Fun fact! I work in a concrete manufacturing plant in the middle of a town. Our movement beepers have been waking up the neighbors. So we are in the process of changing all of our old school, loud beepy beeper with newfangled, ambient sensing white noise sensors!
Where I live they're placing beepers (for the visually impaired) at railway level crossings with self-calibrating ones. They used to be a nightmare for neighbors but the new ones work really well, no longer super loud but they ramp enough to be heard over the train noises while the train passes.
Extra fun fact - here in the UK, you sometimes get reversing alarms that are literally a voice recording saying "Attention! This vehicle is reversing!" in a loop. Typically in a very RP accent, like some kind of butler announcing the reversing of a newfangled horseless carriage.
You often see them on forklifts in factories where the workforce is 90%+ Polish or Romanian and many speak little if any English, surpised they havnt turned more people into pancakes..........
I love the polite ones that literally say, "please stand back..." oh and then there are, I think it's the Securicore armoured vans that make a sound that sounds like the beginning of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I can't help but finish it every time.
@@ErrorAshYeah, and that word just happened by chance to line up with one of the beeps from the alarm so you can't even make out what it is. So very strange.
They were practically banned at the mine I worked at, because when every machine goes backwards like half the time, it just becomes a never-ending chorus of hearing damage.
Same was true of the factory I worked at. The constant beeping of backing up forklifts and honking at interactions just became a totally ignored background cacophony.
@@dotonthehorizon9620 Regulations state that all machines use air vents to produce white noise, if they use any at all, but beepers aren’t technically banned. They’re still around, but they’re being phased out where possible.
The way you changed the audio mix when you put on/take off the headphones was so damn smooth! You're as excellent of an editor as you are at informing us!
When i was a medic, our ambulance had a very distinct white noise alert whenever we have a call. It was such a huge difference because i felt like it didn't elevate your heart rate compared to some other old school alerts, like at firehouse with an insanely loud bell or beep. The white noise always woke me up and i could hear it thru a lot of other ambient noises
I find it can be hard to tell where regular sirens are coming from. At a 4 way intersection the vehicle has to be almost at the intersection to see where it is coming from.
My clock radio turns on the alarm or radio gradually, rather than all of a sudden, so you aren't jolted awake. Though I have to admit having a heart attack is a great way to wake up.
On the vehicle motion alarm: I used to work in a warehouse with hundreds of autonomous robots that all had an alarm. To make it more pleasant, they played music whenever they moved (half Pachelbel’s Canon, half Beethoven’s Ninth). Definitely better than bleeps, but there was some speaker issue meaning they were all slightly out of tune with each other. Kinda nightmarish.
@@technomunkGood thinking, but at the speeds robo-movers crawl at, Doppler shifts are negligible. Response: @Vulpo Sure, but at that point you're talking about echo, not the Doppler effect.
@@deus_ex_machina_ But the size of the warehouse could mean that the sounds from robots at varying distances would be arriving at different times which might cause an eerie effect.
On the topic of reverse lights, there is another useful purpose of them. If you see a car at night (especially if you're walking or cycling), it's very easy to recognize: red lights means a vehicle moving away from you, and white lights means a vehicle coming towards you.
So my beef is with GM (The manufacturer) when you arm the alarm on their newer vehicles, they tend to turn on the reverse lights for a while... That is especially misleading when driving through a parking lot... I mean, you JUST parked and now you're locking the doors. Why choose reverse lights??? Just pulse the parking lights a couple of times...
@@SomePotato I'll double down on the pedantry 😀It (half are worse than average) is correct if driver skill follows a normal distribution. But median is correct.
@@vodiakI'll triple down on the pedantry by pointing out that the median is, in fact, a type of average, and that Alec did not use the more specific word "mean".
Love the shout out to practical engineering! Also yes, I don't know how many times I've seen someone step out of their GM car and told them "hey dude, I think you left your car in reverse"
As a trucker myself I've noticed all those technologies around me and found them fascinating, shunter trucks usually have the white noise devices, city trucks and forklifts usually have the variable-decibel alarm. I know nobody cares in general, but you did, and I thank you.
I used to have a “GM” car (Holden Commodore) and I installed LED torch bulbs with built in lenses as my reverse lights. It was so useful! It made it obvious to everyone when I was reversing, I could see where I was going (no reverse camera) and when I unlock/lock the car they stayed illuminated for a minute and I could see where I was going. I 100% recommend installing bright reverse lights in your car.
I live in the Los Angeles area where there is probably one of the higher concentrations of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country. All I will say is, if you get more than about three vehicles making that ethereal pedestrian noise in the same area, it results in an unsettling dystopian symphony of creepiness and you start expecting a jump scare.
I have not heard any electric vehicles yet butthe examples in this video were strange, eerie, and unsettling. I am totally blind. Needs more research. I would like the Jetsons flying car sound. Deedle deedle deedle with dopler effect😮
I find it hilarious that according to to what Alec is hinting at. That during No Effort November he is more snarky because he’s writing the scripts with no effort. So Alec’s editing process is all in attempt to edit out his snarkyness.
Before there were backup beepers, they were back up bells usually found on dump trucks. It was some kind of a mechanical arrangement with the rear axle.
They bolt on to a wheel. And work by either a ball bearing that followed a track that was opened in reverse motion and allows the ball to hit the bell.
Having handily prepped everyone that "back-up alarm" means "reverse" not "reserve" you then exclaim "I have a back-up alarm" and present the reserve. Well played, sir. Well played.
I'm glad to learn that Hyundai implemented a combined sound of white noise and beeping. When I originally watched Tom Scott's video, I was concerned that the white noise alarm might not be recognizable as a backup alarm, but with the combination, you get the best of both worlds!
Now, 10 or so years later, I am very familiar with the idea that that is a reversing alarm. The first time I heard one, I wasn't sure what it meant, but I did know where it was coming from, and I did look there and saw a reversing truck.
So here in the UK, we're now basically primed to hear white noise as a backup alarm. We also now have voice overs to go along with them on many lorries and large vans. Hell, even on indicators (blinkers) as well in some cases. They'll normally say something close too "Warning, this vehicle is reversing" [insert white noise bleep] on repeat.
Japan also has chiming traffic light poles by pedestrian crossings, so the blind can easily find the pole, and also the push button, which allows them to cross safely. Chime all the time, which might be annoying to new residents before they become used to it, and a different one to indicate a green crossing signal.
My Nissan has a reversing alarm that sounds like what I can only describe as a Mexican church bell tolling as heard in a spaghetti western. Clang! Clang! Clang! (with a bit of white noise added).
the dramatic black and white shift when he says "but the beeps are coming from inside the car" about killed me with laughter. Love this channel so much and I appreciate the effort, or lack thereof this month, you put into these videos :)
@@NarinjasYeah that sound is...annoying. Confine yourself in a home garage with the car and couple that with a driver that wants to just _sit_ there in reverse fussing with something inconsequential in the cabin rather than get on with it and actually back out of the garage, it's downright unpleasant to be near.
15:20 dB(A) is usually measured at 1 meter distance from the sound emitting device. The (A) also means it applies filtering related to human hearing capability across the frequency space, so it is a more accurate representation of the actual volume perceived.
@@mikel9567 which is just about 22 cm more than a meter. But it is a good point nonetheless, as of course it may already change the measured value due to the different distance. I think the noise level decreases to the square of the distance. Or put in an hopefully easier to understand example. If you get annoyed by those reverse beepers standing 10 foot away, if you move another 10 foot away to a total distance of 20 foot, they are only a quarter as loud as before. So really for such measurements how they were taken is a piece of information as important as giving the unit of your measured value (and in case of Decibel also the chracteristics) as well. Here in Germany or across Europe usually if it is kind of a technical specification you will find that information (marketing material most likely omitts it). For some applications like exhaust noise on vehicles it can get as complicated as "measured at 1 m distance of the tipp of the exhaust, x amount above the street and sideways at an y degree angle". Sounds awfully complicated, is somewhat complicated, but if the police does the measurement because your manipulated or not street legal tuning exhaust pipe is to loud, the court will come back to those details. Or in any other situation where legal requirements have to be met. So if that information is missing, comparing a measurement from Europe to one taken according to OSHA regulations may give you a false result.
Nice Practical Engineering shout out! Loved his experiment with the construction videos, hope he is able to more (his regular stuff is great too of course)
Our entire fleet uses the, "white noise," reverse alert systems. Very noticeable. Also, Mythbusters did an episode on the pulsing tone vs. white noise alerts. Similar findings about locating, spatially.
I kinda feel like, at least for now, the white noise should be backed by a single tone just to transition people better to the new noise, but it's not a big deal.
@@Descriptor413 That's actually a really good idea... Alternating tones, you think? That's brilliant. "Beep," "Scritch," repeated... That sounds like a great combination... Maybe a, "Beep/scritch," combo noise then a "scritch" then a "beep", and it repeats all 3...? You get that patent and don't forget me, lol...
@@Descriptor413 I will say, The white noise attempt/"Scritch" does get my attention a LOT more that the beeping since I work for a water utility and we are always expanding, so you can hear beeps at almost every plant we work at almost daily, and it becomes easy to ignore. But the combination of the 2 for aural location... That's good.
"And get off your phone! For the love of god, you're operating a two-ton death machine! Act like the responsibility it is!" - As a motorcyclist, I strongly endorse this message.
This is why I have my phone act like an MP3 player, so this way I can play music in them. And when not driving, I can do stuff on the phone while in park, or pulled over to the side of the road.
Love that the Aztec Pinball is just the table in this. Even with it not being the topic, it really gives me a sense of nostalgia for helping my dad refurbish an Aztec Pinball when I was a teenager.
I always look forward to these surprisingly-high-effort no-effort-November videos. We get a whole bunch more technology connections in a slightly different style and that's a good month.
i kinda want an electric/hybrid that makes dialup noises during operation, have one sound that just signals the vehicle has power, a sound for turning right, a sound for turning left, a sound for going forward, a sound for reverse, and maybe even a sound for braking and a sound for hazard indication
In a related manner, Emergency vehicles in some countries have augmented their sirens, as the standard wail echoes a lot and makes it extremely difficult to locate them, so they've been changed to be a "Woo-woo-woo-SPLAT", with the splat being a burst of white noise for better locatability.
I reckon the splat is manually activated by the driver (probably via the horn). At least from what I've witnessed, the siren goes regularly, and when a busy crossing is approached, the driver starts pumping the horn, making that alternate noise, and it is certainly easier to spot.
