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Škoda DuoBell: A bicycle bell that penetrates noise-cancelling headphones
- andrewshadura 6mo agoThe problem with headphones is not noise cancellation. It’s the fact they play music. My regular Widek bell penetrates ANC, but when there’s music, ANC or not, it’s hard to hear. I’m struggling to believe the claims this bell is going to be significantly better.
- croemer 6mo agoIf this bell gets through ANC then yes it will help people with ANC. It's not an all or nothing situation, you hear it further away for each increase in loudness. Also, ANC let's you reduce your music volume for the same signal to noise ratio.
- 9dev 6mo agoEvery single person that stops and looks due to this is a win in my book.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- andrewshadura 6mo ago> In real-world trials conducted on the streets of London in February, in cooperation with Deliveroo couriers, the bell proved so effective that couriers expressed a desire to keep it. Of course they would, because a lot of them either don’t have any bell, or have a shitty ping-ping bell that doesn’t produce good sound.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 6mo agoOr could sell it on eBay for an amount of money that's nontrivial from POV of a gig economy worker.
- yigalirani 6mo agonice but it wont help with isolating earbuds
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- criemen 6mo agoPretty cool if true!
- eamag 6mo agoIs it available for sale?
- croemer 6mo agoVideo version which has more detail than the text: https://youtu.be/zDaVPfpQvPI?is=sSyjXf07r9cg9r4Y https://youtu.be/zDaVPfpQvPI?is=sSyjXf07r9cg9r4Y Bit cringe marketing though.
- jeroenhd 6mo agoI find the "Heard five seconds earlier, the difference between a serious collision and stepping aside" take hilarious. As if there is no other way to prevent a collision in five seconds other than the pedestrian getting out of the way. As much as I get the urge to plow through pedestrians on bike paths (and stay proudly in the way of bikes on pedestrian paths), in real life, normal people don't do that kind of thing. Bikes have brakes for a reason.
- croemer 6mo agoBut if you go at 40km/h the time goes down to one or two seconds!
- Alex_L_Wood 6mo agoYeah, this while video I honestly couldn’t stop chuckling because it’s built on assumption that bicycles somehow either can’t brake at all or will take five business days to brake like a freight train. Though looking at Berlin cyclists the assumption seems to be true - so many of them insist on just plowing headfirst into an obstacle instead of braking that I start to think that the video was made by one of such cyclists.
- laweijfmvo 6mo agoabsolutely filled with misleading "science" and outright lies, so they can charge a premium for a bell.
- Oras 6mo agoOver engineering in real life, solving lack of common sense by introducing a solution where the cyclist is paying. I think the solution is nice for sure, but solving the wrong problem.
- fnands 6mo agoEh, it's pragmatic. It's replacing a problem you can't solve (human stupidity), with one you can (a better bell).
- paganel 6mo agoWhy can't the cyclists slow down when they see that there's a human obstacle in front of them?
- bdavbdav 6mo agoIn the roads near my office (central London), which are seldom used by cars, several pedestrians at a time very often walk down the road or diagonally cross the road head in phone. You can get very close and the still don’t notice (the slower you are, the quieter you become so even less likely to hear you). I’m not sure arguing against a bell is helpful - people need to look on any road, especially with the advent of quiet electric cars.
- paganel 6mo agoSure is helpful, because it goes like this: pedestrians first -> then cyclists -> then motorists. You may notice that in this worldview (one which I find very hard to argue against) cyclists should give priority to pedestrians, no questions asked. I don't care about fancy bells or whatever, no-one takes those into consideration even when we (us, pedestrians, that is) can hear them because, and I repeat, cyclists are not as important as pedestrians are.
- tpm 6mo agoYou may not care about fancy bells but you will care about loud honking close to your ears in my very recent experience from the streets of Shanghai. You don't have absolute priority just because you are a pedestrian. > Why can't the cyclists slow down when they see that there's a human obstacle in front of them? Because if the space is limited and they actually want to get somewhere, they just don't have time for that? And slowing down often means stopping and causing a traffic jam. Note that I mostly agree with what you wrote (and I give priority to pedestrians when I'm riding my bike) but there are different situations that have to be taken into account.
- rmoriz 6mo agoReminds me of old Reich bells http://reich-cycle-bells.de http://reich-cycle-bells.de and their „Trillerwerk“ (trill sound)
- leni536 6mo agoSo it's tuned to a specific frequency at 780Hz? And that defeats all/most ANC?
- KeplerBoy 6mo agoThat's the interesting bit. Is this a known / agreed upon feature of ANC headphones or just a property of a specific iteration of let's say airpods?
- ai_slop_hater 6mo ago[flagged]
- andrepd 6mo agoAgreed. Make bike paths and people cycle on bike paths. Crazy stuff I know!
- Faaak 6mo agonot all of them do
- JensKnipper 6mo agoWhat if they are shared?
- madjam002 6mo agoA lot of footpaths in Europe are designated paths that are shared with cyclists
- crooked-v 6mo agoWell, sure, as soon as infrastructure exists so the alternative isn't "get run over by a homicidal driver". And actual infrastructure, not painted lines that typically get filled up with double-parking cars.
- 9dev 6mo agoI don't know where you're from, but in Germany for example, there are countless situations where cyclists and pedestrians share the same space, or pedestrians can (or just do…) cross bicycle lanes. I'm a very law-abiding cyclist since witnessing a few horrible accidents, and yet I encounter situations with headphone-wearing pedestrians regularly. Often I'll ring my bell to no avail, until driving right up to them, and they still won't hear me. This is really frustrating; I'm definitely in the market for this.
