Bolt keeps honking at me...

[jhm614]

Since turning on the auto-lock, hasn't happened once. Odd... my guess is the anti-tamper of some sort, but the indicator isn't lit for it. Either way, I got rid of it if only for the inconvenience of always having a locked car in my garage.

Great solve! Thanks for passing this along.

 

[Boltron]

I had the same problem (3 horn chirps) so I enabled auto-lock and it went away. It has been 2 or 3 weeks now. But today I went to the bank and when I got back to my car it was unlocked. I got in and the 3 chirps are back. Apparently auto-lock has turned itself off. I didn't really want it but now I sort of depend on it and just walk away from my car. Now I'll have to stand there and wait until it locks to make sure it is still on.

 

[hodad66]

Why on earth would you get out of the car while it is running, when it takes one button-push to turn it Off, and costs no time to push the button again when you get back in?
The car Should honk at you, to train you not to do foolish things.
Get over it - it's not a defect, its a safety feature, as is the pedestrian warning sound, and it is simply stupid to expose yourself to an almost-certain felony-manslaughter conviction by turning off the pedestrian warning sound to spare your tender ears.

Interesting attitude as if nobody ever left the car (and AC) running because another person
is waiting in the car..... DUH. In Florida, where it is hot as hell, one might leave the car on
as you stop to pick up some gum, etc. Put the parking break on, have the car in park &
exit the LOCKED car. "foolish things".... ? :roll:

 

[dandrewk]

Yes, a "foolish thing". Just because anyone has ever exited a running car with no consequences doesn't mean anyone should continue that behavior. There may be only a small chance that something bad might happen, but that's the same logic as playing russian roulette.

BTW, you -can- run the climate control in the Bolt without having the car running. Two button presses and you are there.

 

[hodad66]

Yes, a "foolish thing". Just because anyone has ever exited a running car with no consequences doesn't mean anyone should continue that behavior. There may be only a small chance that something bad might happen, but that's the same logic as playing russian roulette.

BTW, you -can- run the climate control in the Bolt without having the car running. Two button presses and you are there.

With that kind of logic I'd be afraid to leave the house!! :mrgreen: Or perhaps drive one of my
old MG Midget, Austin Healy Sprite, or anything smaller than a HumVee. Life goes on and at 68
I survived all of those dangers when I grew up. :roll: I even drank from the garden hose &
never used "bacterial soap"....... truly amazing!!

 

[dandrewk]

Understood. The potential new issues here are with silent EVs. You cannot hear when they are on, nor do you feel the normal vibrations you would with a gas car. This can (and has) led to tragic results.

 

[sgt1372]

Understood. The potential new issues here are with silent EVs. You cannot hear when they are on, nor do you feel the normal vibrations you would with a gas car. This can (and has) led to tragic results.

Really? Dangerous to whom? The driver or others? I'd like to see some evidence of this in either case.

 

[dandrewk]

Understood. The potential new issues here are with silent EVs. You cannot hear when they are on, nor do you feel the normal vibrations you would with a gas car. This can (and has) led to tragic results.

Really? Dangerous to whom? The driver or others? I'd like to see some evidence of this in either case.

You need evidence that leaving a running car isn't inherently dangerous? Especially one that is totally silent, even with the transmission engaged? You don't see the danger of the car starting to roll on its own?

*citation* Anton Yelchin

There are too many posts here advocating removing or ignoring critical safety features. Not surprising, really. If this were a few years ago, these same comments were advocating overriding the seat belt warning, disengaging anti-lock brakes etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Help?
About 1/3 of the times I hop into my car, the horn chirps a few times before I have a chance to turn it on. Any ideas which "feature" is causing this one? Maybe because I forgot to lock it between uses?

I have been having sam issue and think I found out the cause.
I have the "Remote Left in Vehicle Alert" setting (p145 in manual) set to OFF. But the car is new so I've been playing with settings when car is parked in my garage at night. I take remote with me because I need it ini car to turn car ON to access to some of the vehicle settings---like the "Remote Left in Vehicle Alert" setting. Anyway, I often sit in passenger seat to do this because the passenger door can be fully opened without hitting cabinets on side of garage--unlike my driver door and it's closer to door to garage. I know I need to press brake pedal with my hand from passenger side to start vehicle power, but this is not a big deal for me.