It's surprising how long that took to be implemented though. I can remember seeing a piece on it on the original version of the BBC's "Tomorrow's World" programme. That went off air in 2000 yet my first recollection of hearing a "staticy" siren is about ten years ago.
There was an ambulance in southern Idaho that had the standard high tone siren, plus one that was a few octaves lower. You could hear that thing for miles, the hospital was about 3/4 mile from my house, and that low tone would make the windows rattle.
Interesting. In the US there's a system called the Rumbler or Howler (depending on the manufacturer). When activated, it adds a subwoofer to the siren that's supposed to be felt as well as heard. It's pretty effective when emergency vehicles are coming up on intersections.
@@PTS1337That's a different thing - This is a modification to the siren that happens all the time the siren is active. woo-woo-woo-splat-pause-woo-woo-woo-splat and so on.
I love this "free-form" version of your videoes. You're witty, and letting yourself loose isnt a bad thing - I also hope that this makes the videoes less taxing (time and effort wise).
One of the most annoying things about learning to drive for me was how the instructor insisted to NOT use the turn signals, unless there was someone to advise I was about to turn. I just don't get the logic, as if you do something only some of the time you have to think about it, whereas if you do something all of the time then you will never forget to do it as it becomes part of your muscle memory. Secondly, if a pedestrian is out of your field of view you are potentially denying them warning that you're about to run them over. Its just safer overall to ALWAYS use the signals.
the instructor was wrong! you have to learn to do it at ALL times specifically because you cant at all times know exactly wich cars are noticing you, i even signal when there is NO car in a mile radius..... there MIGHT be some quick moped like right around some corner or whatever (sorry for the weird caps)
for me the hardest part of learning to drive was learning the stick shift, i live in europe, and here stick shift is the default! it took me like 3 weeks before i finally got the hang of it! but once i got stick shift down, the rest was easy-peasy, passed the test like a week later :)
Props for the shoutout to Practical Engineering. He, too, has an amazing channel chock full of great information. I especially enjoy his recent video series where he is hanging around construction sites.
you've conditioned me to get excited whenever I realize a teardown is going to happen, I know it's coming- "And through the magic of buying two of these,". makes me smile every time lol
The white noise generator was used in a novel way alongside cctv cameras where it was required to capture an individuals face, what happened was that the sounder emitted a brief squawk and the intended party to be photographed couldn’t help their reflexes but to look up towards the point of the sound source, thereby showing their face to the camera - ingenious !
Depends where tho. if it was bank or marked id just toss it to regular noises and ignore it. Fk, last time i was in bank and fire alarms went off, we just finished cash withdrawal with the worker before leaving no rush XD
For a period of several weeks, someone who parked outside (& under) my apartment window was driving a work truck with a backup beeper. I had very violent thoughts. They sucked at backing in to spots, too. Took them ridiculously long.
ive been stuck living next to it 8am to 5pm daily for 3 1/2 years (and counting) from a massive building site and ive had many many thoughts of violence, explosions and various other was to just make it stop! they reverse long distances too co their too lazy to turn around.
Speaking of reverse lights on lock/unlock of GM vehicles, it's actually a setting that can be adjusted in many of them. My Silverado allows you to cycle through certain settings via the gauge cluster screen and a set of buttons beside it. I have my truck's exit lighting set to 30 seconds (down from the factory two minute time). The idea behind it is spot on to what was said in the video. The intention is to illuminate the areas around the vehicle while getting in and out in low light locations.
My Citroën has little downlights in the wing mirrors that perfectly illuminate the ground by the doors so you don't trip. Works lovely. They're also adjustable for both time and brightness, which is a nice trick.
Many years ago, my uncle and his wife started a prank war with my parents. My Dad, being a longtime mechanic, found a reverse light for their car with an integrated beeper, and sneakily installed it one day when they weren't around. Took them quite a while to figure that one out.
Some kid was getting on my nerves at work. So Friday at 5, right before my week off, I put a car alarm speaker on the starter solenoid on his yard truck.
Fun story: I’m a UH-60 mechanic with the National Guard and the tug I occasionally drive is the only vehicle I’ve driven with a back-up buzzer. The tug has excellent rear visibility (there’s basically nothing behind the window, which is right behind your head), but the only thing you can see ahead of you is the helicopter. As a result (and because the tow linkage makes it a lot easier), we drive the tug in reverse more than forward when a helicopter is attached. The buzzer, of course, only sounds in reverse, so it is pretty much always on, and shuts off only when you stop or are moving the helicopter in the direction it’s much harder to see. Seems a little backwards, but it satisfies the OSHA requirement (and probably some Army regulation as well).
The most bizarre thing about tugs is that it's a brand name Tug and the damn things are stupidly expensive for what is barely more than a garden tractor without a mower deck option. They also tend to last decades despite being left outside all the time. Nothing like a garden tractor at all.
Same here. I am so used to listening to cars around the corner, that I almost exclusively rely on the sounds to gauge whether I should stop when I approach an intersection with obstructed view.
@@joshua43214 That's why you have loud hubs 😁 I am only mildly annoyed with e-bikes whizzing past me and surprising me, with a side of a mini heart atack. Besides, there are bicycle bells. Other than announcing its presence to pedestrians, I can't think of any other reason for a bicycle to make any sounds. Wait, you are talking about bicycles, right? Not motorcycles?
@@joshua43214and then a bicycle will a need not a one 18650 but like a whole battery pack to keep the noise up for any extended time, unless.. which would be mad cool.. unless we hook up a crank siren to bicycle wheel axles, that would be so cool; also i just remembered, bicycles kinda already have that: the rattle gear or whatever it's called in english, the one which prevents pedals from spinning round when not accelerating, it makes a rattling noise, although it's not loud enough as to be an effective warning thing. as a cyclist, i find rearview mirrors and lights+indicators on my bicycle the biggest addition to mine and people around's safety. i think the automobilists' respect to you is based on how big they perceive you, so if you have good lighting that is comparable to motor vehicles' and makes you look like a motorcycle from afar, then you'll get much better treatment and be visible to peds as well. most cyclists i see have neither lights nor mirrors and certainly no indicators or bells/horns making them dangerous to others when maneuvering and plain invisible at night, and they do love ghostriding at night. although, cars pose a big problem that they blind me and cast shadows over potholes with their headlights unless i use my car-level brightness headlight which can only last for a couple hrs so i have to use it wisely whereas cars have virtually unlimited electricity since everything is hooked up to the big main battery, be car ICE or Elec. thank god governments don't move to ban flashing lights for bicycles (yet)
Yup, and the one inside the car for the proximity alarm so you don't "CRUUUUUNCH!" or "SCRAAAAPE!" the car while parking it. "Hey ma, that alarm is for the people outside of the car, not the driver." - me (telling mom this when she thinks she can hear the reverse beeps inside the car as the driver)
I had to chuckle when you mentioned the beeper in the Prius. I work (as a mechanic) for Toyota and it's actually a pretty ingenious setup for that specific vehicle. The method in which you "shift" your transmission in a Prius is pretty unique. You move the lever to the selection (like drive, reverse, etc) and then the lever resets back to a neutral position. Thus you don't really have an indication at the gear shifter as to what gear you're in. You can see your selection on the dashboard, but that's the only place. The beeper, which is actually pretty quiet and non-invasive, reminds you that the vehicle is in reverse.
Personally I hate that damn beep. As soon as I got my Prius V a few years ago I went and looked up how to turn that crap off. I'm smart enough to know when I've put my vehicle in reverse and I don't need the car to yell it at me constantly. I suppose having that in a vehicle can help with idiots out there who refuse to pay any attention to their vehicle, but I'm not one of them and I would definitely not appreciate vehicles being equipped with that without an option to just turn it off. And because vehicles now run so much crap through the sound system it likely wouldn't even be as simple as just finding the damn beeper and snipping the wires.
As an acoustics consultant it's always nice to hear noise issues being talked about. Your failed attempt to figure out what the 97 dB was referring to is extremely reminiscent of my daily life trying to model and calculate these kinds of things. The manufacturers will rarely admit what any of their numbers mean. Chances are there's a theoretically standardised test method which specifies how the single number is arrived at, or whether it's a sound power level, but you'd have to be in the testing/design industry to know about that and there's often several layers of interpretation such that those numbers are meaningless outside of comparing two variant products from the same company. One thing that's worth looking into is the AVAS system implemented on London buses here in the UK as an audible warning system, which took a lot of nice acoustic design and thought to get right and I was peripherally involved in.
As an acoustics consultant you should be aware that international standards specify noise measurements as (A) weighted from a distance of one meter, which makes the "97dB(A)" marking of the device perfectly acceptable and meaningful. This is codified in ISO 9614-3, and is not an obscure or arcane standard, though admittedly it does not guarantee that any specific manufacturer actually performed measurements is compliance with the standard or published the results thereof.
Wow! I looked up that London Bus AVAS sound and it was so interesting how it was decided upon! So much more thought was put into it than any of the usual systems.
In one of Adam Savage's videos on Tested he was asked about the worst sound from Mythbusters. You would think it would be something gross from an experiment, but in fact it was these things because he would have to spend so much time in close proximity to them. He mentions that disabling these was common practice for them because they were so loud it would cause ear damage.
Rented a boom lift to complete some exterior waterproofing. It beeps anytime anything moves. People inside the office said they had an important meeting and we need to cut the beeping or cut the work for 3 hours. I think “no biggie I’ll hit it with the ol rag and tape.” My ears rang just trying to find it and my watch picked up 120db. Even after covering it with a rag and duct tape it was loud. Unplug it and the whole machine shuts down. Absolutely ridiculous that I need safety equipment(earpro) to protect me from safety equipment.
I want to disable my microwave's "done" alarm. I don't care that you are done, I just don't want to hear it beep every 30 seconds while I'm still in the bathroom.
@@SuperLordHawHaw Verily. I'm often right next to the microwave ready to pull the door open at the 1-2 second mark so the damn thing doesn't wake the neighbours at like 4 in the morning when I'm having lunch because I'm working on New York Time when my local physical time is Canberra Time.
We just had roadwork done on the street we live on for five months. Being woken up to the sound of these beepers whenever any of the machinery moved was great fun!
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your videos. In a way they are so calming, almost meditative yet so fascinating and informative. It makes me feel like I'm a kid again watching a science show on sunday morning
As a Brit, when you played the static sound I immediately recognised it and thought "but I've heard that noise for ages now!" Then you said 10 years and that made sense. Good to know why that horrible noise is a thing 😅 I always felt like the sound system on all large vehicles was just busted and screaming a strangled statticy noise.