- ai_slop_hater 6mo agoI am aware that most countries do not have dedicated roads for cyclists, but that doesn't mean that cyclists should be using sidewalks. When I go out and walk on the sidewalk, I expect to be able to just walk safely without having to think about potential riders of bicycles or other things that people ride on sidewalks.
- dbg31415 6mo agoJust when you thought interacting with cyclists couldn't get any more annoying... introducing the Škoda DuoBell! New from Mattel!
- fnands 6mo agoFor a moment I thought this was an April fools joke product. Pretty cool though!
- maartenh 6mo agoSame here, surprised that only you mentioned it here.
- cool-RR 6mo agoBegun, the noise-cancelling wars have.
- mememememememo 6mo agoI need a noise canceller canceller canceller.
- laydn 6mo agoNext challange: Place a camera in front of the bike that scans approaching pedestrians. Calculate their head position and trajectory. Use directional speakers and focused sound beams to focus the ~780Hz sound towards the head(s) of the pedestrian(s). Now that you are not bothering the environment as much, you can increase the volume as well.
- wateralien 6mo agowhat
- mememememememo 6mo agoSound beam aimed at person in the way.
- wateralien 6mo agoBell costs more than the bike is ok?
- mememememememo 6mo agoBike is optional extra
- codethief 6mo agoI would love that but not so much for pedestrians as for cars that don't see me on my bike. Ideally, the "bell" would automatically honk at them very loudly when they get too close.
- throw83940449 6mo agoI carry air horn and stick. But I am pedestrian.
- Topfi 6mo agoIt is amazing they openly shared their findings [0], but one thing I am missing is what this design would cost if put into mass production. To the biggest layman possible, it reads like while the design is clever and would be more expensive by virtue of more materials/size alone, it's not impractical, but maybe someone more informed on this type of manufacturing can correct my ignorance. If that's the case, hopefully we'll see these designs on the market soon as even with music+ANC, I have found certain sounds to be able to easily penetrate through when listening, though that is purely subjective and I don't have my music earbleedingly loud... [0] https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Research-final_cf127752.pdf#s_aid=xdkxslg3-3ozv-5zzo-f4pp-ey8rwxm3b0fl_004_1 https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Resea...
- lwansbrough 6mo agoThat can’t be aero. On a serious note there’s a marketing problem in my view: who out there who chooses to buy a bell even considers that their might be a loudness problem? It’s not immediately obvious that I need this and I’m sure there’s a premium price attached.
- eru 6mo agoI bought a nice ding dong bell for my bike, and pedestrians seem to notice it a lot more than the nastier sounding bells.
- tossandthrow 6mo agoPeople don't tend to wear anc headsets when walking the Forrest. Maybe the issue is the noise in the cities?
- eru 6mo agoSome people wear them there.
- tossandthrow 6mo agoAs perfectly captured in "don't _tend_ to ..."
- gsinclair 6mo agoThere’s more than one issue. It’s not wrong to try to solve one of them.
- Etheryte 6mo agoA reminder that a gun [0] would also work as a bicycle bell that works despite noise-cancelling headphones. [0] https://xkcd.com/1217/ https://xkcd.com/1217/
- ahmedfromtunis 6mo agoI think it's time for some sort of a safety standard for a sound frequency to be reserved exclusively for alarm/alert use and that ANC systems have to let through. It goes without saying, use of said frequency should be prohibited for other purposes, especially marketing.
- gozzoo 6mo agoas soon they do that all kind of companies will start abusing it, for example the sound of all smart phone notification will use exactly that frequency
- Ilikesoda112 6mo agothis sounds like an amazing idea, the govt should introduce laws so that the companies do this
- zielmicha 6mo agoI think this is a really bad idea unless paired with some regime that penalizes inappropiate use of alarms - and most societies don't treat noise pollution as a real problem. For example, people honk all the time even when there are no safety issues. Or have misconfigured home/car alarms. Outlawing using ANC for blocking "fake alarms" only makes the problem worse.
- 47282847 6mo ago> some regime that penalizes inappropiate use of alarms Legally, use of horns in traffic is restricted, and abuse can be punished. Doesn’t keep people from honking all the time.
- apothegm 6mo agoIt’s thoroughly unenforced, which is the problem. Tho I like the proposal to require that manufacturers design car horns to sound as loudly inside the cabin as outside. Might make a dent.
- soco 6mo ago
- random_savv 6mo agoWhere can I buy this??
- linzhangrun 6mo ago[flagged]
- KeplerBoy 6mo agoIt is of course prohibited in many jurisdictions. it's just not enforceable.
- fnands 6mo agoThis is more aimed to warn pedestrians who wear ANC headphones. Should people be prohibited from wearing headphones while walking?
- BLKNSLVR 6mo agoIf they're walking on a pathway that's shared with bikes and other wheeled transport of speeds greater than walking, then yes.
- distances 6mo agoIn effect they are, even if not directly. There are requirements to stay aware of your surroundings. If you cause an accident by blocking all sounds, I totally can see insurance companies claiming this is your own responsibility and refusing to cover.
- ewidar 6mo agoIt's not about the cyclists wearing ANC headsets (which is already prohibited at least in Euro countries), but about pedestrians wearing them. Another problem altogether.
- phantomathkg 6mo agoIt is pedestrian who are wearing the ANC to remove the noise outside.
