they (the politicians) know better. That's the core of our current woke culture that has become the zeitgeist since the 2010, especially in Germany - and it's especially strong on the left side of the spectrum ... But can be observed across all current parties to varying degrees. That causes the politicians to think more about what "should" society be like (from their "I know better" perspective), instead of looking at reality - consequently ignoring that what they're trying to create isn't even within the bounds of our technical capabilities right now. Yes you can get close, but close is not enough for such features
• ajsnigrutin 2mo ago
  > Also, being constantly warned that I was speeding in rural areas where the car missed a speed limit sign caused me to start ignoring the speeding alarm within a few hours of driving the car. Where do you live? In slovenia for example, we have "default speed limits", where there are zero traffic signs unless the speed limit deviates from the default for that type of road (50 within settlements, 90 outside, 110 on motorways and 130 on highways). This also makes me want to buy a shirt with 150km/h or 20km/h sign on my back.
  • mschild 2mo ago
    In Germany, we love our signs (not really). We have so many of them though and specific rules and lots of exceptions on where to put them. For example, typical city road speed is 50kmh, but residential side streets are 30kmh. If you cross an intersection there usually should be a sign telling you the speed limit because people turning onto other roads need to know how fast they're going. Except there sometimes isn't. So you're coming from a 30kmh road and turn onto a 50kmh without a sign. Your car now thinks you're still in a 30kmh road. What about GPS positioning? Sure, that works, until cities have started deciding that actually their main city roads should be 30 instead of 50. (Something I agree with btw) Except no signs and if you don't pay for your cars subscription service to get the newest updates, good luck getting that info. Beyond that, construction zones with shittily placed signs or signs that are placed not in optimal locations. Driving on the highway but there's an offramp for an interchange with a 60kmh speed limit for the offramp? Guess your highway speed is set to 60 now. Enjoy the car beeping at you.
    • silon42 2mo ago
      Here (Slovenia), there is an intersection rule, speed limit is cancelled at next intersection (unless in a "30" zone, or a "town wide speed limit"). Good look recognizing this situation without GPS maps.
• frereubu 2mo ago
  > Also, being constantly warned that I was speeding in rural areas where the car missed a speed limit sign caused me to start ignoring the speeding alarm within a few hours of driving the car. A lot of these features seem to assume that you're driving on a multi-lane motorway with well-marked lanes. I'm constantly being nudged by my ID.3 one way or another on rural roads. You can turn it off, but it turns itself back on the next time you unlock the car.
  • vincnetas 2mo ago
    You can use OBD2 dongle to change default setting of lane assist to be off by default (after car starts) And many more setting that are decided for you as if you were using a rental car not your own. Like always reseting air conditioner to 22C after starting a car. God dammit i want 20C. Let it stay like that when i start a car.
    • psd1 2mo ago
      > You can use OBD2 dongle to change default setting of lane assist Colour me skeptical. ODBII is just a protocol; it knows nothing of the modules on your buses. I think you will find you need the dealer software. Tools exist that implement big chunks of that functionality, but since they are built on reverse-engineering, the price approaches the dealer software anyway. The only place i found the Mercedes software was a paid forum that obscures the links. Getting the cracks working was a magic incantation. It's similar for VAG. They won't sell you the software if you're not a dealer. You will not get there with a £40 ebay special. If you can, please share what works, it will be of much interest to many.
      • glitchcrab 2mo ago
        You're correct that the dongle only facilitates the connection, but you don't need dealer software. I have an ODB dongle and a £20 (I think) app on my phone which lets me change a _ton_ of settings on my BMW which aren't available in any in-car menus.
        • 2mo ago
• Nursie 2mo ago
  > Also, being constantly warned that I was speeding in rural areas where the car missed a speed limit sign caused me to start ignoring the speeding alarm within a few hours of driving the car. I rented a car in the UK about six weeks ago, and this was infuriating! No, car, this is not a 30 zone. It's a 60 zone and I'm driving to the conditions (country road, decent visibility, slightly poor surface) at around 45. Whatever GPS data or image recognition techniques you're using, you're broken, shut up and leave me alone. I did eventually find the button to turn it off but (as the article mentions) I had to do that every single journey. I believe that in this case an imperfect system is worse than no system at all, because it adds to the distractions.
• kybernetyk 2mo ago
  Can't you just snip/disconnect the speaker/bell wire? I did this back when I had a truck and often had to maneuver with open doors (at very slow speeds) - the "door open warning bell" was so annoying that I just pulled its wires. AFAIK the warning tones don't come from the car's stereo speakers but have its own speaker.
  • queenkjuul 2mo ago
    No modern ones almost all go through the stereo
• lopis 2mo ago
  We did an 8 hour ride on a rental recently in Central Europe, mostly through major motorways. The car dashboard disagreed with (apple) maps which disagreed with the road signage so often. The beeping was infuriating.
  • verzali 2mo ago
    Apple maps so often disagree with reality.
    • ornornor 2mo ago
      Apple so often disagree with reality.
    • lopis 2mo ago
      So do I but fair point