I don't think the static noise is mandatory here. Plenty of new vehicles just make an obnoxious beeping. The factory beepers on Peugeot Boxer/Citroën Relay/Fiat Ducato vans is particularly unpleasant.
Unfortunately, the European warbler is a huge and deadly miss. It sounds like a distant, busted machine, and DEFINITELY does not impart a sense of " hey, I'm backing up" or even "look out". Please, for safety sake keep the annoying beepers.
In Korea, a lot of trucks use a square-wave rendition of Fur Elise for backup noise generators on basically every truck. It was used for at least 20 years because I remember hearing this in my childhood. They have the same benefit as the white noise generator in that it is easy to locate, since there's plenty of different notes being played to locate with your ears. And in Japan, there's reverse alarms that say a cutesy "I'm backing up! Please be careful" voice line over and over again, which if you're cynical like me, might be used by terrible drivers to mask their terrible drivers lol.
Japanese ambulances have a system to automatically announce through the PA which way the ambulance is going and request that people give way. It's linked to the turn signals and warning lights. The driver of Japanese firetrucks will do it manually though the PA while all the other firefighters hang out of the windows and wave at everyone. Japan has its shit together.
I agree with you on the lack of brightness in backup lights. I have a 98 Tacoma, I wired up some inexpensive fog lights to the backup lights and mounted them under the rear bumper. It works well.
I replaced my reverse lights with LED bulbs specifically to see better as I live in a rural area. I can also confirm that the white noise reverse alarms are significantly better on construction sites often times we become accustomed to the beeping alarms and just tune them out.
I did the same, even though LED replacement bulbs are illegal in my country. Meh. If I get pulled over, I have the original bulbs in the glove box to replace them, and I'll happily pay the fine. It's a small price to pay compared to the thousands of times I benefit from them when reversing at night. I get why it is illegal here to tinker with your car's lighting, though. It prevents people from using bulbs in their headlights that are too bright and dazzling, which is a good thing. Only selected, tested LED front bulbs are allowed and only in a selection of vehicles in which they have been tested. But the reversing lights are rarely used in road traffic and are not so bright and directed that they dazzle others.
i wish i could tune them out. 3 1/2 years and counting on livinb right next a massive building site and theyre driving me as mad today as they were then. i curse the company that put a patent on the white noise ones so the cost is prohibative. theyre certainly not manditory here, oh god do i wish they were.
I find that puzzling, beeping signifies something that I should pay attention to and, at least to my ears, is something easily located. White noise is just some background noise that might come from a broken radio, definitely file under ignore category. It seems like one of those a bit too clever ideas.
Wow, finally an explanation of the 'white noise' reverse alarms! I started hearing them in the US about 5-8 years ago (mainly on construction vehicles) . I always thought it was caused by a damaged beeper, but nope, I guess they are supposed to sound like that!
@@Patrick94GSR In my opinion, it would be more convenient if those warners would put out "beep-noise-beep-noise-beep-noise" instead of "noise-silence-noise-silence-noise-silence".
Glad someone commented wrt median, although it is possible that half are worse than average (mean) but it depends on the distribution of skill (e.g. normal distribution).
It'll be nice to hear "digital angels" as you're being mowed down in reverse, sort of like getting a crash course on this side, before you reach the other! Sweet!
In the 80's I installed one on my van because I thought an audible warning while backing up was better than just a light warning. Not long after that I removed it because people would hear the beep, think I was a commercial van and the company I worked for had lots of money, and intentionally try to slip their vehicle behind mine so I would hit them.
The thing irritating me lately is that front turn signals are almost impossible to see! The lights have become too small and not easily visible. To the point that we've starting turning off the daytime running light when the turn signal is active to draw more attention to it
I think that's also done because the daylight lights are just using LEDs now. Use multicolor ones and boom, the daylight light can become a mediocre blinker.
@@DeadNoob451 That's the right idea, except that they _can't_ use multicolour LEDs because they will light up in the wrong colour when the individual coloured LEDs in each chip start failing. So, there are amber LEDs interspersed with white LEDs. Those two LEDs can still be on the same physical chip (so, technically, a multicolour LED); but, crucially, they do not produce white light by illuminating more than one primary.
There's also the recent trend of putting the back turn signals down low in the bumper away from the main lights. Even worse is the Chevy Bolt/Mini Countryman having giant fake brake lights in the normal place where you expect them to be and the real lights low in the bumper with the reflectors.
I love seeing the TH-cam thumbnails on your screen... Tom Scott, vlogbrothers, and Aging Wheels are all on my screen this week too! It's like we're members in the same cult of distraction!
Thanks for the GM shout-out! It's always been instinctive to panic whenever a parked Buick suddenly decided to back out of a spot. But now (meaning: the last 15 or so years), I've gradually warmed up to the idea that it's usually a false alarm!
“And made he that light come on automatically when the car was shifted into reverse, this proved to be really forward thinking.” I know you won’t, but never change, TC.
in Australia we run the "squawkers" we call them on nearly all our mine vehicle, they don't carry as far as to not disturb the wildlife, and I cant believe you talked so much about JDM beepers but didn't mention Japanese trucks that play music when reversing and audibly say "this vehicle is reversing" and as well as some trucks in japan have indicator alarms that have a voice saying in Japanese "this vehicle is turning" while going through busy suburbs
@@xp7575 Your news is fake, too. Japanese trucks would never be so impolite and instead say, "車が後退しています" (or, more often I think, "バックします、ご注意ください"). :-) Some also let you know when they're turning left, since the left side is where pedestrians are more likely to be (Japan drives on the left) and there are more blind spots on the left side. "左へ曲がります."
You timed this one perfectly! My gf and I came across one of those new fangled ones earlier this week and were laughing because it sounded like someone was angrily poking a crow. Good to know it wasn't animal abuse, it was just slightly different ear abuse than normal.
The wordplay is absolutely top notch, your best video so far (from what I've watched). Thanks for pointing out the Tom Scott video, since I'm an avid watcher and somehow missed that one. FYI, I owned a 2014 Scion XB in Canada for a few years and it had a normal, full set of backup lights. So perhaps that 2011 model you referenced was a European design, or maybe they fixed it when they did a redesign before the 2014.
I've worked in the parking lot of a grocery store bringing the carts back inside, and I must say I'm very grateful for the sound cue from electric vehicles when they're backing up, since I can easily stay clear of them.
I've been hearing the weird reverse alarms from cement trucks near the chemical factory I work at and I always thought it was just a normal reverse alarm that was malfunctioning like a childs toy running out of batteries
I thought the same thing when I heard one on a snow removal vehicle, until I realized that every single vehicle from the same snow removal company sounded the same. 😅
The backup beep in my dad's Geometry C is a pretty loud beep, but the cool thing about it is that it's actually hooked up to a sensor that tells the car how far away from something it is. That way, when we're backing up, it starts beeping faster and faster as we get closer to the car behind us, or the wall in the parking lot, or whatever it is. Pretty neat trick.
One issue I once overheard, is that on construction sites these beeps can be so constant, people stop noticing them at some point. So I'd argue that a bit of variety, but up to a certain standard, is maybe better.
Also known as your mom alarm. Edit: What you said about glorbis and his neighbor actually happened to me once. We had trucks to load where I worked and the beeper stopped working, so the driver would just repeatedly should "I'M FU&*ING BACKING UP" over and over. We did a lot of dumb stuff like that.
As a kid I remember the mechanical version of these- a series of swinging hammers around a bell mounted on the axle. They were designed to be still and silent when moving forward, but would swing out and strike the bell when the vehicle was in reverse
Putting extremely bright LEDs in reverse lights is a huge help at night. Easily one of the best mods you can do. Also to all GM owners, turn off the surround lighting for the rest of us
On older cars you can install halogen bulbs to make your backup lights brighter, if you don't mind the risk of possibly melting the plastic lens if you leave them on too long. But now with integrated LEDs, you're stuck with whatever the automaker gave you, unless you want to do something drastic like install auxiliary lamp(s) underneath the rear bumper.
Hey Alec, if you really want to de-pot something in the future, I recommend a hot air station that's used for soldering. I have one at work that does 200 to like 800F and it works great for that! I set mine to 275 or 350F depending on how fast I want the potting to change state. I usually then just scrape it away with a small flat-blade screwdriver or metal pick until it's just a circuit board
I'm surprised you didn't mention the original backup alarms. They were mechanical gongs which were bolted to the hub of one of the vehicle's wheels. Inside the gong were pawls which only struck the gong when the wheel rotated backwards.
i like you chest freezer video a lot. videos like that which highlight little engineering efficiencies that save a lot on the electric bill. genuine consumer advice. sure it’s a bit more inconvenient but we are all on a budget
I work at Walmart and our home delivery van has this new fangled white noise beeper thing. It was backing up and a coworker asked me "Why does it sound like that?" And I thought to myself, I don't know but I much prefer it over those super loud high pitched ones. That all happened like 3 days ago and BAM! You made a video about it. Epic.
I used to drive one of those Chinese Morris Garage revival cars and while it sucks in every possible measure, one cool thing it did when put in reverse is play a chime and lower the volume of the radio. It also had a super sensitive reverse alert chime so a car waiting in line behind would trigger it no problem.
The GM reverse issue has been a pet peeve of mine for so long and im so glad to hear you finally cover it. This makes people not take reverse lights seriously, as GM always has the lights on when they arent backing up
The number of times I’ve sat for a solid minute or two waiting for some goddam GM to back out of a parking spot… especially in a parking garage where you can’t see the front of the car to know there’s literally nobody in the car anymore. Every GM employee involved in coming up with and approving the idea should be fired.
You are exactly right about the GM lights staying on when you lock/unlock the car. I live in Montana where there are very few street lights and lots of rural and forested areas. Being able to unlock my truck and illuminate the front and the back for 30 seconds or whatever it is, is very helpful. I also love how trucks still have very large bright reverse lights, especially if you replace them with LED bulbs. Literally just used them last night to see where I was going last night at a forest service cabin when I went to grab something from my truck and forgot my flashlight.
I appreciate having the illumination as well - although usually I find the brake lights are bright enough for me to navigate a dark area. I'm not sure they should always be automatically on though. My Volvo has a button on the keyfob which turns on the exterior lights while parked, but doesn't illuminate or even flash them by default. (You can also activate the feature by pulling the left stalk after shutting the car off). Also has a couple of little bulbs under the wing mirrors which let you see what you're stepping in while exiting, which is quite nice.