- bdavbdav 6mo agoI always hate having my headphones on ANC on the street. It makes me feel really exposed and disconnected. I tend to use transparency when out and about.
- codethief 6mo agoSo where can I buy this thing?
- lifestyleguru 6mo agoLiving in a city you cannot stand so much that you wear noise cancelling headphones at all times. Commuting to work that you hate and manoeuvring between zombies looking at their phones, wearing noise cancelling headphones, and occasional cars recklessly opening doors or joining the traffic without looking in the mirrors. You even forgot the original goal of saving money because the rent eats 50% of the net salary and work eats every will to live. Here it is - the fruit of your glorious education and mean by which your mortgage is paid is bicycle bell. Thanks for reminding me to stay away from this miserable mess.
- sdevonoes 6mo agoI’m more afraid of cyclists than of cars. I know exactly where the road starts and end, I know there are traffic lights drivers and pedestrians usually respect, so it’s very unlikely that I can get hit by a car. And Im talking about myself, not about the average person (I know stats may say otherwise) But cyclists can ride in the pedestrian lane, bike lanes and pedestrians lanes are not easily distinguishable (if you are visiting a new city/country for example, and/or the painting of the lanes disappear over time) compared to roads, you typically can hear cars/motorbikes coming (though with electric cars that’s less common) while bikes are very silent, and last but not least, typically there is certain hierarchy when it comes to cars and pedestrians (at least in Europe): pedestrians come first. That’s not the case with bikes (which based on my experience, they share the same level of importance with pedestrians in the streets)
- lifestyleguru 6mo agoMore or less at the time when electric bicycles weighing over 20kg and moving over 30kmh started to drive on sidewalks, I started to avoid living in big cities.
- mememememememo 6mo agoIntentionally deaf people hate this one trick.
- ulbu 6mo agoi’m on airpods pro 3, and it’s far from producing noise-cancellation so powerful as to require such measures. perhaps if I’m listening to heavy music at ear-damaging levels. maybe my hearing is too sensitive.
- gib444 6mo agoI've noticed some trains are playing extremely loud announcements (Elizabeth line for example) which makes me think they're trying to penetrate headphones and earphones Guess why I wear noise cancelling headphones on trains? Because of the excessive announcements! (I mean seriously excessive. Because in the UK the answer to everything is to create another announcement or poster) We need to stop the arms race
- patates 6mo agoDraw a line, say this is for bicycles, pedestrians and cars have no business here, and bikes have no business being on any other lane as long as these exist. When bikes have to go through areas where people walk freely, they need to limit their speed to a walking pace. People should not wear headphones (noise-cancelling or not) when going through traffic as pedestrians. Take them off when crossing! People should not hear loud music when driving - max is normal speaking voice level. Bike drivers should never hear any music, let alone wearing headphones. Behind-ear speakers on low could be a compromise. Hey, we just solved 90% of the accidents.
- jojobas 6mo agoIf "shouldn't" worked we'd have no industrial accidents without any safety measures, no unwanted pregnancies and in general would more or less achieve heaven on Earth.
- soco 6mo agoThis only leaves open how to enforce all of it without everybody shouting domestic terror.
- wizzwizz4 6mo agoHow do we enforce seatbelts? (1) Assume the public aren't stupid. (2) Assume the public aren't murderers. (3) Explain the risk-benefit analysis through informative videos like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_(1998_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_(1998_film). People can shout "domestic terror" all they like, but if it's not true, it's not true.
- broken-kebab 6mo agoYou are answering different question. What you are saying is called awareness campaign or something. Enforcement of seatbelts is done by police with fines/tickets and is possible cause it's visible from outside. Other things like loudness levels inside cars cannot be monitored without going in full totalitarian mode.
- PunchyHamster 6mo agoOh great, cyclist gonna annoy me even in headphones
- 0x3f 6mo agoDo horns and bells really prevent accidents? In order for e.g. a horn to work you need enough time that the driver processes the situation and decides the horn will communicate something AND enough time for the pedestrian or whatever to process that and react to it. Generally it's a lot easier just to press the brake, and more importantly be travelling at a speed and in a manner where the brake is sufficient. Structurally, we'd be much better off reducing conflicts between the different tiers of users. I.e. properly segregated infrastructure for each class of vehicle.
- eigenspace 6mo agoA horn or bell is mostly for telling other people "hey I'm here, stay out of my way and dont suddenly cross into my path" My opinion as a cyclist is that I should basically only be using my bell on pedestrians when the pedestrians are wandering onto the bike lane. If im cycling through a shared space, I find it extremely rude to ring the bell, because it feels like I'm telling people to get out of my way, but they have just as much right to a shared path as I do. Some cyclists ring their bells because they're worried a pedestrian might suddenly turn into their path, but I think if one is concerned about that, it's a sign youre cycling too fast, and should just slow down. With cars, I will sometimes proactively ring my bell at them if I think they're not sufficiently aware enough of me though.
- ndsipa_pomu 6mo ago> With cars, I will sometimes proactively ring my bell at them if I think they're not sufficiently aware enough of me though. There's only a few types of car that will be "aware" of cyclists and I don't think ringing a bell will help their algorithms. Getting the attention of a driver, meanwhile, is difficult with a bell as often they'll be in a semi-soundproof cage with loud music on. (Also deaf drivers are a thing). I've never really considered using a bell for motorised traffic. I did once buy a loud air-horn, but it was so loud and abrasive that I never used it as it seemed really rude.
