I was watching this video of a live chicken trapped on a moving truck and thought it was strange that it’s not possible to say anything to them even when circumstances might warrant it. All we got is honking and waving. There could be a touchscreen interface with a map of nearby vehicles. It could be voice controllable or the passenger could do it for safety.
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I keep a CB radio in my car, and have a few friends with them
It is actually really handy when you’re road tripping together in different cars to be able to just grab the mic and say something to the other vehicle when you need to stop for a bathroom break or you’re having an issue with your car or want to give them a heads-up about whatever.
If you’re fairly close together a set of cheap FRS walkie-talkies from Walmart does the job just as well. Probably worth stepping up to CB if you expect to lose sight of the other vehicle though, range is usually a bit better.
It’s especially handy if, like me, you go camping and such in rural areas with unreliable cell coverage.
You do occasionally also get helpful heads-ups from truckers if you’re listening to channel 19 about road conditions, police activity, traffic, etc. but mostly it’s just idiots babbling about conspiracy theories and immature bullshit.
Why is everyone so quick to recommend Walmart? Corpo advertising shouldn’t have a place on lemmy , intentional or not
Because they’re fucking everywhere, something like 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of one.
It’s basically shorthand for “this is a common and readily available thing that you can acquire anywhere in the country for cheap even if megacorps have driven all of the local specialty retailers out of business in your areas”
As opposed to something like a HF ham radio which is a specialty item that no big retailers like walmart, to the best of my knowledge, carry, and so you’re probably not going to be able to find it locally.
But I can buy that thing on eBay for 3X more plus shipping!
I get that it’s short hand for that --but I still don’t think it’s good to push people forward to stores with so many moral and economic issues like walmart as the first suggestion.
A simple trucker’s radio is a common item in gas stations and truck stops–not that they’re necessarily better than walmart, but they’re just as common and weren’t put forth as a suggestion
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A “truckers” (CB) radio is exactly what I was suggesting FRS radios as an alternative to.
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I suggested them because they are much simpler to use. With a mobile base station you need to figure out where to mount it in your car, where to mount an antenna, tune that antenna, how to hard-wire it into your car’s power (or splice an adapter onto it to power it from the cigarette lighter), whereas with a walkie talkie you just need to turn it on, put it on the right channel and push a button.
(Handheld CBs do exist. I’ve very rarely seen them for sale in a brick and mortar store)
- It’s probably gonna depend on where in the country you are, but CB radio equipment is in fact not commonly available at gas stations and truck stops around me. It’s something I actually actively look for and take notice of because I’m a bit of a radio geek. In fact, if I needed to tell someone where to get a CB locally, their best bet for that would probably also be the-store-whose-name-you-seem-too-think-that-no-one-should-say-like-its-fucking-voldemort-or-something, and even that would be hit or miss, some TSWNYSTTTNOSSLIFVOSes don’t actually seem to carry them, but every TSWNYSTTTNOSSLIFVOS I’ve ever been in absolutely has at least one set of FRS radios for sale.
the-store-whose-name-you-seem-too-think-that-no-one-should-say-like-its-fucking-voldemort-or-something,
Believe it or not. Shopping at unethical companies is unethical . I don’t like people advertising for a terrible corp. Especially a fascist corp.
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As evil as Walmart is it’s undeniable they do have everything you could think of under one roof. The idea isn’t awful if it wasn’t so harmful.
Well, not always. Mine apparently doesn’t have any vanilla extract right now. I can only assume that it’s tariff related
Name another place to buy a radio besides amazon
Would’ve looked a lot better if you commented that when I hadn’t already
GMRS has mostly replaced CB now. Cheap and works better than CB at short range. Adoption has been slow, however.
CB radio? That shit is for truckers and nerds but it was solid.
Luckily, you’re on Lemmy, and we’re all nerds here
Use it all the time (UHF). But only get comms on other off-roaders, all the trucks, or caravamers. It’s very useful. I give out handhelds to friends if we’re travelling together.Honestly, phones are pretty shit in comparison.
I’m glad it’s not popular for other drivers, though. One of the main benefits is most people don’t use it, so the bands don’t get clogged with shit.
Seconded on their usefulness on the road. Incredibly easy to just reach over, hold the PTT button and get your message across. One time purchase for something that won’t get shut down or unsupported ever.
If you try communicating with a phone, the only safe way to do it (assuming one person per vehicle) is to start a phone call before leaving, and keep it running constantly. If you have a passenger, they become your secretary. If the call drops then that’s all comms lost until both pull over and redial. Requires mobile coverage everywhere on your route which in Australia isn’t the case, even on major routes like A1 Bruce Highway.
Walkie talkies are king for travelling with mates
Road rage.
I think the inability to communicate makes road rage worse, actually. Simple matters that could be solved by a quick comment become rage inducing because there’s literally nothing you can do about them.
