13 ms·

Now if we could just disable the feature that causes the horn to honk when locking the vehicle with the key fob... As someone who lives on a residential street

• fastball 6y ago
  My car only beeps if I press lock twice.
  • elboru 6y ago
    Some people think that the honk/beep is to confirm that the car got locked and the alarm got activated. So they will press the lock button until they hear the confirmation.
    • cpgxiii 6y ago
      It's not just "think" - some cars specifically beep in different ways depending on lock status. Recent-ish Fords beep once when locked, and beep twice quickly if a door is ajar and can't lock. It also blinks the lights to match, but the sound is much easier to recognize.
      • Spooky23 6y ago
        My Honda demands tribute when you close the rear tailgate. If you fail to provide the attention it demands, mainly waiting for the gate to fully close, it beeps 3 times and unlocks the car. Very helpful feature.
        • dwighttk 6y ago
          Better than my Volvo that would lock the car when you closed the back hatch... even if the keys were in the ignition and the car was running.
    • hoten 6y ago
      But it is a confirmation. If you're far enough away (perhaps you forgot to lock right away), you won't hear the lock mechanism and wont know if you are too far away for the signal to reach. So you wait for a honk.
      • joe-collins 6y ago
        Exactly. Would you trust a computer interface that gave no indication it was responding?
      • fy20 6y ago
        That sounds like a feature looking for a problem... my car flashes the hazard lights when it locks, and I've been able to lock it every time without any problems. I just make sure I lock it when I have visibility of the car.
      • jiofih 6y ago
        Light flashes twice, the mirrors fold. Visible at any distance.
        • onion2k 6y ago
          The curvature of the Earth will stop you seeing the car from about 5 miles (assuming you're 6 feet tall and the lights are 2 feet above the ground.)
          • denni9th 6y ago
            But are you really locking your car from 5 miles away? I doubt the radio in the key will be strong enough for that distance.
            • TeMPOraL 6y ago
              Hold my Pringles while I use the can they came in as a directional antenna.
      • elboru 6y ago
• lscotte 6y ago
  That's a configurable setting off all of the last few cars we've owned. There's no need for any beeping, honking, or anything else when the lights flash, as far as I'm concerned.
• IgorPartola 6y ago
  If you are handy, it shouldn’t be difficult to rewire the car to not do that or even to add a different sound source to confirm lock/unlock. Ironically, any car alarm shop could do it for you for probably not much money.
• coding123 6y ago
  It's not just locking, but unlocking too. And even worse if you need all your doors unlocked, you have to hit the unlock twice. It's not a honk on my toyota, but it's still super annoying for everyone. I end up having to walk to the driver's side door and manually unlocking my car all the time. There isn't a key hole on any other door. This is the price we pay for 0 feedback avenues.
  • finder83 6y ago
    Modern Toyotas, at least my wife's, let you switch between only opening the driver's seat or opening them all. It lets you disable or enable the horn too. https://toyota.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7729/~/is-there-a-way-to-change-the-unlocking-functions-of-the-doors-with-the-smart https://toyota.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7729/~/i...
• arprocter 6y ago
  In the UK this is disabled in the ECU, as using your horn while stationary isn't allowed
  • chrisseaton 6y ago
    > In the UK this is disabled in the ECU, as using your horn while stationary isn't allowed Huh my car app has a 'honk' button that works when stationary, for finding it in car parks. Is that against regulation?
    • BuildTheRobots 6y ago
      Technically a car park would be ok, but the regulations state: A horn should not be sounded when stationary on a road at any time, other than at times of danger due to another vehicle on or near the road. A horn should not be used on a moving vehicle on a restricted road (basically a road that has street lights and a 30mph limit) between the times of 11:30 pm and 7:00 am.
      • dawnerd 6y ago
        Some (all?) US states have similar wordings in their laws as well but I've never heard of it being enforced.
        • rahkiin 6y ago
          Something not being enforced does not mean there might not be a good reason to follow it. Like for being able sleep at night without car honks
          • dawnerd 6y ago
            Totally agree, I never use my horn for that reason.
        • throwaway0a5e 6y ago
          Pretty much everything impolite you can do in a car is illegal under some statute. None of it ever gets enforced regularly because the point isn't 100% enforcement, the point is to have pretext for fishing stops and for stopping people who did something the cop didn't like.
• the_mitsuhiko 6y ago
  Cars in Europe don’t honk on open/close. It’s not illegal but there are some non honk areas and because of that manufactures don’t enable it.
  • johanvts 6y ago
    It is illegal to honk in Denmark unless theres a dangerous situation ahead. Honk any other a time you can be fined about 130€
    • encom 6y ago
      Another dane here: Despite this, the horn is used just as much as a fuck-you-horn as anywhere else. I doubt anyone has ever gotten a fine for it, except maybe if they had been really obnoxious with it next to a police officer.
    • olyjohn 6y ago
      It’s actually illegal in Washington State as well. I’m sure that’s fairly common in a lot of states and countries. But of course it’s also not enforced here.
      • mulmen 6y ago
        I did not know this! I’ll have to dig through the owners manual and figure out how to turn that off. Do you have a link to the RCW?