- eigenspace 6mo ago
- Alifatisk 6mo ago> Its a simple analog solution to a digital problem That's such a beautiful statement
- madsohm 6mo agoThis bell would be illegal in Denmark, where our laws clearly state that you are only allowed one signal giving device and that any signal giving devices attached to vehicles (including bikes) can only produce one constant sound. How this would be enforced is a different topic.
- _diyar 6mo agoReally? I would have guessed you could argue that it qualifies as „one signal giving device“ since it is one single piece of equipment (ie the horn in a car also has many parts, but it‘s presumably fine) and also that it „only produces one constant sound“, where that sound is composed of different frequencies (again, car horns probably don‘t have a pure tone in Denmark either, right?).
- matsemann 6mo agoNot entirely the same in Norway, but the rule as written is roughly translated "Sound signal: A bike should have a bell. Other signalling devices are prohibited". Doesn't stop me from using an AirZound or digital airhorn. Saved me countless times. Like a bell is heard by a driver blasting their stereo while checking their phone, slowly veering into the cycle lane.
- tokai 6mo agoNon of those laws are enforced, ever. Even if you get stopped by police. When have you last seen a bike with all the mandetory reflectors?
- lxgr 6mo agoThis is amazing. Would be great if emergency vehicle sirens could also adopt these findings. I feel like they're beyond painfully loud these days.
- ape4 6mo agoI have noticed I can make a less sharp sound with my bike bell by ringing it a certain way. I use this to let pedestrians know I am coming but that they don't have to jump out of the way.
- afandian 6mo agoCool idea. But bizarre that they worked with Deliveroo. Bike bells were designed for a time when cyclists travelled at speeds where you could safely get out of the way. Most "independent" cyclists do cycle safely. But delivery riders for delivery platforms commonly use illegally modified e-bikes. Platforms have the GPS data. They must know. They could make huge improvements in safety by actively preventing the use of illegally modified e-bikes that travel too fast.
- WastedCucumber 6mo ago>They could make huge improvements in safety by actively preventing the use of illegally modified e-bikes that travel too fast. Or by regulating bicycle food delivery services so thatheir employees' continued employment and wage magnitude doesn't hinge quite so thoroughly on how rapidly they deliver.
- afandian 6mo agoYes, absolutely that. I nearly put a passive aggressive "employees" in my post, but that would mix concerns. But having drivers as "contractors", and dodging employers' responsibilities and liabilities, is really the root of this all.
- croemer 6mo agoFun fact: Škoda means "pity" or "damage" in Czech, can also be used as "what a shame". Happened to be the company founder's surname.
- Markoff 6mo agoit is quote common family name in Czechia, my daughter's classmate has this family name as well same with most of the Japanese car brands or even Citroen, Peugeot...
- upofadown 6mo agoSeems to be some misunderstanding of what bike bells are for here... A bell is helpful in a situation where a pedestrian is not aware of an approaching bike. The bell informs the pedestrian of two things: 1. That there is an approaching bike. 2. Roughly were the bike is approaching from. The hope is that the pedestrian will then behave in a predictable way to allow a safe pass by the bike. In almost all cases the pedestrian will be able to simply continue doing what they were doing before they heard the bell. If a pedestrian can not hear bike bells, for whatever reason, that is not a problem. They can just stay consistent with the centreline of the path/road/way. They then have a responsibility to shoulder check when shifting from side to side.
- chimpanzee2 6mo agoNot sure I understand your criticism. Yes, bike bells are for pedestrians to hear. Problem: Pedestrians today wear ANC noise cancelling, thus being unable to hear approaching bikes' bells. Skoda: We made a bell with a frequency usually not cancelled by ANC, so these pedestrians still hear it. Sounds reasonable to me.
- dzhiurgis 6mo ago750 Hz. Baby crying sound is around 300-400 Hz and let me tell you my airpods pro definitely let me hear the baby cry. I think Apple built that as an obvious safety feature. Interestingly, all the shrillness noises (chalkboard, balloon or polystyrene screech) are in similar frequency too.
- dasKrokodil 6mo agoIt's mildly interesting, but ultimately it's just a little greenwashing project. They even painted it green to make that clear :)
- throw83940449 6mo agoI carry air horn. Great for dogs and aggressive cyclists. Pedestrians have no obligation to jump into ditch, to clear walking path for speeding cyclists!
- WastedCucumber 6mo agoIn Germany we have rules, and one of those rules is that pedestrians on the sidewalk who are in the cyclepath (usually a too-subtle red stone) do, in fact, have to get out of the way for cyclists. I imagine there's also a rule about directing airhorns against law abiding cyclists.
- throw83940449 6mo agoI am quite often in Germany. Red stone in Germany is cycling path, not general walk path where cyclists are not allowed. Air horns are generally allowed upto 105 dB. Peper spray, telescopic batons and other similar devices are illegal. I also carry walking cane.
- wolvoleo 6mo ago> In Germany we have rules, and one of those rules is that pedestrians on the sidewalk who are in the cyclepath (usually a too-subtle red stone) do, in fact, have to get out of the way for cyclists. Yeah that's the problem, it's often too subtle and hard to notice. That's why bike lanes should be dedicated with a stone barrier/kerb, or bikes should just not be allowed there.