Most GM cars also let you choose how long, if at all, to illuminate the headlights and reverse lights when locking/unlocking the car and after the doors are opened after a run cycle. It’s in the settings on the infotainment
I'd like to see you do a video on the devices that apparently count cars on highways. They're a rubber hose of some sort that stretches across the lanes of the road and a box is usually on the side of the road, chained to a road sign. How do these things work, and how do they "count" cars with multiple sets of wheels?
They're electric coils, they spot the magnetic field of the steel body of the vehicle. They're usually there to detect whether traffic has tailed back far enough from an intersection to tell the lights that a queue has formed and to switch patterns, so the primary purpose isn't counting it's just to detect whether something metal and vehicle-like is present.
@@Ylyrra I caught on to their "trickery" in Left turn lanes. The loop in the lane was 1 vehicle back from the Stop line. So if only one car was turning left it had to wait for the Left signal. More than one Vehicle would get the signal. When no one was behind me as I approached the Left turn lane, I'd stop 1 car back for a while then pull up I'd get the 1st signal to turn..
Back up alarms have two settings for loudness base on the ambient noise level around the vehicle. The louder the noise at the site, the louder the alarm sound. This insures that construction workers hear the alarm and get out of the way of vehicles backing up. As a former truck and heavy equipment mechanic I remember checking to make sure the alarms always worked as it was an OSHA requirement and a damn good safety device. I don't care if anyone considers them obnoxious, they work and save lives!
The first several times I heard the white noise beepers, I had no idea what it was; and, therefore, had no idea it was supposed to be warning me of potential danger. They sound like someone spraying compressed air. It was the Tom Scott video that made me realize what it was.
I feel like the backing up beep is just as unintuitive minus us all knowing what it is from experiencing it, so given enough time the new one will work as well and is at least somewhat less annoying
It took _several_ times before you made the connection? Most people learn after the first time. It gets your attention, makes you look around, and once you identify the source and context you know what to expect in the future.
From my experience working in a grocery store parking lot pushing carts the white noise ones are even harder to locate because they just kinda blend into regular background noise and I don’t even register that there’s a vehicle moving, while the electric/hybrid backup sounds are fantastic at standing out and being noticeable, they’re even better than traditional beepers, Toyota’s reverse is especially noticeable and I can even easily pinpoint it despite being dead in one ear and usually struggling to notice where sounds come from, a thing I can’t do as easily for Hyundai’s sound
" because they just kinda blend into regular background noise" What kind of fucked up area do you live in that such loud white-noise just "blends in" !?!?
@@ABaumstumpf maybe blends into wasn’t the best word choice, but the white noise, in my experience, is a lot harder to distinguish from background noise than beepers, EV sounds, or even just regular engine noise
Many emergency vehicles in EU and etc now have white noise sirens. The important thing is that they need cutoffs or variance. A white noise siren that randomly cuts on and off actually makes it way easier to locate. Same with sirens actually - that's why fire trucks descend in pitch all the time.
Talking about the reversing light, one feature i liked and missed the most is side illumination light that turns on corresponding to which turn signal blinks. My dad's 1992 Toyota Liteace has that feature and is a feature i really appreciated as it illuminate side more than just a headlamp that points forward. Is like you said as an original function to light the environment at the dark.
Used to be very common for cars to have three turn signals on each side here: front, rear, and one on the side, usually on the front doors. This was because you often couldn't See the front or rear ones from the sides because of how they were mounted. These days, the usual practice is for the front and rear lights just wrap around the corner of the vehicle so you can see them from the sides instead.
I've seen some vehicles with additional turn signals on the edges of the mirrors. That always seemed especially clever to me. It can be seen from the front, back, and side, and you could also put a little spotlight to illuminate the ground you're about to step out onto.
I'm like 90% sure it's required in at least Europe to have an indicator light on the side of the vehicle. My EU market Volvo has them whereas on my friends' US market car, the holes are just plugged with badges
@@declan2775jup that’s required in the EU. And we don’t need those ugly side markers. This is how you can spot an imported US car, because often you can’t get rid of them without changing the lights.
@@renakunisaki Ram nailed the mirror lighting with the 2019+ models. Incredibly helpful to show adjacent vehicles that you're trying to change lanes (front and rear lights aren't sufficient for this scenario).
My 6 speed manual Celica had the reverse beep inside the cabin. It was good, since it was pretty easy to go into reverse accidentally, since it was very similar to first gear. Far left and up vs left and up.
My 6 speed tacoma's reverse is like that too, I've only accidentally gone into reverse once but it was almost a problem. But it only beeps once at the moment when you put it in reverse. I guess that makes sense though as usually I don't sit idling in any gear.
I love your channel so much. It is so interesting to learn how things work, and your jokes are some of my favorite things on the internet. The dead pan delivery is epic.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
The amount of jokes in this video definitely goes against the spirit of No Effort November.
shhh. don't let him know!
The Spirit of No Effort November would have entered the chat, but that would have gone against its principles.
Normally he must use effort to prevent the jokes from overwhelming the video .. in November, no effort is made to prevent this.
ayeee-greed. came to say 'pretty good amount of effort-November' or similar haha
Nah; it goes _with_ the spirit of No Effort November!
Fun fact! I work in a concrete manufacturing plant in the middle of a town. Our movement beepers have been waking up the neighbors. So we are in the process of changing all of our old school, loud beepy beeper with newfangled, ambient sensing white noise sensors!
excellent. transition for the best on both sides
Where I live they're placing beepers (for the visually impaired) at railway level crossings with self-calibrating ones. They used to be a nightmare for neighbors but the new ones work really well, no longer super loud but they ramp enough to be heard over the train noises while the train passes.
@@andreasu.3546that’s neat
wait, what is Ambient Sensing????
@@raafmaat Yeah, that's just fancy name for db-meter that controls output volume.
Extra fun fact - here in the UK, you sometimes get reversing alarms that are literally a voice recording saying "Attention! This vehicle is reversing!" in a loop. Typically in a very RP accent, like some kind of butler announcing the reversing of a newfangled horseless carriage.
You often see them on forklifts in factories where the workforce is 90%+ Polish or Romanian and many speak little if any English, surpised they havnt turned more people into pancakes..........
If only we had a concise, simple and universally recognized sound to signal a vehicle is reversing... 🙄
They've mostly been phased out of the white noise ones, but yeah they do sometimes still appear on really old equipment.
Would be even funnier if a door opens and a robot jumps out waving a red flag!
I love the polite ones that literally say, "please stand back..." oh and then there are, I think it's the Securicore armoured vans that make a sound that sounds like the beginning of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. I can't help but finish it every time.
you can't trick us into thinking this is "no effort" simply by standing in front of a moderately disassembled pinball machine
Unrelated to the video, but I love your name and profile pic!
@GinnyMaive huh
He had done a video on pinball machines near the end of October.
he put no effort into reassembling it, duh!
❤❤❤
The fact you talked with subtitles while the back up alarm was running REALLY helped to illustrate how loud it was.
Excellent!
It seemed like the subtitles were missing some word though, strange :p
And I can lip read!
@@ErrorAshYeah, and that word just happened by chance to line up with one of the beeps from the alarm so you can't even make out what it is. So very strange.
And the subtitles were in the greatest font ever!
@@ErrorAshWell, getting ALL the words into the subtitles would require effort, so ...
They were practically banned at the mine I worked at, because when every machine goes backwards like half the time, it just becomes a never-ending chorus of hearing damage.
So the reverse beepers become ambient noise? How are they 5 dB louder than themselves then?
Same was true of the factory I worked at. The constant beeping of backing up forklifts and honking at interactions just became a totally ignored background cacophony.
How can something be "practically" banned?
@@dotonthehorizon9620 Regulations state that all machines use air vents to produce white noise, if they use any at all, but beepers aren’t technically banned. They’re still around, but they’re being phased out where possible.
“Because unless you hang around construction sites, like some sort of practical engineer” that had me in hysterics
Same
Same here.
Practical Engineering is fantastic
@@TreesPlease42
Practical Engineering is so awesome, it’s one of the few channels I watch regularly … alongside Technology Connections of course!
Always a good time when good creators reference each other.
The way you changed the audio mix when you put on/take off the headphones was so damn smooth! You're as excellent of an editor as you are at informing us!
Definitely agree
Not to mention the subtitles didn’t match. My hearing wasn’t THAT protected lol
When i was a medic, our ambulance had a very distinct white noise alert whenever we have a call. It was such a huge difference because i felt like it didn't elevate your heart rate compared to some other old school alerts, like at firehouse with an insanely loud bell or beep. The white noise always woke me up and i could hear it thru a lot of other ambient noises
U might be on to smt about alarms in general…
I find it can be hard to tell where regular sirens are coming from. At a 4 way intersection the vehicle has to be almost at the intersection to see where it is coming from.
My clock radio turns on the alarm or radio gradually, rather than all of a sudden, so you aren't jolted awake. Though I have to admit having a heart attack is a great way to wake up.
On the vehicle motion alarm: I used to work in a warehouse with hundreds of autonomous robots that all had an alarm. To make it more pleasant, they played music whenever they moved (half Pachelbel’s Canon, half Beethoven’s Ninth). Definitely better than bleeps, but there was some speaker issue meaning they were all slightly out of tune with each other. Kinda nightmarish.
As a musician, this gave me the chills! I'd quit the very next day!
That sounds like a nightmare for someone with perfect pitch, aka me.
I wonder if it could be the Doppler effect messing up the pitches enough to make music uncanny
@@technomunkGood thinking, but at the speeds robo-movers crawl at, Doppler shifts are negligible.
Response: @Vulpo Sure, but at that point you're talking about echo, not the Doppler effect.
@@deus_ex_machina_ But the size of the warehouse could mean that the sounds from robots at varying distances would be arriving at different times which might cause an eerie effect.
On the topic of reverse lights, there is another useful purpose of them. If you see a car at night (especially if you're walking or cycling), it's very easy to recognize: red lights means a vehicle moving away from you, and white lights means a vehicle coming towards you.
Exactly. It's the same with reflectors.
Same with trains.
So my beef is with GM (The manufacturer) when you arm the alarm on their newer vehicles, they tend to turn on the reverse lights for a while... That is especially misleading when driving through a parking lot... I mean, you JUST parked and now you're locking the doors. Why choose reverse lights??? Just pulse the parking lights a couple of times...
Thats smart!!
@@philstuf gm has to stop that.
“A full half of all drivers out on the road are worse than the average driver, and that’s a fact.” I love this.
It's also wrong. A full half are worse than the median driver.
@@SomePotato I'll double down on the pedantry 😀It (half are worse than average) is correct if driver skill follows a normal distribution. But median is correct.
