Honk Twice If You Agree

As I was driving my car this morning alongside many other drivers like me, I began to wonder: No matter how far we have progressed and pushed the limits of what the car looks like, feels like and drives like, there is one thing that has remained unchanged since its inception: The horn.

Designed to alert cars around us, the horn, just like our favorite swear words have taken on multiple meanings and expressions over time: We happily beep when we see a person we know on the street. We eagerly honk when we want someone to hurry up and get in. We impatiently honk to get the car in front of us to move faster. We empathically beep to indicate to another driver something isn’t right with their car. We excitedly beep multiple times when we want to celebrate something together. We angrily honk to show our discontent with someone's driving skills. And yes, we desperately press the horn to alert another driver of a potential collision.

It’s in our human nature to evolve even the most mechanical of tools into something so much more colorful and expressive than its original utilitarian intent. And yet by doing so, we seem to have created more confusion than clarity. How often do we really know why someone is beeping at us and what does it really mean?

In today’s hyper-social, hyper-connected world, isn’t it time the car horn caught up with our need to clearly express our complex and wide range of emotions? We already concluded that a ‘Like’ button was not enough to convey our reaction to content, should the same principal apply to our communication on the road? Imagine if the horn evolved to become more like an (audio) Emoji. Is there a possibility that our road rage will decrease and our sense of road camaraderie will increase?

The advent of smart technology in automotive is certainly reinventing the way cars drive us and communicate with us, but it has yet to transform the way we communicate with each other. With many hours of our lives spent driving alongside one another, could the concrete road become our next social platform?.

When that day comes, I hope the horn as we know it, will cease to exist.