- BrtByte 6mo agoThis is one of those ideas that sounds a bit like marketing fluff at first, but the underlying problem is actually very real
- mc7alazoun 6mo agoI genuinely had a similar thought a few days ago while riding my motorbike; I had my AirPods on with noise cancelling, and I was like: I wish there was something that would alert me to horns/bells ... not that AirPods are super efficient at cancelling background noise but still!
- jameshart 6mo agoNoise cancelling headphones while riding a motorbike is… a choice. Do you also wear a blindfold?
- bux93 6mo agoHere's my hot take: just get rid of bicycle bells and horns altogether. When's the last time you heard one and were usefully informed about some behavioral change to avoid accident? How often does that happen as opposed to needless use of the bell/horn, or not noticing it for whatever reason (let's be charitable and exclude use of ANC headphones, but include general noise levels and boy-who-cried-wolf). How often is it just a jump scare, making traffic less safe? Just ride/drive a bit more thoughtfully so you don't hurt people, even if they're deaf.
- BLKNSLVR 6mo agoBike bells are useful for me most weekends to let me know there's a bike soon to overtake me while I'm skating. Headphones on folks while they're out walking is ridiculous and antisocial and if they get hit because they didn't hear a bell then they had it coming. I only use a single earbud at a time so I don't lose my situational awareness entirely, but even that can still wash out the rest of the world noise pretty well.
- grvbck 6mo agoFor anyone that wants to actually hear the bell before reading all the marketing material: Bell sound starts at 2:09 in the video.
- renata 6mo agoAnd seems to sound like a normal bell, or maybe that's just my ears. I guess I can see why they didn't put it up front, but that was also all I wanted.
- everdrive 6mo agoIt's hard for me to understand why people choose to walk around in public wearing headphones. I'm aware that it's incredibly common, but you put yourself at risk of theft, accident, and of course the mild hearing loss that accompanies _any_ frequent headphone usage. In the case of both theft and accident, you cannot hear your assailant coming, and miss the queues that would otherwise keep you safe.
- chimpanzee2 6mo ago> and of course the mild hearing loss that accompanies _any_ frequent headphone usage curious, you got any citations for this claim?
- everdrive 6mo ago"Loud" is a bit subjective, but in my experience most people make their volume far too loud. Even moreso if you're attempting to overcome the background sound around you. The articles below discuss both volume and duration. It's also worth checking out the OSHA guidelines which pretty cleanly show the relationship between duration and volume. (ie, "safer" volumes still cause damage with enough duration.) https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-rock-out-with-ear-buds-or-headphones-without-damaging-your-hearing https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-to-rock-out-with-ear-... https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2024/01/listen-headphone-use-can-impact-your-hearing-health https://healthcare.utah.edu/healthfeed/2024/01/listen-headph... https://www.cnet.com/health/wearing-headphones-right-now-follow-tips-prevent-hearing-loss/ https://www.cnet.com/health/wearing-headphones-right-now-fol... https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/noise/prevent/understand.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/noise/prevent/understand.html
- moritonal 6mo agoIt's a definitive statement that you don't want to talk to people. In London not wearing headphones ironically means you become a target for people who want your attention. And it blocks out the otherwise very loud cityscape.
- sunrunner 6mo agoI know a few people that simply wear headphones to help with managing sensory overload, so I wouldn't assume that having headphones on is a guarantee of listening to something (though still likely to be strongly correlated). As far as assailants, a skilled ninja wouldn't be detected even if their target weren't wearing headphones...
- michh 6mo agoCoincidentally, I bought a 12v car horn yesterday with the intent of wiring it into my ebike's power supply with a little button on my handlebars. Not because of other cyclists or pedestrians wearing (anc) headphones but because modern cars are so heavily sound-proofed they don't hear a bicycle bell anymore. A recent incident with an inattentive taxi driver in a brand new EV nearly flattening me prompted me to want to pursue this. I'm still waiting for my cheap AliExpress dc-to-dc step down converter but otherwise I have everything I need and I think it should work. The horn module itself is definitely loud enough: I connected it to a 12v power supply at my desk and jumped out of my chair.
- f3d46600-b66e 6mo agoI did that, but I used battery - couldn't figure out how to hook up to the e-bike's 50v electrical system (plus the DC-DC converter with high enough current...) So I am using LiPo 3S, 2200mAh. Works like a charm. I keep it at its storage voltage (3.7-3.8v per cell), and it hardly drained the battery (there is no paracitic drain). Whole thing was like $20.
- tonyedgecombe 6mo agoI pondered doing that but thought it would agitate other road users so decided against.
- iwontberude 6mo agoSome locales are downright itching for a reason to road rage so I don’t blame you. One thing I have to say about being a motorcyclist is that our residents in California are so considerate and have never once mistreated me for beeping, lane splitting/filtering, stalling my bike at a green light, etc.
- michh 6mo agomm, if i can't get it to work with the dc-dc converter i'll definitely go that route, good idea
- 6mo ago
- CalRobert 6mo agoThis may also be of interest to people - emulating a car horn for bikes https://loudbicycle.com/ https://loudbicycle.com/ (of course, there's also the locomotive horn, but the equipment required is a bit impractical - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTQSWtK65PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTQSWtK65PE)
- macintux 6mo agoI've periodically toyed with the idea of adding a locomotive horn to my motorized vehicle, but I'd be afraid that using it would cause an accident.
- red_admiral 6mo agoOr this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ACAMJC https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ACAMJC (compressed air).