And yet it was still a funny joke.
@@vodiakI'll triple down on the pedantry by pointing out that the median is, in fact, a type of average, and that Alec did not use the more specific word "mean".
Especially if you live in the greater Boston Massachusetts area 😧
Love the shout out to practical engineering! Also yes, I don't know how many times I've seen someone step out of their GM car and told them "hey dude, I think you left your car in reverse"
It's a neat system to enable you to see that all your bulbs are still working.
As a trucker myself I've noticed all those technologies around me and found them fascinating, shunter trucks usually have the white noise devices, city trucks and forklifts usually have the variable-decibel alarm.
I know nobody cares in general, but you did, and I thank you.
It is really odd to me that "electronic angelic shrieking" is the sound everyone seem to have decided EVs should make. Why not a Jetson's noise?
YES! I want that sound in modern EVs.
omg someone please mod that into an EV and @ me with a video link i need to hear this now xD
It should be customizable. I want bubbles.
@@slickstretch6391 Tesla did that for a bit, they got quite the talking to
Tesla had fun and let you customize it, then NHTSA said fun isn't allowed.
I used to have a “GM” car (Holden Commodore) and I installed LED torch bulbs with built in lenses as my reverse lights. It was so useful! It made it obvious to everyone when I was reversing, I could see where I was going (no reverse camera) and when I unlock/lock the car they stayed illuminated for a minute and I could see where I was going. I 100% recommend installing bright reverse lights in your car.
I live in the Los Angeles area where there is probably one of the higher concentrations of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country. All I will say is, if you get more than about three vehicles making that ethereal pedestrian noise in the same area, it results in an unsettling dystopian symphony of creepiness and you start expecting a jump scare.
What if you could pick your own sound? I think I'd pick a jet engine spooling up. (Not at actual jet engine volume of course)
@@TheGreatAtarioThat's half the fun!
@@TheGreatAtario Unce unce unce unce ah ah unce unce
Yeah, the noise terrifies me
I have not heard any electric vehicles yet butthe examples in this video were strange, eerie, and unsettling. I am totally blind.
Needs more research.
I would like the Jetsons flying car sound. Deedle deedle deedle with dopler effect😮
I find it hilarious that according to to what Alec is hinting at.
That during No Effort November he is more snarky because he’s writing the scripts with no effort.
So Alec’s editing process is all in attempt to edit out his snarkyness.
I firmly believe that if we were ever to be presented with his raw, unfiltered snark in its pure form, we would be obliterated instantly.
@@daverapp Indeed, a Snarknado if you will.
Before there were backup beepers, they were back up bells usually found on dump trucks. It was some kind of a mechanical arrangement with the rear axle.
They bolt on to a wheel. And work by either a ball bearing that followed a track that was opened in reverse motion and allows the ball to hit the bell.
Back in my day we tied bells to the tails of the dinosaurs we were riding at work
Having handily prepped everyone that "back-up alarm" means "reverse" not "reserve" you then exclaim "I have a back-up alarm" and present the reserve.
Well played, sir. Well played.
he should have said "i have a backup back up alarm"
I'm glad to learn that Hyundai implemented a combined sound of white noise and beeping. When I originally watched Tom Scott's video, I was concerned that the white noise alarm might not be recognizable as a backup alarm, but with the combination, you get the best of both worlds!
Now, 10 or so years later, I am very familiar with the idea that that is a reversing alarm. The first time I heard one, I wasn't sure what it meant, but I did know where it was coming from, and I did look there and saw a reversing truck.
So here in the UK, we're now basically primed to hear white noise as a backup alarm. We also now have voice overs to go along with them on many lorries and large vans. Hell, even on indicators (blinkers) as well in some cases. They'll normally say something close too "Warning, this vehicle is reversing" [insert white noise bleep] on repeat.
Japan also has chiming traffic light poles by pedestrian crossings, so the blind can easily find the pole, and also the push button, which allows them to cross safely. Chime all the time, which might be annoying to new residents before they become used to it, and a different one to indicate a green crossing signal.
My Nissan has a reversing alarm that sounds like what I can only describe as a Mexican church bell tolling as heard in a spaghetti western. Clang! Clang! Clang! (with a bit of white noise added).
@@SeanBZA Australia has that too ( except it is a beep/metal clack), its called the PB/5
the dramatic black and white shift when he says "but the beeps are coming from inside the car" about killed me with laughter. Love this channel so much and I appreciate the effort, or lack thereof this month, you put into these videos :)
Can we agree that toyota hybrid sound is equivalent to the whales of the damned(hell)?
That black and white gag is incredible!
@@Narinjas🐳?
@@mordechai_rotwein Wail/Wails but not the place, idk why it went 🐋
@@NarinjasYeah that sound is...annoying. Confine yourself in a home garage with the car and couple that with a driver that wants to just _sit_ there in reverse fussing with something inconsequential in the cabin rather than get on with it and actually back out of the garage, it's downright unpleasant to be near.
15:20 dB(A) is usually measured at 1 meter distance from the sound emitting device. The (A) also means it applies filtering related to human hearing capability across the frequency space, so it is a more accurate representation of the actual volume perceived.
In the US it is measured at 4 feet from the object per OSHA regulations.
@@mikel9567 which is just about 22 cm more than a meter. But it is a good point nonetheless, as of course it may already change the measured value due to the different distance. I think the noise level decreases to the square of the distance. Or put in an hopefully easier to understand example. If you get annoyed by those reverse beepers standing 10 foot away, if you move another 10 foot away to a total distance of 20 foot, they are only a quarter as loud as before.
So really for such measurements how they were taken is a piece of information as important as giving the unit of your measured value (and in case of Decibel also the chracteristics) as well. Here in Germany or across Europe usually if it is kind of a technical specification you will find that information (marketing material most likely omitts it).
For some applications like exhaust noise on vehicles it can get as complicated as "measured at 1 m distance of the tipp of the exhaust, x amount above the street and sideways at an y degree angle". Sounds awfully complicated, is somewhat complicated, but if the police does the measurement because your manipulated or not street legal tuning exhaust pipe is to loud, the court will come back to those details. Or in any other situation where legal requirements have to be met.
So if that information is missing, comparing a measurement from Europe to one taken according to OSHA regulations may give you a false result.
@@mikel9567 4 feet is pretty close to one metre. Specifically, 1.22m.
@@Bobo-ox7fj Did the math for the joke, respect.
Log scales are so confusing.
here in LA we hear the new alarms every days we call it the "dying crow" as that's what it sounds like. love your content love your channel!
yep, same in San Francisco SSSHHHHHHHHH...SSSHHHHHHHHHH
Dying Amazon truck 😂
Of course you've watched the practical engineering construction series, one of my favourites in recent memory. Cool video!
Nice subtle joke he threw in there.
Ha ok glad it wasn't just me that thought he might be talking about Grady
Spotted that right of the bat. Nice callout.
@@mrbuttons1243 I thought it was kind of obvious and not subtle at all.
me too
Nice Practical Engineering shout out! Loved his experiment with the construction videos, hope he is able to more (his regular stuff is great too of course)
I thought that was probably the reference!
Our entire fleet uses the, "white noise," reverse alert systems. Very noticeable. Also, Mythbusters did an episode on the pulsing tone vs. white noise alerts. Similar findings about locating, spatially.
So did Tom Scott. A video, anyways
I kinda feel like, at least for now, the white noise should be backed by a single tone just to transition people better to the new noise, but it's not a big deal.
@@Descriptor413 That's actually a really good idea... Alternating tones, you think? That's brilliant. "Beep," "Scritch," repeated... That sounds like a great combination... Maybe a, "Beep/scritch," combo noise then a "scritch" then a "beep", and it repeats all 3...? You get that patent and don't forget me, lol...
@@Descriptor413 I will say, The white noise attempt/"Scritch" does get my attention a LOT more that the beeping since I work for a water utility and we are always expanding, so you can hear beeps at almost every plant we work at almost daily, and it becomes easy to ignore. But the combination of the 2 for aural location... That's good.
@@philstuf I just figured the beep and scritch would happen concurrently. The white noise would really just add depth to the sound.
"And get off your phone! For the love of god, you're operating a two-ton death machine! Act like the responsibility it is!" - As a motorcyclist, I strongly endorse this message.
This is why I have my phone act like an MP3 player, so this way I can play music in them. And when not driving, I can do stuff on the phone while in park, or pulled over to the side of the road.
If I had a hammer, need I say more?
Love that the Aztec Pinball is just the table in this. Even with it not being the topic, it really gives me a sense of nostalgia for helping my dad refurbish an Aztec Pinball when I was a teenager.
Moving the desk back and moving the pinball out of the way would be effort
@@Blake-jl8lhand as we all know…
@@firstletterofthealphabet7308 it's no nut November
@@randomsomeguy156Not for me it's not! I think I've outgrown that celebration lol
His neighbors:where’s that truck?🗿
Has me dying at the practical engineer joke 😂
Good I’m not the only one!
Same!
Shout out to Grady!
That line made me more happy than it had any right to.
The practical construction miniseries was great.
I always look forward to these surprisingly-high-effort no-effort-November videos. We get a whole bunch more technology connections in a slightly different style and that's a good month.
The no effort version of Technology Connections is a lot more effort than many other TH-camrs do at their best.
i kinda want an electric/hybrid that makes dialup noises during operation, have one sound that just signals the vehicle has power, a sound for turning right, a sound for turning left, a sound for going forward, a sound for reverse, and maybe even a sound for braking and a sound for hazard indication
In a related manner, Emergency vehicles in some countries have augmented their sirens, as the standard wail echoes a lot and makes it extremely difficult to locate them, so they've been changed to be a "Woo-woo-woo-SPLAT", with the splat being a burst of white noise for better locatability.
I reckon the splat is manually activated by the driver (probably via the horn). At least from what I've witnessed, the siren goes regularly, and when a busy crossing is approached, the driver starts pumping the horn, making that alternate noise, and it is certainly easier to spot.
It's surprising how long that took to be implemented though. I can remember seeing a piece on it on the original version of the BBC's "Tomorrow's World" programme. That went off air in 2000 yet my first recollection of hearing a "staticy" siren is about ten years ago.
There was an ambulance in southern Idaho that had the standard high tone siren, plus one that was a few octaves lower. You could hear that thing for miles, the hospital was about 3/4 mile from my house, and that low tone would make the windows rattle.
Interesting. In the US there's a system called the Rumbler or Howler (depending on the manufacturer). When activated, it adds a subwoofer to the siren that's supposed to be felt as well as heard. It's pretty effective when emergency vehicles are coming up on intersections.
