Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
May contain nuts.

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

user:
pass:
register,


                                       

Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.

Seatbelt Alarm Delayer

I swear bad things will happen if Mable dings at me one more time.
 
(+6, -6)
  [vote for,
against]

Sometimes, and for very brief periods, I need to take the seat belt off while driving. Not safe, I know, but I gots things to do. I have to find my phone, pick up that candy bar I dropped on the passenger floor, get the cat out from between my feet, etc., etc...

Yet the moment I undo that latch, Mable (Don't ask, I didn't name the car, my wife did.) starts right up with the dinging and the donging. I end up having whole long negotiations with the damn car just to shut it up.

Idea: A snooze button to shut the alarm off for any variable about of time. I'm thinking about 1 minute. Enough time to throw the cat into the back but not so long that the alarm turns back on after you get to where you are going.

NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 22 2006

[link]






       Have we missed something important here? You are not supposed to be searching for a candybar or your cell phone! I am sure you are jokeing about these situations but the point is to make sure you have a seatbelt on while you drive right? It is annoying for a reason.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 22 2006
  

       I agree 21Q but NTSS said   

       //Sometimes, and for very brief periods, I need to take the seat belt off while driving.//   

       If you are parked you could just pull your keys out, the seatbelt warning won't ding.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 22 2006
  

       I also am not in favour of driving while searching for candy.
Heavy_Phat, Nov 22 2006
  

       Okay, searching for candy was a bit frivolous and dangerous while driving. I'll give you that much. But don't tell me that there aren't situations where you need to do *something* that requires you to unfasten the seatbelt. For me, in reality, it's doing something with my insulin pump or blood glucose moniter. They are attached to my belt and guess what? The seat belt goes right over them. Then the dinging and the donging- the bane of my existence!
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 22 2006
  

       It's all fun and games until someone pulls out their disease (or dying/dead family member).
craigts, Nov 22 2006
  

       That's where you are wrong, my friend. Around here we have fun and games with desease all the time. In some situations, that's how we got the desease in the first place.   

       Good times, good times...
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 22 2006
  

       //fun and games with desease all the time// sp:decease? That's twisted. :p
craigts, Nov 22 2006
  

       Why not just pull over and do whatever it is you do with your glucose monitor or insulin pump on the side of the road. Safer and if you turn of your car, no sound.
Heavy_Phat, Nov 22 2006
  

       NTSS, I have found the solution. For fun today I drove about a mile or two without a seatbelt on. My dinger did not ding. I have a flashing light in my dash that wont go off unless im belted in. I was driving a saturn ION 2005, I will check out the Blazer tomorrow.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 22 2006
  

       I must argue that there is indeed a problem with the amount of dinging and donging modern cars produce.   

       A car that dings and dongs while the engine is running and the seat belt is off? fine, but why not make that into a car that dings and dongs while the engine is geared to Drive, Neutral, or Reverse while the engine is dinging?   

       Surely, there's not much harm in a car still in park when the seat belt is not in place, right? I mean it isn't going anywhere, is it? Well, it shouldn't be going anywhere!   

       And what about my car that dings when the key is in the ignition, and a door is open? Does it really think I'm going to jump out of the car and lock my keys in by clambering over the front seat, to hop out the passenger side rear door? or through the hatchback?   

       Does my car really think that I open the driver's car door, sit down in the seat, and put my key in the ignition so I can lock my keys in the car every morning? Since airbags are now supposed to have weight sensors, couldn't it wait to ding until I had gotten part ways out of the seat at least? or perhaps it could be equipped with some sort of sense of the order in which I do things. Surely a man does not open the car door and then put the keys in to lock themselves out. They are just getting their stuff ready to start the engine. On the other hand, if the keys are already in the ignition when they open the door, maybe they are about to lock themselves out. If the alarms only come on when something is actually amiss, the alarms are more likely to catch your attention in the first place.   

       As NTSS mentioned, there are times when, unsafe as it is, a driver may need to unfasten the seat belt. Perhaps the alarm could wait one second before it started to warn the driver.   