When I'm done making changes to my settings, I turn off vehicle and exit (with remote) from the passenger door. Then the next time--typically the following day, I enter car from driver door to go somewhere and the horn will chirps 3 times when I close driver door behind me. I can repeat the chirps now that I know the cause. My guess is that the car thinks the remote was left in vehicle when I exit from passenger door--even though I take the remote with me. Then when I open and close driver door, it "thinks" I'm leaving vehicle and have left the remote in car. Although, I'm not sure why it chirps since I have this setting OFF. I'm guessing as to why it does it, but at least I know what causes it.

One note I wanted to add: Before I figured out what was triggering it, I called GM customer care for assistance. Phone rep told me the car will always chirp 3 times to let me know the remote is in vehicle and functioning properly. She explained I could have feature turned-off, but I would need to have the dealer do it for me. I tried to explain how this made no sense, but she insisted this was a feature in other GM cars, too. I gave her the example of me leaving for work every morning and how having my corn horn chirp would wake the rest of the family, but she insisted this was a normal vehicle feature. I countered that if that was true, why does this happen only happen once in a blue moon on my car and not every single time I drive it--as she just described. She suggested I take car to dealer.

 

[user 1485]

There are quite a few situations when you would get out of the car and leave the car on. For example to open your garage door before you drive in. Another situation is that there might be someone in the car for whom it is convenient to keep the heater/a/c going while the driver is running a quick errand outside the car. That beep is annoying in those situations. Also, suppose you want to use the wifi outside the car; for which you would leave the power on. (There are a couple of other options to use the wifi outside the car, but I want go into them here).

 

[BillM]

On the pesedrian warning system, the National Highway Transportstion Safety Administration has 157 pages of sleep inducing text on the matter: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812347-minimumsoundrequirements.pdf

Out of curiosity, I looked up the statistics on car - pedestrian collisions. In 1999, NHTSA reported 6,000 collisions in the US: https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/hs809012.html. EVs currently make up about 1% of cars on the road in the US, so there are probably on the order of 60 pedestrian entanglements with EVs in a given year. National Public Radio reported on car - pedestrian accidents, and stated there is about a 10% chance of the pedestrian being killed in collisions less than 20 MPH: https://www.npr.org/2017/03/30/522085503/2016-saw-a-record-increase-in-pedestrian-deaths

Bicyclists are also potential targets of quiet EV provoked crashes. Numbers are for vehicle crashes in general are available here: https://www.npr.org/2017/03/30/522085503/2016-saw-a-record-increase-in-pedestrian-deaths

If EVs and ICEs were equally dangerous to pedestrians, then about five people a year in the US would be killed by EVs. NHTSA’s report above claims a quiet EV is 1.18 times as dangerous to pedestrians and 1.5 times as dangerous to bicyclists. That suggests PWS will save about one to two people per year on average in the US.

It seems like there are probably more effective and less expensive ways to improve safety than PWS: for example education, or mobile phones that detect vehicles (not just EVs) approaching, then generate an alert. Of course if you are the person PWS saves, then cost is no object.

 

[BarfOMatic]

That's a little like saying "I've never had an accident, so I don't want to pay the extra cost of having seatbelts or airbags in my car".

"Less expensive ways"? It's software, running thru the same speaker as the horn, isn't it? Or is it a $1.25 part?

 

[SeanNelson]

If EVs and ICEs were equally dangerous to pedestrians, then about five people a year in the US would be killed by EVs. NHTSA’s report above claims a quiet EV is 1.18 times as dangerous to pedestrians and 1.5 times as dangerous to bicyclists. That suggests PWS will save about one to two people per year on average in the US.

It seems likely to me that pedestrian inattention is a factor in most pedestrian deaths. Even deaths where the vehicle driver is solely to blame, pedestrian vigilance would, I suspect, have saved many or perhaps even most of them. But with so many pedestrians distracted by their smart phones or wearing earbuds, I think it's a bit of a stretch to simply extrapolate the numbers to assume that a sound warning system would have made a difference. The kind of low, electronic sound emitted by the warning system is not going to do much to alert a pedestrian immersed in their phone.