- kfarr 6mo agoI use the loud bicycle horn on my daily rider, it’s excellent. Car drivers actually respect it. Prevents right hooks
- red_admiral 6mo agoIn the scenario presented (London, mostly not segregated bike paths), the solution is for the cyclist to ride in a way they're not endangering pedestrians. There's even a fairly recent UK law (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-highway-code-8-changes-you-need-to-know-from-29-january-2022 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-highway-code-8-change...) that more or less says in a collision, the "stronger" road user is at fault unless proven otherwise. That applies to car v. cyclist as much as cyclist v. pedestrian.
- mikkupikku 6mo agoPolitical cyclists hate this because they think anybody who complains is just a car driver concern trolling, but having been hit by a cyclist I can attest to it being a real problem. Sure I wasn't in real risk of dying, but I was bruised and scraped up for a week after that. I've done my fair share of road cycling in my years, I don't do it now but I still cycle on trails. The way some cyclists push back on any criticism at all is very ideological, and a real problem for not just pedestrians (and drivers) but cyclists too, because the outspoken attitudes and public stunts of political cyclists breed a lot of contempt for cyclists broadly speaking, to the point where normies groan when I say I spent my weekend going on a trip with my bike, and still act weird when I explain I was on a rail-to-trail not clogging up a highway.
- micv 6mo agoIt's one thing when you're a fit adult male and get hit by an idiot cycling recklessly on the pavement, it's another if you're a small child or frail through sickness or old age. I've seen a couple of very near misses that would have ended very badly for the pedestrian through no fault of their own. Saying this it's mostly teenagers in the idiot role from what I've seen and they are reckless by default.
- red_admiral 6mo agoAlthough the truly reckless ones are now on their ~50mph tuned illegal scooters with a "yolo" cheap lithium battery.
- cocoto 6mo agoI’m sure Android and iOS could add some AI feature to let some specific noises in the headset when needed (baby cries when enabled, smoke detector alarms, bike/car bells, etc). Simply stop the music for the duration of the specific noise and replay it. That would be a cool use of AI.
- c0n5pir4cy 6mo agoSo you don't even need Android or iOS for this feature and it's been a thing on certain headsets for a while; both my Sony headphones and buds do this. It also has an integration with the phone which can add GPS awareness but it works fine without it in my experience.
- mikkupikku 6mo agoAbsolutely crazy to be out in traffic with headphones, lead alone noise cancelling ones. I've never even dared to ride my bike on trails with earbuds, the whole thing seems crazy.
- ChoGGi 6mo agoYou could also not blast past me on the path, yes I am off to one side, and no I don't wear headphones outside.
- gambiting 6mo agoThat's fantastic. Where can I buy one?
- Retr0id 6mo agoI'm very sceptical of their claims that ~780Hz is in some way special, especially the way they represent it graphically. Playing a frequency sweep while wearing WH-1000XM3 headphones, I don't notice any particular drop-off there. Near where I live, heavy goods vehicles are fitted with reversing indicators that make a "cshh cshh cshh" sound i.e. pulsed white-noise. White noise like that is the hardest for ANC to cancel. Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Wt1_51EVA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3Wt1_51EVA
- post-it 6mo agoThe construction site next door is using those vehicles, and they're also a lot more pleasant throughout the day. It's easier to tune out white noise than beeping. The first cshh is a little louder than the others, which is a nice design touch.
- bityard 6mo agoSpeak for yourself, I can tune out a steady beep much easier than the sound of a seagull being strangled to death. (That's what the ones around here sound like anyway.) On a more serious note: the loud beeping backup alarms were DESIGNED to be annoying and difficult to miss. I would not be surprised in the least if a study showed these "less annoying" backup alarms correlating to a higher number of children being run over by reversing vehicles.
- atoav 6mo agoThere have been studies and those resulted in the less annoying backup sounds. These sounds are essentially harsh white noise, which has one significant difference to the beeping: it's level drops off differently with distance, meaning you can blast it louder and people who are really in the wrong spot will notice better it means them, while people who are not meant will not be annoyed or fatigued by it. Two noise sources combine different than two tonal sources and the human ear can locate broadband sources better than single tones. This was developed especially for use in backup heavy environments like harbors where workers started ignoring constant beeps.
- moralestapia 6mo agoNot a single place to hear how it sounds. For a device that ONLY produces sound touted as such a re-vo-lu-tio-na-ry device this is a massive marketing failure.
- gield 6mo agoThis might seem weird coming from a car manufacturer but Skoda is a big sponsor of cycling races, most notably of the Tour de France and other ASO races. And as explained in the footer, they started out with building bicycles in the 19th century.
- skeeter2020 6mo agohopefully this is because it's a prototype, but doesn't solve the #1 problem with these type of thumb-lever rotating bells: everything (including the axle) is plastic and they break if you look at them funny. The hammer-type with plastic hammers or hinges don't work either; maybe solve the "actually make a noise" problem first.
- laweijfmvo 6mo agoAm I nuts or is "regular bike bell" exactly the kind of sound that ANC does not cancel well?
- Coeur 6mo agoThis seems to be part of a type of brand marketing where a brand claims it has invented something, but the only thing that ever exists of significant economic value is the attention raised by the promo video / article. Not the thing/service. Examples: - Samsung safety truck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNGfse9ZK8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNGfse9ZK8 - Citroën motion sickness glasses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco63dlq_WE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco63dlq_WE - Amazon Prime Air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AVVTBmtDdo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AVVTBmtDdo - IBM Smart Ads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbEMVdzXiCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbEMVdzXiCY (implies they created lots of ad posters, but they only made 3 posters for this video) - Lexus Hoverboard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFf7Meqkim8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFf7Meqkim8 I wonder if there is a term for this. "Vaporware marketing"?