@@PTS1337That's a different thing - This is a modification to the siren that happens all the time the siren is active. woo-woo-woo-splat-pause-woo-woo-woo-splat and so on.
I love this "free-form" version of your videoes. You're witty, and letting yourself loose isnt a bad thing - I also hope that this makes the videoes less taxing (time and effort wise).
Keep in mind it is no effort november here and the regularly scheduled programming will continue in december.
One of the most annoying things about learning to drive for me was how the instructor insisted to NOT use the turn signals, unless there was someone to advise I was about to turn. I just don't get the logic, as if you do something only some of the time you have to think about it, whereas if you do something all of the time then you will never forget to do it as it becomes part of your muscle memory.
Secondly, if a pedestrian is out of your field of view you are potentially denying them warning that you're about to run them over. Its just safer overall to ALWAYS use the signals.
you had a terrible instructor... Mine taught me the opposite
the instructor was wrong! you have to learn to do it at ALL times specifically because you cant at all times know exactly wich cars are noticing you, i even signal when there is NO car in a mile radius..... there MIGHT be some quick moped like right around some corner or whatever
(sorry for the weird caps)
for me the hardest part of learning to drive was learning the stick shift, i live in europe, and here stick shift is the default! it took me like 3 weeks before i finally got the hang of it! but once i got stick shift down, the rest was easy-peasy, passed the test like a week later :)
I was pulled over at 3AM on an empty suburban main street for not using my turn signal. In some states it is the law.
I hope that instructor got fired.
Props for the shoutout to Practical Engineering. He, too, has an amazing channel chock full of great information. I especially enjoy his recent video series where he is hanging around construction sites.
you've conditioned me to get excited whenever I realize a teardown is going to happen, I know it's coming- "And through the magic of buying two of these,". makes me smile every time lol
dammit Pavlov
The white noise generator was used in a novel way alongside cctv cameras where it was required to capture an individuals face, what happened was that the sounder emitted a brief squawk and the intended party to be photographed couldn’t help their reflexes but to look up towards the point of the sound source, thereby showing their face to the camera - ingenious !
Whoa
I hate that!
This is definitely a "using newfound powers for evil" thing.
That is just BRILLIANT!
I never thought of that...
Depends where tho. if it was bank or marked id just toss it to regular noises and ignore it. Fk, last time i was in bank and fire alarms went off, we just finished cash withdrawal with the worker before leaving no rush XD
For a period of several weeks, someone who parked outside (& under) my apartment window was driving a work truck with a backup beeper. I had very violent thoughts. They sucked at backing in to spots, too. Took them ridiculously long.
ive been stuck living next to it 8am to 5pm daily for 3 1/2 years (and counting) from a massive building site and ive had many many thoughts of violence, explosions and various other was to just make it stop! they reverse long distances too co their too lazy to turn around.
Speaking of reverse lights on lock/unlock of GM vehicles, it's actually a setting that can be adjusted in many of them. My Silverado allows you to cycle through certain settings via the gauge cluster screen and a set of buttons beside it. I have my truck's exit lighting set to 30 seconds (down from the factory two minute time). The idea behind it is spot on to what was said in the video. The intention is to illuminate the areas around the vehicle while getting in and out in low light locations.
My Citroën has little downlights in the wing mirrors that perfectly illuminate the ground by the doors so you don't trip.
Works lovely.
They're also adjustable for both time and brightness, which is a nice trick.
The vast majority of these vehicle owners have no idea their car does it, let alone that they can change it. An obnoxious feature.
Many years ago, my uncle and his wife started a prank war with my parents. My Dad, being a longtime mechanic, found a reverse light for their car with an integrated beeper, and sneakily installed it one day when they weren't around. Took them quite a while to figure that one out.
On of the funniest car pranks I've seen was where someone zip-tied a cheap harmonica under someone's front bumper, just out of easy sight.
Some kid was getting on my nerves at work. So Friday at 5, right before my week off, I put a car alarm speaker on the starter solenoid on his yard truck.
Quieter horn tied into the brake lights was frigging hilarious as a teen
@@patcallahan1050 OMG that's EVIL! I love it.
@@MonkeyJedi99that sounds hilarious
Fun story: I’m a UH-60 mechanic with the National Guard and the tug I occasionally drive is the only vehicle I’ve driven with a back-up buzzer. The tug has excellent rear visibility (there’s basically nothing behind the window, which is right behind your head), but the only thing you can see ahead of you is the helicopter. As a result (and because the tow linkage makes it a lot easier), we drive the tug in reverse more than forward when a helicopter is attached. The buzzer, of course, only sounds in reverse, so it is pretty much always on, and shuts off only when you stop or are moving the helicopter in the direction it’s much harder to see. Seems a little backwards, but it satisfies the OSHA requirement (and probably some Army regulation as well).
The most bizarre thing about tugs is that it's a brand name Tug and the damn things are stupidly expensive for what is barely more than a garden tractor without a mower deck option. They also tend to last decades despite being left outside all the time. Nothing like a garden tractor at all.
AR 385-10 army safety program implements 47 CFR (OSHA regulations) for all non military specific workspaces/tasks
Also, greetings from the lazyonics shop
Sounds like OSHA, got backwards backwards but it's ok.
OSHA be trying their best LOL@@petevenuti7355
As a cyclist, I appreciate EVs that have some kind of sound, as they can sneak up on you without your awareness
Same here. I am so used to listening to cars around the corner, that I almost exclusively rely on the sounds to gauge whether I should stop when I approach an intersection with obstructed view.
Now if we can just mandate noisemakers for bikes things will be even better.
@@joshua43214 That's why you have loud hubs 😁
I am only mildly annoyed with e-bikes whizzing past me and surprising me, with a side of a mini heart atack.
Besides, there are bicycle bells. Other than announcing its presence to pedestrians, I can't think of any other reason for a bicycle to make any sounds.
Wait, you are talking about bicycles, right? Not motorcycles?
@@joshua43214and then a bicycle will a need not a one 18650 but like a whole battery pack to keep the noise up for any extended time, unless.. which would be mad cool.. unless we hook up a crank siren to bicycle wheel axles, that would be so cool; also i just remembered, bicycles kinda already have that: the rattle gear or whatever it's called in english, the one which prevents pedals from spinning round when not accelerating, it makes a rattling noise, although it's not loud enough as to be an effective warning thing. as a cyclist, i find rearview mirrors and lights+indicators on my bicycle the biggest addition to mine and people around's safety. i think the automobilists' respect to you is based on how big they perceive you, so if you have good lighting that is comparable to motor vehicles' and makes you look like a motorcycle from afar, then you'll get much better treatment and be visible to peds as well. most cyclists i see have neither lights nor mirrors and certainly no indicators or bells/horns making them dangerous to others when maneuvering and plain invisible at night, and they do love ghostriding at night. although, cars pose a big problem that they blind me and cast shadows over potholes with their headlights unless i use my car-level brightness headlight which can only last for a couple hrs so i have to use it wisely whereas cars have virtually unlimited electricity since everything is hooked up to the big main battery, be car ICE or Elec. thank god governments don't move to ban flashing lights for bicycles (yet)
Yup, and the one inside the car for the proximity alarm so you don't "CRUUUUUNCH!" or "SCRAAAAPE!" the car while parking it.
"Hey ma, that alarm is for the people outside of the car, not the driver." - me (telling mom this when she thinks she can hear the reverse beeps inside the car as the driver)
I had to chuckle when you mentioned the beeper in the Prius. I work (as a mechanic) for Toyota and it's actually a pretty ingenious setup for that specific vehicle. The method in which you "shift" your transmission in a Prius is pretty unique. You move the lever to the selection (like drive, reverse, etc) and then the lever resets back to a neutral position. Thus you don't really have an indication at the gear shifter as to what gear you're in. You can see your selection on the dashboard, but that's the only place. The beeper, which is actually pretty quiet and non-invasive, reminds you that the vehicle is in reverse.
So could have been solved by just giving the Prius a normal gear shifter.
@ewicky ... But it doesn't, which is why there's a quiet beep.
Personally I hate that damn beep. As soon as I got my Prius V a few years ago I went and looked up how to turn that crap off. I'm smart enough to know when I've put my vehicle in reverse and I don't need the car to yell it at me constantly. I suppose having that in a vehicle can help with idiots out there who refuse to pay any attention to their vehicle, but I'm not one of them and I would definitely not appreciate vehicles being equipped with that without an option to just turn it off. And because vehicles now run so much crap through the sound system it likely wouldn't even be as simple as just finding the damn beeper and snipping the wires.
My 2002 Prius has a fairly traditional column shifter. I appreciate that it does not have a beeper for reverse.
As an acoustics consultant it's always nice to hear noise issues being talked about.
Your failed attempt to figure out what the 97 dB was referring to is extremely reminiscent of my daily life trying to model and calculate these kinds of things. The manufacturers will rarely admit what any of their numbers mean. Chances are there's a theoretically standardised test method which specifies how the single number is arrived at, or whether it's a sound power level, but you'd have to be in the testing/design industry to know about that and there's often several layers of interpretation such that those numbers are meaningless outside of comparing two variant products from the same company.
One thing that's worth looking into is the AVAS system implemented on London buses here in the UK as an audible warning system, which took a lot of nice acoustic design and thought to get right and I was peripherally involved in.
As an acoustics consultant you should be aware that international standards specify noise measurements as (A) weighted from a distance of one meter, which makes the "97dB(A)" marking of the device perfectly acceptable and meaningful. This is codified in ISO 9614-3, and is not an obscure or arcane standard, though admittedly it does not guarantee that any specific manufacturer actually performed measurements is compliance with the standard or published the results thereof.
It is easier to pass if you blur the line and just make 100Db of noise instead
Noise pollution galore. why not mandate to lower the volume 1 dB each passing year???????
Wow! I looked up that London Bus AVAS sound and it was so interesting how it was decided upon! So much more thought was put into it than any of the usual systems.
In one of Adam Savage's videos on Tested he was asked about the worst sound from Mythbusters. You would think it would be something gross from an experiment, but in fact it was these things because he would have to spend so much time in close proximity to them. He mentions that disabling these was common practice for them because they were so loud it would cause ear damage.
Rented a boom lift to complete some exterior waterproofing. It beeps anytime anything moves. People inside the office said they had an important meeting and we need to cut the beeping or cut the work for 3 hours. I think “no biggie I’ll hit it with the ol rag and tape.”