I'm not saying it won't save some lives, but I sure don't think it's going to be a panacea.

 

[SparkE]

If EVs and ICEs were equally dangerous to pedestrians, then about five people a year in the US would be killed by EVs. NHTSA’s report above claims a quiet EV is 1.18 times as dangerous to pedestrians and 1.5 times as dangerous to bicyclists. That suggests PWS will save about one to two people per year on average in the US.

It seems likely to me that pedestrian inattention is a factor in most pedestrian deaths. Even deaths where the vehicle driver is solely to blame, pedestrian vigilance would, I suspect, have saved many or perhaps even most of them. But with so many pedestrians distracted by their smart phones or wearing earbuds, I think it's a bit of a stretch to simply extrapolate the numbers to assume that a sound warning system would have made a difference. The kind of low, electronic sound emitted by the warning system is not going to do much to alert a pedestrian immersed in their phone.

I'm not saying it won't save some lives, but I sure don't think it's going to be a panacea.

Well, to blatantly steal an expression from a work of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle : "Think of it as Evolution in Action".

 

[Anonymous]

Last night I started using the auto-lock feature, so here's to hoping it will stop all the honking.

There's an autolock feature? Where do I set that up?

 

[SparkE]

Last night I started using the auto-lock feature, so here's to hoping it will stop all the honking.

There's an autolock feature? Where do I set that up?

Page 42 (Delayed Locking) and Page 144 (Vehicle Personalization / Power Door Locks : Delayed Door Lock )

Page 35 (Passive Locking) and Page 145 (Vehicle Personalization / Power Door Locks : Passive Door Lock )

 

[BillM]

That's a little like saying "I've never had an accident, so I don't want to pay the extra cost of having seatbelts or airbags in my car".

"Less expensive ways"? It's software, running thru the same speaker as the horn, isn't it? Or is it a $1.25 part?

Page 11 of latest NPRM lists the estimated average cost per vehicle around $70 to $80 depending on production volume. The PWS electronics are actually non trivial and it does not use the buzzer for the horn. A weather proof loudspeaker is required to meet the sonic requirements and a microprocessor is needed to generate the complex waveform that varies with vehicle velocity.

NPRM document: https://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/QuietCar_FinalRule_11142016.pdf

Since all cars will be required to have rear view safety cameras, I would propose image processing electronics to analyze presence of pedestrians in the blind spot could ultimately be made less expensive because they will be deployed in ICE and EV cars alike. I have seen China, Inc. dash cams around $50 that have video approach detection. I feel confident similar technology could be deployed into the mandated camera for less cost.

I would also recommend putting money into educating pedestrians to not walk distracted. Mobile phones could also be outfitted with software that alerts pedestrians when they are about to,walk into a traffic area. The mobile phone fix is still a future thing, as it needs high precision GPS - but that is under developemnt for self driving cars. Mobile phones have an issue where they do not have access to GPS signals. For such areas as indoor parking, low power ultrasonic or RF transducers could signal phones. For that matter, cars could also be outfitted for just a few Dollars.

 

[BarfOMatic]

That's a little like saying "I've never had an accident, so I don't want to pay the extra cost of having seatbelts or airbags in my car".

"Less expensive ways"? It's software, running thru the same speaker as the horn, isn't it? Or is it a $1.25 part?

Page 11 of latest NPRM lists the estimated average cost per vehicle around $70 to $80 depending on production volume. The PWS electronics are actually non trivial and it does not use the buzzer for the horn. A weather proof loudspeaker is required to meet the sonic requirements and a microprocessor is needed to generate the complex waveform that varies with vehicle velocity.

Geez, who is making that, NASA? Are they using $900 hammers to make them?

I could suss out a series of parts for less than $20, easy, buying off the shelf at an electronics store. (Well, except for "weather proof loudspeaker" - I'd install a second sound for PWS - *and* I'd have a low-volume "hey - be careful - I'm right behind you" horn-type noise that I could set off in parking lots for those people listening to their phones/iPods.)