- mkesper 6mo agoThere's at least a paper to download: https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Research-final_cf127752.pdf https://cdn.skoda-storyboard.com/2026/04/Skoda-DuoBell-Resea...
- mynameisvlad 6mo agoI'm not sure IBM Smart Ads were ever an actual product/invention, and Prime Air is a live service (albeit geographically limited): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Prime_Air https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Prime_Air
- allenu 6mo agoI love these types of videos because they create this fiction of how design happens, where people sit around a table with drawings and or come up with beautiful mock-ups (the motion sickness glasses is a good example). Often, a lot of design decisions are super obvious and don't require a lot of sweat and collaboration to come up with, but in videos they're made to appear very difficult as it presents better. And other things are super messy, but you're not going to show that as it's hard to communicate.
- npunt 6mo ago
- vscode-rest 6mo ago[dead]
- stronglikedan 6mo agoThat's nice and all, but the onus is really on the person walking on shared paths with noise cancelling headphones. My bell works fine, and I ring it before passing peds as the law requires, so I don't intend to waste money on a new bell anytime soon.
- bigblind 6mo agoIt's unfortunate that this is necessary. It should be obvious that wearing noise cancelling headphones in trafic, including as a pedestrian, is a bad idea. I'm legally blind, so I have my own bias here, but I think people really over-rely on sight. If you do want to listen to something while walking around a city, I can highly recommend bone conduction headphones, that keep your ears unblocked.
- jrg 6mo agoThere is, of course, at least one category that don’t over rely upon their hearing: deaf people.
- kribbi 6mo agoMy trick after biking 10+ years in Amsterdam. Never use your bicycle bell, instead try to predict their trajectory and bike around it. Ringing your bell is always a gamble because everyone responds differently
- kribbi 6mo agoAfter 10+ year biking in Amsterdam I never use my bicycle bell. Instead I try to predict their trajectory and steer around it, way more predictable because everyone responds differently
- omar_alt 6mo agoOh great let’s have even more noise pollution because pedestrians won’t get out of the way of cyclists who are trying to beat their personal best time on their commute to work.
- moffkalast 6mo agoIt wouldn't be a problem if pedestrians weren't blocking cycling paths completely while apparently forgetting their hearing aids at home. Some people have even less situational awareness than common sense.
- zymhan 6mo agoYou probably should not be living in a city then.
- MarkusWandel 6mo agoPeople use their ears to navigate traffic (as non-car-users) much more than they realize. There's a reason kids need to be drilled in "look both ways before crossing the street" - you can hear that there's no car coming, what's the problem? There's a reason electric cars need to make that strange noise so you can, in fact, hear them coming. Absolutely a headphone user, with not only ANC to reduce external noises but loud music to mask them, is missing a primary sense for navigating traffic. Absolutely these things increase accidents from minor (someone walking into the path of a cyclist on a multi-use path, oblivious to bells and callouts) to major. But can that bell penetrate loud music? How many people really walk around with ANC headphones just as a "cone of silence" device?
- rplnt 6mo agoWhat do you call it when a car manufacturer has a little bicycle division? Is it still greenwashing or is there a more specific term?
- cobbzilla 6mo agoMy horn is my larynx. I usually belt out “please don’t kill me” in a stern voice-of-command at my “max volume.” A loud voice travels very well through car windows at short distances, even for big soundproof vehicles.
- criddell 6mo agoI assumed this bell was for alerting pedestrians or other cyclists wearing noise cancelling headphones.
- dec0dedab0de 6mo agomy Bose quite comfort headphones will still allow any non-regular noise through, I believe that is by design for this very reason. Do other brands not do this?
- embedding-shape 6mo agoOverall this bell seems like the wrong solution, and it took me a while to realize not every country has outlawed headphone wearing for bicyclists, something I guess I took for granted. It doesn't make sense for a car driven to use headphones, so not sure why it'd make sense for other vehicle-users to use them either, as you say, we really do use our ears to help navigate traffic so allowing people to be so careless seems... Careless?
- bmicraft 6mo agoYou can turn up your car stereo and mow over pedestrians undisturbed in your two ton death machine yet I'm not allowed to cycle on a bicycle-only path with with a podcast and transparency mode enabled? For my own safety? Safety from car drivers that fell asleep driving with their stereo on?
- embedding-shape 6mo agoDon't know where you live, but where I live it isn't legal to play so loud music that you cannot hear the outside, especially if it's so loud you cannot hear other car horns. So no, neither should be allowed, because again, we use our hearing when we're in traffic to help our other senses. Mostly for others safety, and I guess if it helps you; for your safety too.
- bmicraft 6mo agoI never said loud. Comfortable podcast listening volume in both cases.
- jrg 6mo agoIt’s about pedestrians wearing the headphones.
- ivanjermakov 6mo agoCan't wait for a headphone commercial that claims that their ANC is so good you won't hear those annoying bicycle bells :)
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- not_your_vase 6mo agoWhat if you would rather stay in the bicycle lane instead of terrorizing pedestrians? Quite a lot of taxes were paid for those lanes. Use them, and stay out of my headset.