My ears rang just trying to find it and my watch picked up 120db. Even after covering it with a rag and duct tape it was loud. Unplug it and the whole machine shuts down. Absolutely ridiculous that I need safety equipment(earpro) to protect me from safety equipment.
I want to disable my microwave's "done" alarm. I don't care that you are done, I just don't want to hear it beep every 30 seconds while I'm still in the bathroom.
@@SuperLordHawHaw truly.
@@SuperLordHawHaw Verily. I'm often right next to the microwave ready to pull the door open at the 1-2 second mark so the damn thing doesn't wake the neighbours at like 4 in the morning when I'm having lunch because I'm working on New York Time when my local physical time is Canberra Time.
@@SuperLordHawHaw I had a microwave oven where you could turn the sound off. I wish all microwave ovens had this option!
We just had roadwork done on the street we live on for five months. Being woken up to the sound of these beepers whenever any of the machinery moved was great fun!
Imagine what it's like for the drivers. I bet they don't hear it at all after a few weeks.
@@theelmonk they've done studies that have shown people who work around those alarms on a regular basis tend to kinda tune them out.
Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your videos. In a way they are so calming, almost meditative yet so fascinating and informative. It makes me feel like I'm a kid again watching a science show on sunday morning
As a Brit, when you played the static sound I immediately recognised it and thought "but I've heard that noise for ages now!" Then you said 10 years and that made sense.
Good to know why that horrible noise is a thing 😅 I always felt like the sound system on all large vehicles was just busted and screaming a strangled statticy noise.
I don't think the static noise is mandatory here. Plenty of new vehicles just make an obnoxious beeping. The factory beepers on Peugeot Boxer/Citroën Relay/Fiat Ducato vans is particularly unpleasant.
I've heard some drivers in Australia call it the 'dead duck sound'
@@marcusivo I'm reasonably certain dead ducks do not make sounds. Dying ducks maybe, dead ones not so much.
Exactly.
Unfortunately, the European warbler is a huge and deadly miss. It sounds like a distant, busted machine, and DEFINITELY does not impart a sense of " hey, I'm backing up" or even "look out". Please, for safety sake keep the annoying beepers.
In Korea, a lot of trucks use a square-wave rendition of Fur Elise for backup noise generators on basically every truck. It was used for at least 20 years because I remember hearing this in my childhood. They have the same benefit as the white noise generator in that it is easy to locate, since there's plenty of different notes being played to locate with your ears.
And in Japan, there's reverse alarms that say a cutesy "I'm backing up! Please be careful" voice line over and over again, which if you're cynical like me, might be used by terrible drivers to mask their terrible drivers lol.
Neet.
Japanese ambulances have a system to automatically announce through the PA which way the ambulance is going and request that people give way. It's linked to the turn signals and warning lights. The driver of Japanese firetrucks will do it manually though the PA while all the other firefighters hang out of the windows and wave at everyone. Japan has its shit together.
I like that idea. More royalty-free public domain tunes for reverse alarms, please!
Coming Next Week: No-Effort November continues, with Alec spending 35 minutes expounding on whether he has a problem being succinct
Only 35? I was hoping he could do a deep dive into what succintness really is at its core and the history relating to it.
@@zyeborm 7 part video series coming right up!
I agree with you on the lack of brightness in backup lights. I have a 98 Tacoma, I wired up some inexpensive fog lights to the backup lights and mounted them under the rear bumper. It works well.
I replaced my reverse lights with LED bulbs specifically to see better as I live in a rural area. I can also confirm that the white noise reverse alarms are significantly better on construction sites often times we become accustomed to the beeping alarms and just tune them out.
I did the same, even though LED replacement bulbs are illegal in my country.
Meh. If I get pulled over, I have the original bulbs in the glove box to replace them, and I'll happily pay the fine. It's a small price to pay compared to the thousands of times I benefit from them when reversing at night.
I get why it is illegal here to tinker with your car's lighting, though. It prevents people from using bulbs in their headlights that are too bright and dazzling, which is a good thing. Only selected, tested LED front bulbs are allowed and only in a selection of vehicles in which they have been tested. But the reversing lights are rarely used in road traffic and are not so bright and directed that they dazzle others.
i wish i could tune them out. 3 1/2 years and counting on livinb right next a massive building site and theyre driving me as mad today as they were then. i curse the company that put a patent on the white noise ones so the cost is prohibative. theyre certainly not manditory here, oh god do i wish they were.
I find that puzzling, beeping signifies something that I should pay attention to and, at least to my ears, is something easily located.
White noise is just some background noise that might come from a broken radio, definitely file under ignore category. It seems like one of those a bit too clever ideas.
100,000 people or more watched this video within 4 hours.... A video about backup beepers. You are amazing at what you do!
Video description:
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Best ever.
I fucking HATE backup beepers.
Wow, finally an explanation of the 'white noise' reverse alarms! I started hearing them in the US about 5-8 years ago (mainly on construction vehicles) . I always thought it was caused by a damaged beeper, but nope, I guess they are supposed to sound like that!
Exactly the same with me. 😅 Very interesting to know the truth about it, finally.
I first heard them in the past couple years on Amazon vans. Thought it sounded really weird.
@@Patrick94GSR In my opinion, it would be more convenient if those warners would put out "beep-noise-beep-noise-beep-noise" instead of "noise-silence-noise-silence-noise-silence".
That's what I first thought when they started appearing in the UK a decade or so ago.
This was a top notch video. Both the informative nature (I honestly had no idea that they were for illumination) and the jokes involved.
8:32 Since this pedantry may be appreciated: half of all drivers are worse than the MEDIAN driver, not the average. November is no excuse, Alex.
Was searching for this comment^^
Glad someone commented wrt median, although it is possible that half are worse than average (mean) but it depends on the distribution of skill (e.g. normal distribution).
Exactly my thought too :)
It'll be nice to hear "digital angels" as you're being mowed down in reverse, sort of like getting a crash course on this side, before you reach the other! Sweet!
In the 80's I installed one on my van because I thought an audible warning while backing up was better than just a light warning. Not long after that I removed it because people would hear the beep, think I was a commercial van and the company I worked for had lots of money, and intentionally try to slip their vehicle behind mine so I would hit them.
2:46 excellent use of the interrobang in the captions, I applaud you.
The thing irritating me lately is that front turn signals are almost impossible to see! The lights have become too small and not easily visible. To the point that we've starting turning off the daytime running light when the turn signal is active to draw more attention to it
I think that's also done because the daylight lights are just using LEDs now. Use multicolor ones and boom, the daylight light can become a mediocre blinker.
Fascinating, my DRLs *are* my front turn signals, they just change between white and amber as needed.
@@DeadNoob451 That's the right idea, except that they _can't_ use multicolour LEDs because they will light up in the wrong colour when the individual coloured LEDs in each chip start failing. So, there are amber LEDs interspersed with white LEDs. Those two LEDs can still be on the same physical chip (so, technically, a multicolour LED); but, crucially, they do not produce white light by illuminating more than one primary.
There's also the recent trend of putting the back turn signals down low in the bumper away from the main lights. Even worse is the Chevy Bolt/Mini Countryman having giant fake brake lights in the normal place where you expect them to be and the real lights low in the bumper with the reflectors.
I love seeing the TH-cam thumbnails on your screen... Tom Scott, vlogbrothers, and Aging Wheels are all on my screen this week too! It's like we're members in the same cult of distraction!
I love the term cult of distraction and I’m stealing that one. Thank you!
I love Aging Wheels and Tom Scott.
Thanks for the GM shout-out! It's always been instinctive to panic whenever a parked Buick suddenly decided to back out of a spot. But now (meaning: the last 15 or so years), I've gradually warmed up to the idea that it's usually a false alarm!
“And made he that light come on automatically when the car was shifted into reverse, this proved to be really forward thinking.”
I know you won’t, but never change, TC.
in Australia we run the "squawkers" we call them on nearly all our mine vehicle, they don't carry as far as to not disturb the wildlife, and I cant believe you talked so much about JDM beepers but didn't mention Japanese trucks that play music when reversing and audibly say "this vehicle is reversing" and as well as some trucks in japan have indicator alarms that have a voice saying in Japanese "this vehicle is turning" while going through busy suburbs
Fake news, stop lying, Japanese trucks don't say "this vehicle is reversing" when they back up, Japanese trucks say "車が後退している"
@@xp7575so, basically, "this vehicle is reversing" but in Japanese? :)
*tips fedora@@kagenekoUA
@@xp7575a bit of a stretch for a small payoff with that punchline.
@@xp7575 Your news is fake, too. Japanese trucks would never be so impolite and instead say, "車が後退しています" (or, more often I think, "バックします、ご注意ください"). :-)
Some also let you know when they're turning left, since the left side is where pedestrians are more likely to be (Japan drives on the left) and there are more blind spots on the left side. "左へ曲がります."
You timed this one perfectly! My gf and I came across one of those new fangled ones earlier this week and were laughing because it sounded like someone was angrily poking a crow. Good to know it wasn't animal abuse, it was just slightly different ear abuse than normal.
LOL! i've always referred to them as "strangled magpie" alarms.
You laughed, but did you see the vehicle that was backing up, or did you not know what was happening?
The wordplay is absolutely top notch, your best video so far (from what I've watched). Thanks for pointing out the Tom Scott video, since I'm an avid watcher and somehow missed that one. FYI, I owned a 2014 Scion XB in Canada for a few years and it had a normal, full set of backup lights. So perhaps that 2011 model you referenced was a European design, or maybe they fixed it when they did a redesign before the 2014.
Oh boy you must not have watched dishwashers!
New popcorn one is actually insane
the idea of a guy seeing a vehicle backing up and just going "FFUUUUCK, FFUUUUCK, FFUUUCKK" is really funny to me
I've worked in the parking lot of a grocery store bringing the carts back inside, and I must say I'm very grateful for the sound cue from electric vehicles when they're backing up, since I can easily stay clear of them.
What about when they are going forwards?
@@jean-pierredeclemy7032 When they're not in a parking spot I just assume they could move at any moment.
I've heard those white noise reverse beepers, and I always assumed it was because the beepers were broken
I've been hearing the weird reverse alarms from cement trucks near the chemical factory I work at and I always thought it was just a normal reverse alarm that was malfunctioning like a childs toy running out of batteries
I thought the same thing when I heard one on a snow removal vehicle, until I realized that every single vehicle from the same snow removal company sounded the same. 😅
I did too! I even once told a truck driver, "Your reversing beeper is faulty!" I now know different! They're "white noise" alarms!
