„(two rapid horn beeps)
– That is what I call the courtesy honk.
I just pushed this custom button
(two rapid horn beeps)
and it’s two super quick chirps of the horn
that are not only friendly sounding,
but it’s intentionally not as loud as a normal horn.
So I’m gonna show you how and why I did this
and in the process I’ll explain what this red button does.
<...>
1.3 million people die in car crashes per year.
So you really wanna be able to
communicate with other drivers if you wanna stay safe.
When you think about it, cars only have
two built in ways to communicate with each other.
You got your turn signal,
and your horn,
and the turn signal is fine.
But the problem with the horn is that
it’s so one dimensional.
It’s like if your only tool is a hammer
it’s really good at one thing
but it sucks at everything else.
And I don’t know about you,
but now that pretty much everybody owns a smartphone,
99% of the time I use my horn
I’m not trying to avoid a crash,
I’m trying to let the person in front of me know
it’s time to stop reading that text they just received.
And that’s the issue, I’m not upset.
I just want to be like, hey dude, the light’s green.
No big deal.
And this might come as a surprise because I drive a Jetta
but I’m not some hardcore, angry, road rage, tough guy.
But even this Jetta, which has just about
the most emasculating horn possible
sounds angry when you honk it at a light.
And if you try and do a nice quick honk
it doesn’t usually register
because it bottoms out too quick.
So I just push my custom made courtesy honk button.
(two rapid horn beeps)
And because it’s so non-confrontational
<...>
And this works for communicating
in a lot of situations, not just at stoplights.
Like if someone is just sort of drifting in your lane
you’re not sure if they see you or not
but you don’t want to use your big horn.
Or, if you just want to get someone’s attention
to tell them something.
If someone needs to move forward in traffic
or in a drive-thru, it’s nice
because you don’t wanna seem like a jerk
as they can look right at you in their rear view mirror.
You can even use it as a way to say thank you.
And I kind of feel like this should be
a standard feature on all cars.
So you still have your big horn that you can’t miss
in the case of an emergency.
But there should be a smaller button right over here
for the courtesy honk.
But the good news is that as an engineer
if something isn’t exactly how you want it
you can just make it exactly how you want it.
<...>
I also added one more sound effect
that’s powered by this button.
(digital beeping)
This is designed to be even one notch nicer
than the courtesy honk if you want to be super chill
and grab the attention of a pedestrian
who isn’t even in a car.
So that’s my pitch, to make our roads more pleasant
by increasing the vocabulary of the standard car horn.
And now you can do it yourself.
Which leads me to this final button
which is only to be used in extreme situations
like when two teenagers are taking their sweet time
to cross the street in front of you while fidget spinning.
(low fog horn blowing)
(Mark laughing)“