Re:Please make a dumb car
by throwaway0a5e on Monday January 31, 2022 @01:08PM
(#30151561)
They don't give you a massive "hey WTF, stop doing that!" button for you to not use it in blind religious adherence to a shallow rule of thumb or misguided attempt at politeness.
People with your attitude toward horn use likely cause substantial harm to society through fender benders, delays, frustration, etc, etc.
I think I can maybe count on one hand the number of times I've had to move out of a lane lest someone merge into me. The times that situation has been prevented through horn use are innumerable. And that's just one example.
The only accidents I can imagine the horn preventing are ones where you are stationary, which almost always means the other car is moving slowly - like somebody backing into you in a parking lot. Overall pretty low consequence incidents.
So to the extent that horn use is nearly all elective rather than emergency, is antisocial and has few benefits: make it a small, hard-to-reach button.
(With important exceptions like heavy vehicles that can't maneuver well and non-Western driving cultures that rely on routine horn use to communicate intentions.)
[0] Granted aircraft have an extra dimension to play in for collision-avoidance. [1] https://slate.com/technology/2008/11/honk-if-you-know-why-yo...