Design Concept: Emotive Car Horn
THE INTRODUCTION
I think I need to come out and say that first of all, I don’t own a car. I use them from time to time, but I find something slightly off-putting about automotive culture in general, and something fundamentally wrong with the fabric of cities that come out of our exaggerated car-centric society. Still, I need to interact with cars every day, and couldn’t avoid them if I tried.
This concept was inspired by a situation I’m sure many of you have been in. I was in a rental car, stopped at a light on a dark night. I saw a friend on foot crossing the street right a little ways in front of me. I tried gently tapping the horn, in hopes of making a friendly little beep. Instead, the car spewed out an angry-sounding honk, and the friend of mine, not knowing who I was, promptly gave me the finger.
THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Drivers, for the most part, are largely anonymous to the other drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists they interact with. On foot, if you cut someone off or act rudely, you risk being in a direct confrontation. In a car, you’re not only usually shrouded from view, your only methods of communication are essentially your horn, flashing your lights, or revving your engine. All are ambiguous at best, aggressive at worst. I’m sure I’m not alone in asserting that driving does not bring out the best in people.
There are a lot of things you often can’t express while driving. You can’t say sorry for a mistake, you can’t say hello, and yes, sometimes you can’t express the anger you wish you could.
MY DESIGN
This concept takes the idea of the horn but multiplies it. In this case there are three horns which each make a different sound. The goal being to provide the driver with multiple ways of expressing themselves through series of short, musical tones.
Happy: Plays happy notes, useful for saying hello or “after you”.
Sad: Apologetic notes, useful for saying sorry.
Angry: Says what sometimes needs to be said.
As an alternate idea, I would try making the angry button much smaller than the other two, in hopes that people would only use it when they really had to.
The driver will likely never be able to express themselves as clearly as they would while walking or biking, but the goal is to provide them with better communication tools than they have.
CONCLUSION
In the end, this is more of an art piece than a true design concept. I have not looked into the legal or technical limitations, nor do I know if it would have any real impact if put in the real world.
Driving has come to be an awkward hybrid of a public and a private space. In many ways, it borrows some of the worst qualities from each one - you interact with many people, but in a way that’s anonymous and unpleasant. This is no magic bullet, but hopefully gets people thinking about the way that drivers interact with the world around them.
Tags: Design, Design Concept, Society, Transport, Urban
September 24th, 2008
at 11:47 am on September 24th, 2008
Neat idea but I would make the “angry” button take up maybe 80% of the space and call it the “danger” button - alerting others to dangerous behaviour (yours or theirs) is the primary purpose of the horn and I think for safety reasons you want that to be the primary button. This way an instinctive or panicked horn press results in a loud/alarming sound and a more thought out process is needed for the other two functions. Another way to go would be to make it pressure sensitive - the harder the press the more alarming the tone.
at 1:16 pm on September 24th, 2008
I’ve been in exactly the situation you described. I rolled down my window, and shouted “Hey, Neale!” while waiving. This worked fine for me. Perhaps the right approach there is to make the person driving more visible, not to make the car more expressive. Maybe with something like an extra bright dome light that’s easy to toggle on when you want to be seen…
at 9:42 pm on September 24th, 2008
This is in no way related to your neat horn idea, but I thought you might like to be made aware of this:
“The word ‘phwoar’ - meaning an ‘expression of enthusiastic or lubricious approval’ - has gained official entry to the English language, appearing in the pages of the latest Oxford English Dictionary of Modern Slang.”
at 5:02 pm on September 25th, 2008
As I mentioned, this is almost more of an art project than a serious design, and I think that should help frame what I’ve done.
JP - I agree, and I had that in mind, it just didn’t get into the write-up. The main front of the steering wheel (where the horn usually is) would create the usual “alert” horn sound. The frowny-face would create a clear “I’m disappointed in you” sound.
Vincent - I agree with you too. That situation I described was merely the catalyst for the idea. I’ve had lots of other experiences with cars, whether on foot, on bike, or driving myself, where there was not a good chance to do so. And yes, making the driver visible would be a huge help.