I’ve seen ads for the new Ford F-150, which proclaim that the truck is made of “quiet steel.” This new material apparently prevents any sound from penetrating, making the ride as quiet as absolutely possible.
My question is, how is this legal? It’s my understanding that in most areas it’s illegal for a person to drive while using headphones (although this my just be an urban legend of some sort). Presumably, the headphone restriction is so that the driver can hear things like sirens and other cars. It would seem that a vehicle made of “quiet steel” would prevent these sounds from getting to the driver. So what I’m really asking is, why can you drive a vehicle in which you can hear no outside sound, but can’t listen to music on headphones while driving?
It’s likely just marketing hype promoting that the vehicle is quiet. I’m sure you can still hear sirens and such, and wouldn’t be surprised at all if it were no quieter than comparable vehicles.
Quiet steel damps the sounds transmitted through the frame (mostly road and mechanical noise.
If you think about it, I’m sure you’ll agree that the sound of a siren doesn’t reach you through the trunk or engine compartment, it reaches you through the thin, rigid windscreens and windows. Quiet steel can’t block sound that reaches you from other direction. ("Hey, Chief! I just figured out why Control’s cone of silence never seems to work.)
Other means of quieting, like Automatic Noise Cancellation, would pose the kind of problem you cite more than any structural material, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see tailored noise cancellation in cars in the not-too-distant future. Its biggest problem (aside from the limited regions of cancellation) would be the fact that external mics would become a reliability-critical safety system.
Until they make “quiet glass,” there’s not much of a problem. The larger problem interfering with drivers’ ability to hear sirens and horns is “loud stereos.”
I’m curious what quiet steel really is. My guess is more steel than usual (heavier sometimes = less vibration, or at least a different frequency of vibration) or coating body panels with something like Dynamat, which does a great job of “deadening” things that rattle or resonate.
Quiet Steel claims to reduce noises from vibrations and other vehicle body related sources. Sounds like it is along the lines of hydraulic motor mounts in the effort to reduce annoying vibrations and noise.
The more steel=less vibrations results in driving a brick. When going back to driving my Durango after awhile of driving the wife’s car, it always feels like the parking break is on and that’s with a 5.9L engine. Heavy is great for stopping certain problems but results in other issues.
You can still hear relevant sounds (sirens, car horns, truck engines) through the windows. As previously suggested, I think that the design of the truck minimizes the noise of the engine, transmission, and wheels that gets into the cabins of ordinary cars. I’ve made a few cabinets for stereo systems and the sound is much cleaner when the speakers rest on something solid and containing many tightly-bound layers, like particle board or packing the legs in sand.
This Quiet Steel sounds like it physically isolates the cabin from the noisy parts of the vehicle as much as possible. It probably serves as an extra inch of “crush-zone” in crashes, and is probably expensive to replace after said. Fine and good, I suppose. The cabin will have little hum and buzz in it from the mechanicals, and you can still hear sounds that have to travel through glass like in other cars.
I may be wrong on this, but it sounds like an urban legend to me: after all, deaf people can be licensed drivers. And there doesn’t seem to be any issue with driving with the stereo up so loud that it drowns out surrounding noise (yes, I’ve heard of people getting ticketed for this, but for disturbing the peace or somesuch - not for any kind of moving violtion).
It is indeed unlawful to operate a motor vehicle while wearing headphones under Georgia law and Massachusetts law, and, I would think, under most state laws.
There’s a difference between people who can’t hear at all and people who impair their otherwise adequate hearing while driving.
Won’t argue that with you, since you seem to be familiar with the law (at least in two states) on this.
I’m curious as to what difference you’re referring to. To my thinking, neither the deaf person nor the deliberately-hearing-impaired person are able to hear their surroundings. I don’t see that one has an auditory advantage over the other, where their driving is concerned.
The difference is that in general a deaf person does not rely on the perception of auditory clues to alert him or her to the surrounding circumstances. In general, a hearing person – whether consciously or unconsciously – parcels out a portion of his or her awareness to the detection of auditory clues regarding the surrouding circumstances. Impairing this sense in theory may leave the hearing person wearing headphones more vulnerable than a deaf person.
Regarding driving with headphones, I was stopped in 1988 by a Virginia state trooper who informed me that it was indeed against the law (she let me off with a warning).
I think I see the point you’re making; but I don’t agree with the presumption (mind you, I’m not saying it’s your presumption) that driving while listening to headphones (at any volume) poses a greater risk (in terms of driving ability) than driving with the stereo (potentially) at full volume.
That’s a decent point about deaf people being able to drive, but take it from someone who’s been pulled over for wearing headphones, it can be illegal. It sure is in CA.
If you make it illegal for deaf people to drive, you are seperating them from a very important activity to many of us. We pay enormous sums of money for the ability to drive, and it sucks to have that priveledge taken away from us.
If we make it illegal for people with headphones to drive, it is a minor annoyance.
What can I say, even if there is no difference in safety between headphones and being deaf, the people with headphones can easily do something about it. I think that it is a reasonable step to allow deaf people to drive.
Also, although I personally doubt Ford’s claims, if the Quiet Steel really is effective at reducing mechanical/road noise, would it not make the sound of a siren more noticeable, and the car safer?
Remember you’re talking about a pickup truck. “Quiet” vehicles are nothing new on the road. Take a drive in just about any mid-luxury to luxury car and you’ll notice a huge difference in the amount of road and environmental noise. Climb back into a Pontiac Sunfire and you’ll feel deafened by just the tire noise.
The whole body isn’t made of quiet steel. That would be outrageously expensive. Additionally, you can’t just advertise “hey, the F150’s quiet!” You need to advertise something else so that the point really sticks home. Kind of like the difference between saying “good engine” and “northstar system” – which one sticks to the memory more?