       This would allow the driver time to adjust their fly so it wasn't stuck in the seat belt, scrape the cat into the rear seat, or roll up the passenger side window before pulling onto the freeway in situations where unfortunately, it may indeed be safer to continue driving while taking care of a serious in-car distraction, rather than attempting to pull over to the side while working around the distraction before taking care of the problem.
ye_river_xiv, Nov 22 2006
  

       //Surely, there's not much harm in a car still in park when the seat belt is not in place, right?//   

       A friend of mine has a father that is now seriously brain damaged because he took off his seatbelt while he was in park. A high speed chase ended at the begining of his rear bumper. His head went through the windshield.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 23 2006
  

       Let me just say that really blows, I can't imagine how crappy a situation that is. I feel for your friend, Chef. But how often do you think something like really occurs?   

       //NTSS, I have found the solution. For fun today I drove about a mile or two without a seatbelt on//
Tried that. I have found that Mable (a Jeep Liberty) will sometimes not ding for awhile if I forget to put the seatbelt on and have had her in park for a bit before commencing to the driving part, but she always gets me. I drive watching the flashing seat belt light flash, flash, flash. I'm thinking, "When the hell is she gonna start yelling at me? Why isn't she yelling at me now? She knows I'm not wearing the belt, she knows I'm driving. Why the hell isn't she yelling? Where's that ding? That awful, awful ding?
Wait, maybe she's not going to ding today, maybe just this one time I can drive without Mable getting all over my ass about <DING> Son of a bitch!"
  

       Jesus, I've got issues.
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 23 2006
  

       I guess you could just pull the seatbelt warning fuse out.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 26 2006
  

       I did that on my Jeep Wrangler because well, it's my car and I can do whatever the hell I want to do with it. However, Mable is not mine and I am not allowed anywhere near it (sorry, her) with any form of tool whatsoever.   

       Besides, it's not that I think the alarm is a bad thing, it's just that I don't think it's always a good thing.
NotTheSharpestSpoon, Nov 26 2006
  

       I lucked out on my last vehicle. I was sitting in the truck, keys in the ignition, buzzer buzzing like crazy, when all of a sudden it quit (after a short hiss-buzz sound that made me look for smoke coming out of the dash). After that, the buzzer only sounded about once a year, and since it doubles as both seatbelt indicator and keys in ignition indicator, it solved all of my problems. But bun for having a snooze button. When I drive other cars, that sound really does annoy me when its not needed.   

       And "Have we missed something important here? You are not supposed to be searching for a candybar or your cell phone! I am sure you are jokeing about these situations but the point is to make sure you have a seatbelt on while you drive right? It is annoying for a reason."   

       [Chefboyrbored] , you take offense at looking for a candybar or phone, but don't at "get the cat out from between my feet, etc., etc..."?
Hunter79764, Nov 27 2006
  

       If you travel with a cat and it got between your feet while you were driving, I would hope you would make a decent attempt to pull over and remove the cat. Looking for things that you really don't have to have in your hand while you are driving was my point.
Chefboyrbored, Nov 28 2006
  

       Others are right, if you need to take your mind off the road enough to have to remove a seatbelt, pull over. Where I am you are not allowed to have loose animals in the car. You would also most likely be found to driving either dangerously or without due care if you had so much shit rolling about the floor that you had to bend down to move it or to remove it from the pedal area.   

       Having said all of this, this seatbelt warning thing is a regional requirement as far as I am aware. In the UK and the rest of europe most cars tend not to have those annoying seatbelt beepers and lights, even though it is illegal nowadays to drive whilst not wearing the seatbelt.
webfishrune, Nov 28 2006
  

       I've never actually seen a car that will sound this alarm while in park. They'll sound it for a second or two when you start the engine, and new ones will do it if you're moving above a certain speed without the belt on.
Bukkakinator, May 28 2008
  

       I love it! Just rip the #@**& #@$ thing out completely!
Ozone, May 28 2008
  
      
[annotate]
  


 

back: main index

business  computer  culture  fashion  food  halfbakery  home  other  product  public  science  sport  vehicle