I think you are severely overestimating the average maturity of humans, especially when they feel powerful as they do when driving.
They feel empowered, partially, because they’re basically anonymous. Everyone is basically a faceless tank on the road.
Exactly this. I’ve long had a thought that if all automobiles were like the Invisible Boatmobile from SpongeBob, then most of the suble cues between humans would make it easier to understand intentions, with corresponding reduction in misapprehension and collisions.
That said, humans simply are poorly adapted to traveling at 100 kph, so who’s to say if these cues are even understandable at high speed. And of course, it’s downright impossible to see those details when blinded by mutual headlights on a rural highway at night.
This guy gets it.
“sir they’re hailing us!”
“Thanks wife, put them through.”
“HEY FUCKER YOU DIDNT SIGNAL”
* my bad hand wave *
Yeah, let’s add proximity chat to traffic. It’ll be great!
Here in South Korea every car has the phone number of the owner displayed through the windshield so you can always call them when they parked false or so.
Really? That seems like it could be an issue of privacy.
I mean I can only imagine that people might be harassed in some way or another.
It’s not used for harassment because strong social norms discourage it. You would lose face if you’d do it.
Bruh that’s just multiplayer game voice chat IRL. Imagine chaos and trolling.
And you get to hear their music peaking out whatever microphone is used for the car to car communication
That sounds awful. But it does exist, its called a cb radio
Yeah my friend has a cb radio and he says when traffic is bad people are just yelling at each other. Although that’s anonymous, if the messages showed you were X person from C vehicle it would probably be a bit more civil
This is what CB Radios are, and many more people used to have them before cell phones.
People in mountainous areas where a cell phone is useless still do.
It’s called a CB radio. Enjoy.
If I can’t say “on screen” first then I don’t want it
You can just remember to say “Over” over.
Is the communications holofilter ready?
Engage the overlay. Put them on screen.
Many people would use such a method to troll and be disruptive, possibly causing collisions
BRETTS_NISSAN has just sent you an unsolicited dick pic
Yeah just like every online videogame with strangers. I would immediately mute it and never unmute.
Yeah no people are trash on average, I don’t want to get constantly pinged by trashy people while driving, I don’t even like proximity chat in games, imagine having that in real life, there’s a high chance of accidents happening due to distraction. Now if someone wants to add a little display on their car that can display some basic text messages, maybe that could be of some use
Hate to break it to you, but proximity chat is enabled in real life all the time.
People don’t have the balls to come up to you in real life and say the stuff they say from a place of saftey and anonymity.
Just look at the stuff people say on Lemmy, to someone they will never even meet, ever.
Why do we even leave comments here. Just total strangers. And yet people care very much about what others say.
Just look at the stuff people say on Lemmy, to someone they will never even meet, ever.
That’s ridiculous! I will find you and flay your children alive! :D
Lady honked at me the other day for not turning left at a light (she obviously didn’t see the motorcyclists) and began making rude gestures.
Well anyway it’s probably better that we can’t talk to each other.
I had a similar thing happen this week. Left turn lane waiting for pedestrian and their dog to cross the road. Person behind me was losing their minds at me. I pointed at the pedestrian and shrugged.
I once had someone flip me off because I put my turn signal on. We were in the right lane, I was turning right, and the left lane was completely empty.
Guess we’re supposed to mow them down, idk.
I absolutely would not want an open channel to everyone around me. The potential for abuse is too high.
Imagine the giant trucks road raging because you’re in the left lane and only going +20 the speed limit. Or the old creeps hitting on teenagers.
And then there’s the privacy concerns. In order to connect to your car-specifically- it has to know your car is there. Which means your car is constantly putting out a beacon. This would be similar to how cell phones work - and are now being used by merchants and advertisers like Walmart to track where you go in stores.
And then there’s the security concerns of people pushing malware.
And then there’s the question of distractions from having to respond to people reaching out or shutting them up or whatever.
Imagine the giant trucks road raging because you’re in the left lane and only going +20 the speed limit. Or the old creeps hitting on teenagers.
What if we instead imagine the truck drivers politely asking you to move over? What if the ability to communicate freely with other drivers made the experience closer to walking in a crowd. I’m imagining something that allows all vehicles within a certain radius to hear one another so you can communicate with courtesy. I think a lot of road rage stems from our frustrations with our inability to communicate (and be held accountable) by the people around us.
What if the ability to communicate freely with other drivers made the experience closer to walking in a crowd.
In a dense crowd, the information being exchanged amongst the crowd is enormous. It is a constant negotiation, of different parties trying to get somewhere but also trying (hopefully) to respect other people’s space. And the stakes are lower, because bumping into someone is fine at 1 kph but totally unacceptable at 50 kph. And humans are dynamically adjustable, like raising ones arms so that a stroller can pass more easily. Cars can’t really do that (except Transformers: Robots In Disguise).