      • jniedrauer 6y ago
        > It’s actually illegal in Washington State Woah, didn't know this. It's not like it really changes anything when someone lays on their horn while passing me on my bike. But at least I can feel some righteous indignation now.
        • calt 6y ago
          > righteous indignation That's just the default for me while cycling.
• ChrisRR 6y ago
  I've never heard of this happening. It must not be a UK thing
  • bausgwi678 6y ago
    I have a UK Jeep Renegade which beeps on lock/unlock & is not possible to disable - drives me nuts. Various websites online claim it can be disabled in menus which don’t appear for me. The one workaround appears to be putting the car in Dutch mode but the Jeep garage couldn’t do it as they were worried for the computer in other areas. If anyone knows how to work around this I’d be keen to know!
• gnicholas 6y ago
  Although it's not easily discoverable, this is generally a configurable setting. It might involve a combination of pressing the lock/unlock button in the car while holding a button on your fob. Look for instructions in the manual.
  • snu 6y ago
    Thank you for posting this! Looked into it, and on my Nissan, holding the unlock and lock buttons together for 3 seconds turned off the beep! I had assumed that this was a 'feature' that could not be disabled, akin to 80s cars having the requirement to hold the handle up when shutting the door to keep it locked. I have a suspicion that this led to more cars being left unlocked and stolen than it saved people from locking their keys in the car.
    • TeMPOraL 6y ago
      This is no snipe at you personally, as I'm not yet all that good with it - but I'm surprised how nobody ever seems to read manuals for stuff, especially stuff they plan to use on a regular basis, and then live with problems that would never be an issue if they did read the instructions. When I first realized this, I made a decision to always remember to RTFM, and I mean actually read it. Since then, it helped me in many ways. Some random examples: - At one of my previous jobs, there was a proprietary source control / issue tracker / timesheeting system that the customer forced on us. Everyone absolutely hated it, considered it clunky and super confusing. One day by chance I realized there's an user manual in the Help menu, which I read end-to-end. And suddenly, I saw the system as easy to use, quite intuitive, and even somewhat likeable. Did wonders for my job satisfaction. - My ability to use GDB went up an order of magnitude after I read the small book's worth of user manual it ships with. Ever since, I've learned to appreciate Info pages that come with GNU software, and prefer that to skimming man pages. - When we bought our current car, my wife printed out the manual and I read that cover-to-cover too. Discovered a bunch of tiny little features we would've never thought to look for otherwise. At this point, I consider the skill of reading a manual end-to-end to be my little superpower :). And I'm deeply disappointed when a product (be it physical or software) doesn't include a proper user's manual.
• cameronh90 6y ago
  The first time I visited the USA, I was sat in a car park wondering why everyone kept honking. Here (UK), cars are typically silent but some make a small chirp.
• bhandziuk 6y ago
  This drives me crazy about my Acura. I want it to honk so I know the car is locked or so I can find it in a parking lot. Instead it does a tiny muffled whimper that is functionally useless.
  • yason 6y ago
    If the car honks or flashes its indicator lights doesn't mean the car is locked. If one door is slightly open the locks will generally unlock immediately, regardless of the sounds/lights. A more reliable way is to listen to the lock motors click once in unison but not twice. I often push the lock button and just try one door myself before leaving the car.
    • bhandziuk 6y ago
      That's nice if your within hearing of the subtle lock sounds
• Phrodo_00 6y ago
  > A few cars (Acura comes to mind), do a bit better, in that they have a very soft, more pleasant beep instead of honking the horn. A bit anecdotal, but I remember that during the 90s most cars would do this with this alarm. Although thinking about it, it probably had more to do with off-the-shelf/optional alarm systems having their own loudspeaker.
• luxuryballs 6y ago
  2020 Toyotas have all of this configurable, you can disable the beep as well as the light flashes.
• failrate 6y ago
  I've had a Corolla and an Elantra that had configuration to disable the noise during locking. It is usually pretty easy.
  • adventurer 6y ago
    Can confirm at least a few models have had this for more than a few years.
• ars 6y ago
  Mine only honks if it's fully locked - i.e. all the doors are closed. If you leave a door open and lock it it's silent, I guess to tell you it failed. So it's not a useless feature, although it doesn't have to be an annoying honk, a quiet chime would work as well.
  • joefife 6y ago
    My Ford Transit is the other way around (UK). It only sounds the horn if you remote lock it and a door is open, otherwise it's silent.
• kenhwang 6y ago
  > A few cars (Acura comes to mind), do a bit better, in that they have a very soft, more pleasant beep instead of honking the horn Pretty much all the European cars and luxury cars only use the horn on repeated lock button press and have a chirp for first/routine lock/unlock. It's really the economy cars that primarily use the horn (presumably for the cost savings of not having a separate lock confirmation chirper)
• m463 6y ago
  I've always wondered about this trend. If there is a feature that is "important" you get it whether it is appropriate or you want it. Keyfobs have the beep feature (except tesla). car trunks and doors close with a beep. Flashlights get the blinky-mode feature (except blf lights). Too bad non-touchscreen controls have not been important enough.