The backup beep in my dad's Geometry C is a pretty loud beep, but the cool thing about it is that it's actually hooked up to a sensor that tells the car how far away from something it is. That way, when we're backing up, it starts beeping faster and faster as we get closer to the car behind us, or the wall in the parking lot, or whatever it is. Pretty neat trick.
Like some sort of Practical Engineer
One issue I once overheard, is that on construction sites these beeps can be so constant, people stop noticing them at some point. So I'd argue that a bit of variety, but up to a certain standard, is maybe better.
Also known as your mom alarm.
Edit: What you said about glorbis and his neighbor actually happened to me once. We had trucks to load where I worked and the beeper stopped working, so the driver would just repeatedly should "I'M FU&*ING BACKING UP" over and over. We did a lot of dumb stuff like that.
As a kid I remember the mechanical version of these- a series of swinging hammers around a bell mounted on the axle. They were designed to be still and silent when moving forward, but would swing out and strike the bell when the vehicle was in reverse
Putting extremely bright LEDs in reverse lights is a huge help at night. Easily one of the best mods you can do. Also to all GM owners, turn off the surround lighting for the rest of us
If only they knew how 🤔
I really appreciate the timing of your swearing being beeped out at 1:24. Well done! 😂🎉
Oh, that was definitely edited.
@@itsthevoicemanin past blooper clips he's had in videos, he ends up just mouthing words without saying them.
Glorbus is doing a great job.
Your scripting is SOOO good. 😂Thanks for cheering me up!
If he's scripting, it's too much effort
practical engineering is a fantastic channel. his video about the sewage pump is awesome.
On older cars you can install halogen bulbs to make your backup lights brighter, if you don't mind the risk of possibly melting the plastic lens if you leave them on too long. But now with integrated LEDs, you're stuck with whatever the automaker gave you, unless you want to do something drastic like install auxiliary lamp(s) underneath the rear bumper.
Hey Alec, if you really want to de-pot something in the future, I recommend a hot air station that's used for soldering. I have one at work that does 200 to like 800F and it works great for that! I set mine to 275 or 350F depending on how fast I want the potting to change state. I usually then just scrape it away with a small flat-blade screwdriver or metal pick until it's just a circuit board
Just pray you don't run into urethane-based potting compounds. Those are a "cure-type" not a "thermoplastic" type, so they don't melt, they burn.
Techno-archeology 🤔
I'm surprised you didn't mention the original backup alarms. They were mechanical gongs which were bolted to the hub of one of the vehicle's wheels. Inside the gong were pawls which only struck the gong when the wheel rotated backwards.
That seems like something for a month with effort
i like you chest freezer video a lot. videos like that which highlight little engineering efficiencies that save a lot on the electric bill. genuine consumer advice. sure it’s a bit more inconvenient but we are all on a budget
I work at Walmart and our home delivery van has this new fangled white noise beeper thing. It was backing up and a coworker asked me "Why does it sound like that?" And I thought to myself, I don't know but I much prefer it over those super loud high pitched ones. That all happened like 3 days ago and BAM! You made a video about it. Epic.
To be fair, white noise reverse alarms have been in use over 20 years, first appearing around 2001
I used to drive one of those Chinese Morris Garage revival cars and while it sucks in every possible measure, one cool thing it did when put in reverse is play a chime and lower the volume of the radio. It also had a super sensitive reverse alert chime so a car waiting in line behind would trigger it no problem.
Chinese MG's low speed forward warning should be vintage MG first-gear whine.
The GM reverse issue has been a pet peeve of mine for so long and im so glad to hear you finally cover it.
This makes people not take reverse lights seriously, as GM always has the lights on when they arent backing up
As a country dweller I love my exterior gm lighting on my chevy.
It makes finding parking spaces at my university a nightmare
The number of times I’ve sat for a solid minute or two waiting for some goddam GM to back out of a parking spot… especially in a parking garage where you can’t see the front of the car to know there’s literally nobody in the car anymore. Every GM employee involved in coming up with and approving the idea should be fired.
The glance away for a beat after "forward thinking"! You are in top form in this video. Oh, and I just read the description! Brilliant!
You are exactly right about the GM lights staying on when you lock/unlock the car. I live in Montana where there are very few street lights and lots of rural and forested areas. Being able to unlock my truck and illuminate the front and the back for 30 seconds or whatever it is, is very helpful. I also love how trucks still have very large bright reverse lights, especially if you replace them with LED bulbs. Literally just used them last night to see where I was going last night at a forest service cabin when I went to grab something from my truck and forgot my flashlight.
I appreciate having the illumination as well - although usually I find the brake lights are bright enough for me to navigate a dark area. I'm not sure they should always be automatically on though.
My Volvo has a button on the keyfob which turns on the exterior lights while parked, but doesn't illuminate or even flash them by default. (You can also activate the feature by pulling the left stalk after shutting the car off). Also has a couple of little bulbs under the wing mirrors which let you see what you're stepping in while exiting, which is quite nice.
Most GM cars also let you choose how long, if at all, to illuminate the headlights and reverse lights when locking/unlocking the car and after the doors are opened after a run cycle. It’s in the settings on the infotainment
Could not have possibly imagined 25 minutes of content based on back up beepers.
I'd like to see you do a video on the devices that apparently count cars on highways. They're a rubber hose of some sort that stretches across the lanes of the road and a box is usually on the side of the road, chained to a road sign. How do these things work, and how do they "count" cars with multiple sets of wheels?
That would be really cool! If I had to guess, the timing between the wheels could probably help correlate what exactly rolled over them.
They're electric coils, they spot the magnetic field of the steel body of the vehicle. They're usually there to detect whether traffic has tailed back far enough from an intersection to tell the lights that a queue has formed and to switch patterns, so the primary purpose isn't counting it's just to detect whether something metal and vehicle-like is present.
Me jumping on them will not get me a traffic light?
@@Ylyrra not the permanent ones near traffic lights, temporary ones that apparently count vehicles in traffic
@@Ylyrra I caught on to their "trickery" in Left turn lanes. The loop in the lane was 1 vehicle back from the Stop line. So if only one car was turning left it had to wait for the Left signal. More than one Vehicle would get the signal. When no one was behind me as I approached the Left turn lane, I'd stop 1 car back for a while then pull up I'd get the 1st signal to turn..
Back up alarms have two settings for loudness base on the ambient noise level around the vehicle. The louder the noise at the site, the louder the alarm sound. This insures that construction workers hear the alarm and get out of the way of vehicles backing up. As a former truck and heavy equipment mechanic I remember checking to make sure the alarms always worked as it was an OSHA requirement and a damn good safety device. I don't care if anyone considers them obnoxious, they work and save lives!
This channel is a never-ending source of joy. Plus I get to amaze my co-workers with answers to questions they never thought to ask lol
The first several times I heard the white noise beepers, I had no idea what it was; and, therefore, had no idea it was supposed to be warning me of potential danger. They sound like someone spraying compressed air. It was the Tom Scott video that made me realize what it was.
I suppose at least if you can't identify it it's the kind of sound that makes you look for the source
they should just mix them together and make them sound like "shhh-beep shhh-beep shhh-beep"
I feel like the backing up beep is just as unintuitive minus us all knowing what it is from experiencing it, so given enough time the new one will work as well and is at least somewhat less annoying
It took _several_ times before you made the connection? Most people learn after the first time. It gets your attention, makes you look around, and once you identify the source and context you know what to expect in the future.
I thought it was a weird bird from a distance
From my experience working in a grocery store parking lot pushing carts the white noise ones are even harder to locate because they just kinda blend into regular background noise and I don’t even register that there’s a vehicle moving, while the electric/hybrid backup sounds are fantastic at standing out and being noticeable, they’re even better than traditional beepers, Toyota’s reverse is especially noticeable and I can even easily pinpoint it despite being dead in one ear and usually struggling to notice where sounds come from, a thing I can’t do as easily for Hyundai’s sound
" because they just kinda blend into regular background noise"
What kind of fucked up area do you live in that such loud white-noise just "blends in" !?!?
@@ABaumstumpf maybe blends into wasn’t the best word choice, but the white noise, in my experience, is a lot harder to distinguish from background noise than beepers, EV sounds, or even just regular engine noise
...And then inside the store you get someone who actually says beep-beep-beep as they back a cart up. Almost always either a little kid or a parent.
Many emergency vehicles in EU and etc now have white noise sirens. The important thing is that they need cutoffs or variance. A white noise siren that randomly cuts on and off actually makes it way easier to locate. Same with sirens actually - that's why fire trucks descend in pitch all the time.
@@ABaumstumpfIt's called a city.
Technology connections is my favorite TH-cam channel to watch while I’m driving my car.
Talking about the reversing light, one feature i liked and missed the most is side illumination light that turns on corresponding to which turn signal blinks.
My dad's 1992 Toyota Liteace has that feature and is a feature i really appreciated as it illuminate side more than just a headlamp that points forward.
Is like you said as an original function to light the environment at the dark.
Used to be very common for cars to have three turn signals on each side here: front, rear, and one on the side, usually on the front doors. This was because you often couldn't See the front or rear ones from the sides because of how they were mounted.
These days, the usual practice is for the front and rear lights just wrap around the corner of the vehicle so you can see them from the sides instead.
I've seen some vehicles with additional turn signals on the edges of the mirrors. That always seemed especially clever to me. It can be seen from the front, back, and side, and you could also put a little spotlight to illuminate the ground you're about to step out onto.
I'm like 90% sure it's required in at least Europe to have an indicator light on the side of the vehicle. My EU market Volvo has them whereas on my friends' US market car, the holes are just plugged with badges
@@declan2775jup that’s required in the EU. And we don’t need those ugly side markers. This is how you can spot an imported US car, because often you can’t get rid of them without changing the lights.
@@renakunisaki Ram nailed the mirror lighting with the 2019+ models. Incredibly helpful to show adjacent vehicles that you're trying to change lanes (front and rear lights aren't sufficient for this scenario).
Your Rock N Rollercoaster reference at 14:09 was not lost on me. Thanks for another great hilariously educational video.
My 6 speed manual Celica had the reverse beep inside the cabin. It was good, since it was pretty easy to go into reverse accidentally, since it was very similar to first gear. Far left and up vs left and up.
My 6 speed tacoma's reverse is like that too, I've only accidentally gone into reverse once but it was almost a problem. But it only beeps once at the moment when you put it in reverse. I guess that makes sense though as usually I don't sit idling in any gear.
I love your channel so much. It is so interesting to learn how things work, and your jokes are some of my favorite things on the internet. The dead pan delivery is epic.