In a crowded bazaar, the bandwidth from reading people’s facial cues, from seeing whether they’re distracted by goods on display or from their Instagram posts, plus what people actually say – and what they don’t say – and how quickly or slowly they walk. All of that is context that is necessary to participate in the activity of passing through the crowd, and I think that cost-optimized technology to exchange the same amount of info while also needing to react 50x faster and deterministically, with safety standards suitable for 2-tonne machines that already kill and maim thousands per year, that’s not really feasible.
What if we instead imagine the truck drivers politely asking you to move over? What if the ability to communicate freely with other drivers made the experience closer to walking in a crowd. I’m imagining something that allows all vehicles within a certain radius to hear one another so you can communicate with courtesy. I think a lot of road rage stems from our frustrations with our inability to communicate (and be held accountable) by the people around us.
Yeah. No. I don’t know where you are, but when someone is angry at the inconvenience of having to slow down to merely reckless speeds… they’re not going to be capable of civil discourse. If they were capable of civility… they wouldn’t have been angry in the first place.
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What lane you’re in has nothing to do with the speed limit. If you’re the slower traffic, keep right. Always keep right unless you’re overtaking.
I will return to right lane as soon as I finish overtaking and it is safe for me to do so.
But keep the fucking safe distance while I do so. If you slow down a few meters behind me, instead of few centimeters, it won’t delay you much.
"What lane your in has nothing to do with speed limit… keep right… "
Left lane.
And your advice is actually somewhat incorrect, depending on the context your in. In more rural areas, sure. In more urban areas… there are dozens of reasons why you need to keep left- including taking a left exit.
Or, you know, like how at that speed your usually passing everyone else…
And just for the record, I don’t know where you are, but here… +20 is considered a felony. it’s incredibly stupid to drive that fast on a highway… never mind not on a highway.
people that go +20 and faster? They’re putting everyone’s lives at risk and statistically it’s only a matter of time before they kill someone. Hopefully something happens to teach them why it’s fucking stupid before it goes that far.
There is a highway near me where the limit is 55, but the average speed in the fast lanes is 70+.
I don’t get it. This makes everyone a criminal. I isn’t realize that 75+ would be a felony.
IIRC, the felony reckless driving was lowered from +30 to +20, during Covid after it became clear how dangerous people were driving. We saw a massive spike in roadway deaths because suddenly people felt like they could do whatever.
Congratulations. Now they’re breaking the law and you’re breaking the law. And now you’re both causing unsafe driving conditions for others. And you’re causing traffic.
Follow the algorithm to make things safer, consistent, and predictable. It’s not your job to police others’ speed.
Wow.
I don’t care what “the algorithm “ says, and you’re a hypocritical asshole for telling me not to tell others how to drive while telling me how to drive.
Now to be completely clear: I will always drive in a manner I deem to be safe. Not you. Not the asshole tailgating me because he can’t be bothered to to leave 10 minutes earlier.
And I can assure you: driving 50mph in a residential area is not “safe”. And neither is 90 in a 70 during rush hour. These are both staggeringly dangerous and imo, people who do so are on the level of those who drive drunk.
I’m not sure what I said to elicit such hate, and I don’t know what state or country you’re in. In California this is the law, and it’s at least as important as the speed limit. But unfortunately, it is never enforced. Slower traffic keep right
Being called out for a hypocrisy is not hate.
You were literally telling me not to tell be how to drive (which, while I came close, I didn’t actually do,) while literally telling me how to drive.
I understand many states have some form of “slower traffic laws”… and explained why that’s not relevant.
There are many reasons why someone needs to be in the left lane- taking a left-exit, or the left hand fork in a split, or, you know, actually passing people themselves…. Or seeing an eratic driver behind them making it dangerous to get over.
I have to assume that CA law also says something about running people off the road because they’re not going fast enough for you. Generally, I assume everywhere does- for obvious reasons.
Even if you’re right, that doesn’t give you them right to drive recklessly and tailgate people. Which brings me back to the original point I was making: the kind of people who are angry at having to slow down… are unlikely to be polite and civil- they’re already demonstrating harassing behaviors.
I never said you shouldn’t tell people how to drive. I implied you shouldn’t physically force others to drive how you want. Note I also never said it’s ok to speed. Anyway, have a good night. I’ll try to enjoy being stuck in traffic caused by you.
Terrible advice. If you’re not actively overtaking you’re supposed to always be in the left lane.I think you two live in different counties and actually agree.
Oh yeah.
My bad. I always forget about countries that drive on what, to me, is the wrong side of the road.
Thanks. :)
We do…?
It’s called a CB radio. Though usually it’s only semi-trucks and enthusiasts that use 'em. It would be pretty awesome if they were just a standard feature, tho.
Extept in very rural areas there are far too many people around for it to be useful. Unless somehow we can enforce strict rules on what you are allowed to say.
