Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Why can't I have a smarter car horn?

Today, while attempting to find a loading zone parking space at IKEA, I had a run-in with a crazy person. Technology could have made this situation completely different. I would have had a legal, primo parking space and could have written about more entertaining subjects in my blog.

If you are familiar with IKEA, then you know they have a loading zone near the entrance or exit of the business. A lady was evidently directing her husband/boyfriend or something into a parking space.This guy was attempting to back the car into the space as fast as possible. This awful backing procedure took place among a parked truck with trailer and several parked and moving cars. After almost hitting a parked car and another car reversing into a space, he came backing towards me. 

Once he reached his required inch away from my bumper he turned into the space. For some reason he decides that he isn't straight enough and plows forward until he reaches that inch space again. At this point, my anxiety level is through the roof and I attempt to give him a honk to say, "Okay, you are close enough to my bumper now, please stop!"

He evidently decides to completely ignore me, however his wife/girlfriend thing gets upset. She glares at me and begins to yell across the parking lot, "Was that necessary?" She repeats this same sentence about four times, then changes to, "Did that make you feel better or change anything?"
At this point, the primo space next to her didn't look so appealing, so I parked illegally to load my crap into my car. 

What is the point of this? The point is, with all this wonderful technology in cars today, why can't I have a multifunctional horn? Obviously leave the big center part for the "Oh Crap!" or "You bleeping moron!" situations, but how about a few more choices on the steering wheel? I have Bluetooth, stereo, cruise and all sorts of other buttons, so I know space isn't the issue. 

I would like to add a very simple, pleasant beep, for those situations where a nice short "toot" will work.  Saying "hi" to the neighbor or "Hey, stop texting, the light turned green!"

If I would have had the nice "toot" maybe crazy lady would've understood that I wasn't yelling at her husband, since that seems to be HER job. I was merely concerned that our bumpers were going to connect in an abrupt fashion, since he didn't seem to be paying attention to any one of the several cars around him. 

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