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Profiles in courage, profiles in cowardice


April 3, 2016 | I was so disappointed with Toyota's decision to treat non-emergency horn honking as a joke, albeit in an ad, that I considered rescinding and deleting my Thanksgiving post. I've decided to leave it as is, but I'm less impressed with Toyota and find myself doubting Toyota's motives for using quieter technology.

When I think of automakers' decisions - ongoing decisions - to choose horn honking acoustic alerts, and to adopt new horn honking alerts, adding ever more noise emissions to our already burdened soundscape, I am often reminded of courageous actions and decisions that others have made in the face of great pressure to act or decide otherwise. And sometimes I'm reminded of my much younger self.

At age seven, I went to brownie camp for a week. I remember almost nothing of my time at camp beyond one aspect of the experience.

On the first day of camp, our group was gathered in our cabin introducing ourselves. One girl had been caught in the rain, and when she peeled off her green knee-socks, we were awed and amused to see that green dye was covering her ankles and calves. For some reason, another girl used this as the basis of selecting this girl as the target of bullying that would last the duration of our week-long stay.

I don't know how this was allowed to begin, much less continue, but it did, and almost every girl in our group joined the bully in her campaign to make one girl's stay utterly miserable. For some reason, I did not join in, and I worried all week that others would notice and possibly turn their mockery on me. I could not understand why anyone would pick on the chosen target. The girl with the green socks was pretty, smart, and friendly. If this could happen to her, my seven-year-old self reasoned, this could happen to anyone.

One day during the cabin's rest time, the bullied girl sat on my bed and looked at me. She said, "You're my friend, right?"

For reasons I will never be able to understand, I mustered up some courage and said, "Yes." I spent the rest of the week worrying that the bully's wrath would be turned on me, but it wasn't. Looking back, I think that probably most of the other girls would have answered as I did, or would have wanted to. The entire camp experience was turned into something confusing and worrisome for me, and it would not surprise me if the less courageous brownies, who all chose to join the bullying, did so reluctantly, wishing they did not feel forced to bully another little girl. Maybe the camp experience was as horrible for most of them as it was for me.

In the sphere of environmental noise emissions, I can't think of a single automaker that has acted with noteworthy courage or integrity. Tesla appeared to be fearless, but inexplicably adopted "honk from your phone" technology, years before other brands did. Toyota has not really done this either. Yes, Toyota has thus far elected to use non-horn based technology where others have not, but still uses other useless horn-based technology such as panic alarm, and now has a horn honking ad that is loud enough to cause dogs to cringe and run out of the room.

Maybe Toyota adopted quieter lock feedback technology because its leadership cares about the soundscape and human health, or maybe the decision was based on a forward-thinking legal concern. For all I know, Toyota leadership might reverse its decision tomorrow and join the others, as it seems to be doing with the above mentioned ad. With this unimaginative and one hopes short lived ad campaign spotlighting its backup camera, Toyota has managed to single handedly defeat the Calm Act. Unwittingly, I'm sure, because heaven knows it would be counter to the Toyota Way to make waves or take a political stand of any sort!

I'm probably reading way too much into it, but it's almost as if Toyota wants to say, "I'm not really stodgy! I can have fun with pointless loud noise too!"

Any automaker adopting "honk from your smart phone" technology is more comfortable following than leading. There is no rational justification for honking a horn from miles away, or from the breakfast table or anywhere with a stationary car. If our EPA were not so broken, such absurd technology would never have come to pass. Among cowards who've adopted the technology, there must be decision makers cringing with embarrassment. There is no doubt that some German and Japanese decision makers are rolling on the floor laughing at the way their colleagues in North America have kowtowed to pressure to offer such technology.

The decision of nearly every automaker to adopt "honk from your phone" (and wristwatch) technology is a profile in cowardice. And the decision to facilitate a model redesign without replacing every non-emergency horn-based technology with an easily configurable, low-decibel, non-grating electronic tone or silent alert is inexcusably lazy and irresponsible.

It is ludicrous at a time when major automakers invest heavily in environmentally friendly technologies that almost every single one them is adopting pointless, absurd technology that creates unnecessary noise emissions. At a time when so many people are sleep deprived and have their attention spread thin, manufacturers who claim to be socially responsible should not invest in technology that has caused crashes, interrupts sleep, and creates tension between neighbors.

Automakers, what will your acoustic legacy be? Courageous action based on concern for environmental health and safety, or a soundscape forever blighted with honk after honk between brief intervals of natural sound?

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