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Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

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Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#201

Post by dsfyu404ed »

Swizec wrote: post #17
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #4

I lost most of my hearing in my left ear in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. No other injuries. The audiologist said that my eardrum was in the kind of state you usually only see in battlefields from exposure to large explosions. People are always surprised when I tell them this was my only injury, and as a result I've always wondered how common this type of injury is with vehicle collisions. This is the firs…

Aren’t airbags essentially explosions going off in your face? Fancy car like mercedes probably has 10+ of them going off around you Especially the one in the door right next to your head could be bad for your ears I imagine ... Never thought of that before. Thanks for bringing it up

>Fancy car like mercedes probably has 10+ of them going off around you

And a really well sealed cabin because they don't want any road noise creeping in.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#202

Post by londons_explore »

raverbashing wrote: post #188
chongli wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Porcelain toilet lids and the metal plates on weightlifting machines are among the most dangerous common objects when it comes to hearing damage. I've heard of cases where the plates on the machine were stuck together with grease and the user had selected a much lighter weight than usual. A number of plates below the linchpin were all the way up by the bonds of the grease before slipping and falling back down. The me…

There's usually some dampening at the bottom of the pile of weights, but yeah it can be loud depending on how heavy and how fast it is dropped.

Even a piece of paper between each weight would surely absorb most of the energy and make it much quieter? Why don't all machines have that?

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#203

Post by dsfyu404ed »

gavia1 wrote: post #171
jansan wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at the bottom of the doors of almost any Mercedes B-Class produced before 2009 and you will see brown corrosion traces. My B-Class (bought new in 2005) was literally falling apart from corrosion. They had massive quality problems in the early 2000s, with the B- and C-Class. I know this is my personal experience, but I will never be able to purchase any Mercedes car ever again.

That's bad luck! But... if you'll never buy from a manufacturer because one of their models had a corrosion issue or drivetrain issue you'd never be able to buy a car ever again?

It's one thing to have "a corrosion or drive-train issue" that affects a model or series of models built with that design. It's another to repeatedly have the same issue, repeatedly say it's fixed and then have it turn out to be not fixed. Toyota light truck frames, Nissan CVTs and arguably Honda A/C systems are the quintessential examples of this (though in Honda and Nissan's defense, they never claimed to have ever done anything about it).

I'm not gonna comment on the Mercedes because while they definitely have earned their reputation for being expensive in old age I'm not familiar enough with them to pass a value judgement.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#204

Post by londons_explore »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #199
ChickeNES wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a blogpost I read a few years back written by someone who damaged their hearing after dropping a porcelain toilet lid. They actually ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the decibel level, I recall it being shockingly high.

I would just like to point out that people have been hitting all sorts of things with other things for millennia and the only people getting hearing damage from it were the ones doing it particularly loudly for decades as their day job (i.e. people in loud factories). This is below the level of terrorist attacks and shark bites in Kansas on the things to worry about list.

Or... Those are the only ones officially reporting it so they can get workplace compensation...

If I dropped my toilet lid, I probably wouldn't officially report it anywhere - not much can be done, after all.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#205

Post by clktmr »

grogenaut wrote: post #158
hbosch wrote: post #135

I just want to say that this is exactly the type of thoughtfulness, design, engineering and research that justifies the price difference in something like a Mercedes and something like a Honda. There are so many small triumphs like this in class-leading, high-end vehicle manufacturers that go unnoticed and unsung and allow people with 2019 Accords to say things like "why would I pay $45,000 for that when I get better…

This is super common with Mercedes. They put a lot of whiz bang features into their eclass. Some, Like night vision camera heads up diaplay, don't take off, others trickle down and are or will be everywhere now like side curtain airbags or Lane keeping assist. If you flip it on its head though, why is Mercedes only protecting people who pays 3-10x the price for their car for what in this case is just a software fix?…

> [...] just a software fix?

They paid for research, marketing, engineering, etc. By that logic one could also argue, that Amazon shouldn't store safety related products in their warehouses, but instead give them away for free.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#206

Post by obituary_latte »

mikestew wrote: post #172
mehrdadn wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why isn't this taught to everyone at a young age? I had no idea this could happen and it kind of terrifies me that I can lose my hearing so easily like this without having any clue.

Then go buy the toilet lids that don’t drop with the acceleration of gravity, i. e., “soft close”. Hearing loss or not, I don’t want to hear anyone dropping the toilet lid in the middle of the night.

Even though this isn’t the same thing op is talking about, I also vouch for these. Slow-close toilet lids are amazing. The only problem is when you visit someone else’s house, you have to be conscious when using their toilets else you end up slamming the lid accidentally by reflexively just starting the closing process and finding out they aren’t slow-close lids (BANG!)

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#207

Post by londons_explore »

hbosch wrote: post #135

I just want to say that this is exactly the type of thoughtfulness, design, engineering and research that justifies the price difference in something like a Mercedes and something like a Honda. There are so many small triumphs like this in class-leading, high-end vehicle manufacturers that go unnoticed and unsung and allow people with 2019 Accords to say things like "why would I pay $45,000 for that when I get better…

I mean, the actual implementation of this feature could have been a few hours work...

Let the media center detect airbag deployment on CAN bus, then play a pre-saved quarter second audio sample at a fixed volume.

There might be complexities if the audio system is turned off and needs to boot up, but my guess is on all modern cars, the audio amplifier etc. is always turned on, even if the radio appears 'off'.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#208

Post by dsfyu404ed »

snvzz wrote: post #200
misterdoubt wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, they do need to overcome my noise-cancelled high-volume drown-out-coworkers music...

A couple year ago, I was listening to music at a super low volume (way below that of people talking around me, if I removed the headphones) when fire alarm triggered. I didn't hear it. A coworker did pat my shoulder to let me know, and I noticed the super loud fire alarm as soon as I removed the quiet headphones. The headphones were not noise-cancelling or anything. Just Sennheiser HD380 Pro, which provide ~30dB isol…

>This suggests that alternative indicators than just sound should be in place, such as automatically turning off lights and switching to emergency lighting.

The commercial building fire alarms have flashers on them for just that reason. Deaf people need to know the building is on fire too.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#209

Post by mnw21cam »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #190
coke12 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a pretty good HN comment thread about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16723099 From the linked thread: """ 5. The stupid toilet bowl lid only fell about 8 inches. How could it damage my hearing so badly? I looked up the speed of sound in ceramic, divided by the length of the toilet bowl lid (and divided by 2 since the fundamental vibration is a half wavelength). This predicts 3.5 kHz. 6. This frequ…

I wonder if screaming when you realize you're dropping it would provide some protection.

If your reflexes are that good, sure.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#210

Post by mnw21cam »

emteycz wrote: post #140
whenchamenia wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in most of the usa, wearing earplugs (or earbuds, headphones, etc) while operating a car, is illegal. Please check with your local PD to be safe. You may just be putting yourself and others at higher risk by attinuating your situational awareness.

On the other hand driving schools in Europe sometimes make us drive with construction safety devices in order to check if we can drive without hearing anything. They also obstruct the middle mirror (you're supposed to be able to drive with just side mirrors).

When I was learning to drive, my biggest complaint was that I couldn't hear the engine when there was noise in the area - it was a very quiet one. It made it harder to do hill starts and clutch balancing. Now I drive a diesel.
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