Occasionally when you’re driving, you’ll make a mistake and perhaps need to adjust and it can create some awkward situations. Like today, my dad ended up in the wrong lane to go straight instead of turn at a light. He had to cut in line to make sure we could go the right way. It’d be nice if we could communicate “sorry, I screwed up. Excuse me. I just need to slip in there.”

Right now all we have for inter car communication is the horn, which has kind of an aggressive implication to it. This is for trying to de-escalate potential road rage.

You deserve to be able to retire after someone from Shark Tank takes your idea and makes it mandatory on all vehicles.

i find that plunging my face into a custard pie has the same effect

Whatever sound it makes would have to be very distinctive and not leave any room for interpretation.

It's not the horn itself but how it's used.

Long blast = angry
Two quick bips = not angry
One bip = I'm just letting you know I'm here

Two long blasts - The El Dude Brothers

They could have a little beep, like some cars do when you lock them. Made relatively quiet with the double beep further differentiating from a regular honk.

*sad trombone noises"

womp womp

Fart sound is good enough.

A quiet sound won't be audible in other cars most of the time, especially when the windows are closed.

I think this would just reduce the signal to noise ratio.

A bike bell?

Three or four blinks of the four-way / hazard lights is commonly used as "Thank you". That would be appropriate for someone who let you in.

"A bad driver never misses their exit"

Sometimes you make a mistake and miss your exit or end up in the wrong lane. That's on you. Re-route, follow the lane you're in, take the next safe turn/exit/lane change to get back on track; you don't just cut in line, forcing others to correct for your own mistakes. That's a great way to create unsafe conditions, end up in accidents, and hurt people. It's not just about peoples ego/anger, it's genuinely dangerous.

Your father doesn't need a 'sorry' button, he needs to correct his poor driving behaviour and not endanger himself, you, or others on the road.

Is this the new cakefarts?

I would use this when I see someone do something stupid, like clipping the curb, that doesn't deserve an angry honk.

We need a "great job" horn.

Is this finally the day I get to trot out my recollection of the "Hey Horn" commercials from the early aughts?

This was, alas, a spoof. But the idea was there.

As humans usually want to express quite complex things but have already developed a tried and tested method to communicate a lot of these complex things, I'd say we just enable voice for inter car communication by equipping every car with a huge megaphone on its roof that can be accessed from any seat inside.

I have never heard of this and would genuinely think the person was having an issue. Where I'm from people just put a hand up as a wave. You lower most of your fingers if they tried to cut you off.

Happened to me yesterday, actually, that a large truck stopped suddenly at the end of an intersection and I, behind them, had to stop in the intersection without knowing when or if we'd move again since I couldn't see anything ahead of the truck. A good seven or so seconds later and the light turned yellow so I had to cut to the right (mostly parking) lane to avoid gridlock. Went ahead a few cars to an opening to get back into a driving lane, cutting ahead a little.

My "I'm sorry" horn is really just my shy hand wave out my window though. I don't use AC nor have tinted windows so I think they generally see how I feel, I think. More often than not, it's a "thank you" horn though, as people often have to let me out of my own driveway since I live on a major street and there is rarely a time there aren't cars idling outside waiting for a light.

Big Beats are the best, get high all the time

I don't know if it's my car or me, but I've always find very difficult to modulate my horn, like if I try to have it do bips, they don't come out, I need to really punch it which means they won't be quickly one after the other. I need more horn practice.

genius

I've thought about this too. I once heard a theory that road rage is a result of the fact that cars prevent people from observing the subtle facial and body signals we use to communicate contrition or distress that are visible when you annoy someone under routine circumstances.

If you accidentally cut a line in a buffet or turn a corner and almost run into someone while walking, they can see you as a person and identify that you feel embarrassed. But without that, you just see a big truck or a fancy sedan and you write a whole narrative in your head about the worst fucking person in the whole world going around being an unapologetic asshole.

Personally, I'd rather just get people out of cars more than develop new technologies, but I've often wished I had a megaphone so I could tell someone I was sorry for driving badly.

What if its La Cucaracha?

Came here to drop that same quote. 🫡

There are some horns that are just impossible to modulate the length of. Dodge for sure has this problem as the direct to horn wiring is gone. They now run the horn through the body control module. The physical tap of the horn is now lost essentially as it instructs the horn to sound off for its predetermined amount of time. No polite nips of horn sound to wake a driver at a light, but a full on FU to get going!

There are more tech devices to buy that help with this stupidity that tech has created. Progress?

Everybody has to get out of their cars and dance!

"Way to go, A-hole!"

Yeah. My dad is an atrocious driver who has gotten lucky so far.

How-to by Mark Rober:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv8wqnk_TsA

It's not very detailed in the video, but gives a good idea on how to get it done.

I'm the great driver I am because my dad is just like that.

He's a shining example of what not to do.

But this sort of stuff (hey, I need your attention here!) is exactly what the horn is for.

As somebody else commented: it can be used non-aggressively, usually in short beeps.

Ope! Lemme squeeze right past ya

1000% don’t make others pay for your mistake.

Hmm, I thought this was more common, is it not used in the states or something? Not seeing it anywhere near as much as I was expecting to in this thread. Far as I know this is the standard everyone uses, but I guess not "everyone" everyone.

I like it when the long blast is 5 seconds plus, I can't not find that funny

If you actually want to be polite for real, the solution is to go around the block and do it the right way. A "sorry" horn won't fix the notion of feeling entitled to make sudden unexpected (i.e. dangerous) moves in traffic to avoid inconveniencing yourself after you fuck up. At best it'll just make you (unjustifiably) feel like a better person.

Have you ever visited any mainland European country??

I live in an old house right up against one of the main arterial streets for the city centre and pls no, no more horns

I've seen turning your headlights/running lights off and on in the US for a "sorry/thanks". I haven't seen hazards used for that ever

He decided he had to make it someone else's problem by needing to be let in, instead of simply affecting only himself (and you unfortunately). Bad decisions on my part should never be imposed on anyone else. And if more others behaved that way, we'd all have less problems.

We don't need a sorry horn. We in the states need a significantly higher barrier to people getting and keeping a license. Cars are a privilege not a right and people should be reminded of that.

Lived in the states my entire life. Never heard of that.

You lower most of your fingers if they tried to cut you off.

I love how you phrased this.

Yeah, that's what I figured. When stuff isn't as common as you expect on the internet, it probably doesn't happen in the states.

Or your dad could accept that he's going to travel a tiny bit further than he originally intended, and reroute with a u-turn, or a block circle, or a parking lot turn, or something similar. No invasive lane change. No need to apologise for an invasive lane change. No need for a special horn to communicate an apology for an invasive lane change. You don't need to apologise for something you don't make into someone else's problem.

I always thought you could do like a few different things on a screen running under the windshield or something. Even those analog card flip ones have been around since at least the 80s. Who knows though, it could increase road rage or something. What did they call it on pimp my ride, hatervision?

Palace Hotel Ballroom... One Night Only

Yeah if only there was some way to signal "I want to go right" or "I want to go left" smh my head