You all know the 'clickies': things that sound as a turn signal turns on.
The idea is simple: you'd have one clickie (TICK-tock, TICK-tock) for your left turn signal, and a different one (BIMP-bomp, BIMP-bomp) for your right turn signal.
With auditory as well as visual feedback, you'd have that much less chance of signalling wrong, and it'd be dead simple to implement.-- Almafeta, Oct 25 2005 Blingtones http://web.archive....ng-Tones#1060693136I demi-baked this, before The Great Crash. [neilp, Oct 30 2005] How about "LEFT-left" and "RIGHT-right"?-- bristolz, Oct 25 2005 Heh, you'd end up line dancing in the car.-- skinflaps, Oct 25 2005 "LEFT and uh left and uh left and uh..." Waltzing.-- bristolz, Oct 25 2005 Now it's starting to sound like Parappa The Rapper.-- skinflaps, Oct 25 2005 Given that most cars have stereo systems, how about having the clicking come from the appropriate side in the first place?-- DrCurry, Oct 25 2005 A better idea altogether.-- wagster, Oct 25 2005 I'm forever putting my left-hand signal on when I want to turn right. No, hang on; I never actually do that.-- angel, Oct 25 2005 I'm more likely to turn the wiper blades on.-- po, Oct 25 2005 If you had a stereo sound for every single thing that you could do with a car by twisting this, turning that, pushing this, it could all get entertainingly confusing especially when your phone goes off and you end up speaking to the cigarette lighter.-- skinflaps, Oct 25 2005 Sorry, but people that can't figure out which direction is which simply shouldn't be allowed behind a wheel.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 25 2005 'A Tale of Two Clickies' ?-- benfrost, Oct 25 2005 I agree with [RayfordSteele].
- to someone who drives before they learn their left and right.-- JoeyJoJoShabadoo, Oct 26 2005 I had no idea that this was a problem. The directions are the same as those of the steering wheel. Should I be worried?-- Texticle, Oct 27 2005 I love this for its understated absurdity. It would be very useful for the blind, and for those who signal by flailing about in the vicinity of the wheel before seizing it and giving it a jerk. A solution looking for a problem.
I too often turn on the wipers, [po]. Sometimes I flash the brights.-- bungston, Oct 27 2005 Signalling wrong........does anyone ever do that? Though, pushing the stick UP for left and DOWN for right isn't too natural. (thats in an Australian car anyway......you Americans are ass-about I think.)
Maybe the stick should be sticking straight UP so you can actually push it the direction you want to go.-- Elitefingerbun, Oct 27 2005 [po]: Maybe you also need a voice that goes "WIPE... wipe.... WIPE....wipe..."-- Cedar Park, Oct 29 2005 A brilliant idea... ...if only there were more people who actually needed it.-- James Newton, Oct 29 2005 [UP for left and DOWN for right} would be natural if the stick's on the right side of the steering column behind the wheel - you flick it with your hand in the direction you'll be turning the wheel soon - UP=left=counterclockwise, DOWN=right=clockwise
My first car had the indicator lever on the left, so the up/down was reversed. They were still instinctually the appropriate directions though.-- BunsenHoneydew, Oct 29 2005 The standard in UK is to have the stalk on the left of the column, with the directions per [BunsenHoneydew]'s logic. My first several cars had the stalk on the right; that was standard practise at the time, but was changed for EU standardization. It's sensible for left-hand-drive (ie, the remainder of the EU), but I preferred to be able to signal and change gear at the same time (useful when exiting roundabouts).-- angel, Oct 29 2005 Don't know about the UK, but in the US so few people actually use their turn signals that the sound of the 'clickies' would likely be mistaken for a cricket in the car.-- dalziel, Oct 30 2005 Corvette, Cadillac and others.-- bristolz, Oct 30 2005 We'd be a right-centric world, because most cars with absent-minded drivers already BIMP-bomp.-- reensure, Oct 30 2005 random, halfbakery