- oytis 6mo agoE.g. in Germany many pedestrians, especially tourists, tend to think that bycicle lanes are fancily-painted sidewalks
- not_your_vase 6mo agoInteresting. In Switzerland I see exactly the opposite. The country is full of empty bike lanes, and pedestrian zones which are overran by cyclists and e-scooters (of course they are adjacent to the mentioned empty lanes).
- elAhmo 6mo agoGreat idea, kinda ridiculous they tested it in VR and not out there in real life, since it is a bell, not a car they need to manufacture to test it.
- accelbred 6mo agoA pedestrian shouldn't need to be able to hear to be safe from cyclists. Focusing on headphones is ignoring that the same dangers are being imposed on deaf people and people with otherwise bad hearing. If a cyclist needs to use the bell for safety, they should hit the brakes.
- MoonWalk 6mo agoNo, Google, I do NOT mean "skoda doorbell." Morons. Meanwhile... you apparently can't buy this thing anywhere.
- elcapitan 6mo agoA slightly more controversial, but equally effective solution would be to glue an angry toddler to your handlebar.
- unglaublich 6mo agoIt's almost hilarious that such efforts are spent on bicycle bells while emergency vehicles are featuring deafeningly loud alarms to penetrate the sound isolation of cars.
- jmugan 6mo agoI don't understand why it is my responsibility to hear your bell. Just don't hit me.
- post_break 6mo agoIf only people had spatial awareness, they would look around vs listening to their phone changing directions randomly while walking. The bell is for both persons safety.
- jmalicki 6mo agoIs there an interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act where using this bicycle bell to circumvent the computer system used in your headphones for active noise cancellation would be a federal felony in the United States?
- johnfn 6mo agoBe careful with that because then bikers are just going to start using car horns.
- john_strinlai 6mo agoprobably. i am pretty sure you can spin up a CFAA violation with some string and 2 cups.
- GeoAtreides 6mo agohey, if they can prosecute for whistling into a handset...
- Cub3 6mo agoNow that is an interesting question
- BXLE_1-1-BitIs1 6mo agoThere's been the odd idiot wearing headphones mowed down on train tracks. The trains air horn didn't get the message through. The Air Zound is wonderful. You can get pedestrians' attention with light toots. I reserve the full blast for developing danger or people who didn't get the message from the toots. Survival depends on being heard in a car with closed windows with possible loud radio or squabbling kids.
- dhosek 6mo agoIt may have been intentional. More than one suicide by train has involved the person who died by suicide wearing headphones as they walked on the tracks (it was clear that it was a suicide and not intentional as engineers have reported the person looking at the train when the horn was sounded but not leaving the tracks).
- leemelone 6mo agowon't this just make the sound cancelation teams at the tech companies work hard to "improve" their features?
- culi 6mo agoI love to see high-tech mechanical/analog solutions like this. I recently bought a vintage mechanical kitchen timer and it almost feels like you have a different relationship to your possessions when you know they're mechanical. It's also so nice to know I can put it away and not worry about finding it a year later with the battery I forgot to remove having exploded
- fareesh 6mo agolooks like one of those things the ad agency (AMV BBDO) claims to have invented just in time for awards season
- dmitrygr 6mo ago[dead]
- a-dub 6mo agothe experimental report pdf is a fun read. it would be cool if they added each individual bell of the duobell and the combination to tables 4 and 5. (the topline result is in the infographic, but it would be cool to see the effects of the individual contributions of the various features and how they combine)
- wolvoleo 6mo agoI think it's better to separate dangerous traffic. Have dedicated bike lanes instead of those stupid stripes on the pavement that are really hard to see. Ban cars from city centres (fortunately my city is making some headway with this). Increase public transport. I wear these things because traffic is too noisy though. Assholes with super loud motorbikes or mopeds in particular, cars aren't the worst.
- anigbrowl 6mo agoThrough acoustic testing, the research team identified a narrow frequency band – a “safety gap” – capable of penetrating ANC headphone filters. This range lies between 750 and 780 Hz. Building an entire product around EQ crossover frequencies (which are not standardized or regulated in any way) seems a bit risky to me. Those are things that could change at any time, as could the shapes of the EQ curves themselves. there are fads in engineering design like anything else and in this wholly digital era they tend to cycle and proliferate faster because increased performance (or at least hte temporary consumer perception of such ) is only a software update away. People are extraordinarily susceptible to placebo effects in the audio realm (probably because most people prioritize their visual sense), so just moving EQ crossovers around or making them dynamically adjustable is an easy path to consumer buzz. You see this all the time with pro audio plugins.
- Khaine 6mo agoGood to see we’re ensuring cyclists remain as endearing as ever.
- zeristor 6mo agoOr pedestrians could walk around with halberds to fend off cyclists steaming through pedestrian areas.
- egorfine 6mo agoCan't wait for ads delivered via this method.
- deafpolygon 6mo agoWell, if you’re on a bicycle and you can see the pedestrian is not paying attention (whether they are on the noise-canceling headphones or are deaf themselves)… do the right thing and proceed with caution. Assume they don’t see you and prepare to stop. Wait for visual confirmation that they saw you. That will eliminate the bulk of traffic “accidents” involving bicycle and pedestrian; it’s expected and common to do this in the Netherlands.
- fennecfoxy 6mo agoMy crotchety old neighbours just got one of those high pitched anti-fox speakers. Was mowing the lawns the other day and could still hear the high pitched tones it emits even with noise cancelling headphones on. Situation is pretty lame because I liked the foxes sleeping in the garden, super fun to take photos of them and they don't do much harm.