Honk if you appreciate the subtle science behind car horns
They can’t be too loud or too wimpy
Automakers are trying hard to keep customers from becoming honking mad about the tone and loudness of their car horns. But as drivers around the world are finding out, not all beeps are created equal. Even the most powerful car can see its image suffer if it has a wimpy car horn. Conversely, in cities awash in noise and bustle, loud honking only contributes to the din. No one knows the dilemma better than Pat Seashore, an engineering supervisor at Ford Motor. (click below to read more)
She is charged with trying to balance the demands of keeping horn choices simple for the global automaker yet trying to get just the right honk for each market. Seashore finds that preferences for horn loudness — and even the way they are used — vary widely around the world. The humble horn, in fact, serves a multitude of purposes. Horns aren’t just used as a warning. They can serve as a friendly alert in traffic. Or a way of coaxing your late kids out of the house for the drive to school in the morning. “Horns are tremendously important,” says horn czar Seashore. “The horn is a communication device. You alert someone that something is happening.” But no one can seem to agree on exactly how a horn should sound or how loud it should be. Consider a few recent examples. •Too soft. Hyundai’s 2011 Sonata is a hit, but the automaker had to scramble last year when the flagship sedan was deemed to have a “wimpy” horn, says spokesman Miles Johnson. “Sonata came out with this wimpy horn, and they got a lot of feedback right away,” he recalls. “It wasn’t powerful enough.” Users made unflattering comparisons to bicycle or moped horns. A new, more robust horn was quickly substituted for what in April was the nation’s eighth-best-selling car. •Too loud. In designating a modified Nissan van as New York City’s “Taxi of Tomorrow,” the Taxi and Limousine Commission decreed that the NV200 taxi must have “a low-annoyance horn.” In addition, an interior light must flash when the button is pushed, in part to help police catch illegal honking. “We want a horn that can do its job but want to discourage honking when it is not necessary,” says New York Taxi Commissioner David Yassky. Nissan’s response: Such a horn can be designed, but it hasn’t been done yet. “We haven’t gotten that far yet,” says spokesman Steve Oldham. Ford, which lost to Nissan in its bid to become the official New York taxi, knows what it’s like on the front lines of horn controversies. Seashore says there are different requirements in the many countries where Ford sells cars. For instance, in European Union countries, South Korea and Japan, horns are required to be at least 93 decibels. That’s more than a lawnmower engine (90 db) but less than a loud motorcycle (95 db), according to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders. Even though the U.S. doesn’t have a minimum level for horn noise, Ford tries to keep it at about 94 to 95 db because many of its models are exported to the countries that might have the requirement, Seashore says. And don’t expect the sound to be pleasing. The two-note horn heard in Ford’s trucks and larger cars is a combination of roughly the G and B on a keyboard. It’s “more of the dissonant sound” that’s not terribly pleasing to the ear, she says. Horns are getting fancier, however. Though the device itself remains electro-mechanical — as it has for years — it is often now tied into the car’s sophisticated engine computers. In Europe, horns don’t just honk, but are being given capabilities like a staccato of friendly chirps or other gentle warnings that could come with a quick press of the horn button. To stay clear of the horn noise issues, Ford is taking steps to make sure that the toot the horn makes when a driver uses the remote to lock the car, for instance, is far softer than if it is honked as a warning to another driver. “Horns serve their purpose,” Seashore says.
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