I heard this on Fox News LMAO!

Spokey dokeys anyone?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusOwner004 @ Oct 4 2007, 09:52 AM) [snapback]521046[/snapback]</div>

Isn't adding sound to cars solving the wrong problem? I mean, the problem is to get the blind safely across the street, isn't it? There must be more solutions to that problem than just adding sound?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriusOwner004 @ Oct 4 2007, 02:52 AM) [snapback]521046[/snapback]</div>

It's called a horn. If these are the same morons that decided that drive-through ATMs needed braille, I think there should be braille on the front bumpers!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skguh @ Oct 4 2007, 09:30 AM) [snapback]521109[/snapback]</div>

Enough with the knee-jerking. Quite often, the ATMs you see at the bank's drive-through are the same machines used in a building. And since blind people DO use these machines, it's not much of a mental jump (or maybe it is) to see how braille-equipped machines end up in a drive-through.

 

If we all split the cost of a deck of playing cards, we can put em' in our spokes.
Next problem, please.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skguh @ Oct 4 2007, 09:30 AM) [snapback]521109[/snapback]</div>

Actually, it's called a seeing eye dog. Hell, even a regular person will do.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hill @ Oct 4 2007, 07:28 AM) [snapback]521138[/snapback]</div>

I like this idea.

I don't think we should pooh-pooh the issue of blind people crossing streets. At the very least, we need to be extra-careful when our cars are in electric mode. Blind people have a right to be out in public, and our cars are a technological innovation which introduce a condition that has not existed before (silent cars) and that many people are not yet used to.

Backing out of parking spaces in parking lots is a real issue. My Xebra has a back-up beeper which I can switch on or off, and I use it whenever I cannot see EVERYTHING anywhere around the rear of my car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(skguh @ Oct 4 2007, 06:30 AM) [snapback]521109[/snapback]</div>

Isn't that a hoot? I went through a drive in auto-teller last friday and looked and sure enough, it had braille instrucions. I thought to myself, "what kind of moron puts braille on a drive through device"? How many blind people are going to be pulling into that drive up auto-teller?

 

Actually, if you get the Dalek hood ornament mod, most pedestrians -- even including those wearing ipods cranked toO loudly -- flee before the car's calls of "EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bhaynnes @ Oct 4 2007, 09:10 AM) [snapback]521205[/snapback]</div>

I know it's off-topic, but I just have to respond to this. It's a purely economic problem: SOME ATMs are installed in places where blind people use them, so they have to have braille. Manufacturers of ATMs cannot know where a particular ATM will be installed, so it's cheaper to put the braille on all their machines than to manage a process that puts them on some and not others.

So: it's not stupidity at all, just simple economic good sense.

 

I've always posted on how there should be an under-the-hood speaker, near the grill, a small amp, with an MP3 jack in the cabin area.

We could then play what we want.

- The Jetson's whizzing sound in their airborne car (from similar Treehugger.com post)
- Crazy Frog's imitation of a chainsaw / motorcycle / F1 race car
- A distinct eletric buzz, similar to a power transformer

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mark Derail @ Oct 4 2007, 01:09 PM) [snapback]521238[/snapback]</div>

Or "Flight of the Valkyries"

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mark Derail @ Oct 4 2007, 12:09 PM) [snapback]521238[/snapback]</div>

Hey, while we're wishing here, let's hook up the speaker/amp system to an in-cabin microphone as well. Then when I'm on the highway and someone cuts me off, instead of honking the corn, I'll shout,
'@$$ h o l e' or some other appropriate exclamation.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PriuStorm @ Oct 4 2007, 11:28 AM) [snapback]521254[/snapback]</div>

It's called the Wolo Record-a-Horn. http://www.wolo-mfg.com/spec.htm
You can program in anything you like.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(snakeman @ Oct 4 2007, 10:21 AM) [snapback]521246[/snapback]</div>

Well, it's actually "Ride of the Valkyries"--we're supposed to be on horses.

About Braille on drive-up ATMs, a blind passenger in the back seat on the driver's side could very easily use the machine.....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MegansPrius @ Oct 4 2007, 11:15 AM) [snapback]521212[/snapback]</div>

That is awesome :lol:

What I want to know is when FireEngineer is going to come install it!

Rob

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Oct 4 2007, 07:37 PM) [snapback]521264[/snapback]</div>

Another one about Braille: It also eliminates a point of failure. When all ATMs have Braille, you can't make the mistake of installing one without where you shouldn't.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mcbrunnhilde @ Oct 4 2007, 01:37 PM) [snapback]521264[/snapback]</div>

My bad. That's what I get for posting too early in the morning.


Back to the topic, I think it's rather silly that anyone would encourage more noise pollution in urban settings when the answer is simply better sidewalks, audible crossing signals at intersections, drivers obeying the traffic laws, and not jaywalking. Besides, the pitfalls of a silent car aren't just for blind people - I've had idiots step out in front of me in the grocery store parking lot because they didn't bother to look and couldn't hear me.