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Did you know that car reversing beeper volume can be changed?

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Edited

Hi all - I wasn’t aware of this, so might be useful to others. A while ago I got a new (ish) VW car, and although it had reversing (parking sensor) beepers, I could barely hear them (sometime when alone I like to be without my aids :)). I mentioned this at the cars next service, and the guy plugged something in & adjusted the volume to max - what a difference, and who would have guessed they were adjustable? Bob

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Since we don’t know and can’t anticipate the hearing ability of the child or adult who might run behind our vehicle as we contemplate backing up, shouldn’t the auto industry be setting that reversing beeper volume to its highest point on every car? I’m glad you discovered this capability but I don’t understand the industry’s logic in leaving it to the car driver to determine the safe volume level.

This is the sound the driver hears I believe.

And yes, I knew in many cars the volume is adjustable. In some vehicles the frequency is adjustable too. Doug Demuro frequently makes (read: attempts to) music with cars that offer this.

@phobos512 said:

This is the sound the driver hears I believe.

I always thought the warning was directed at any person who perchance was about to walk behind the car.

Edited

There are lots of electronic optional adjustments on new cars. Some (most?) dealers are a lot less friendly and will charge you for any adjustment. Carista makes an app that will let you make your own adjustments and also do many diagnostic tasks. There are probably other apps besides Carista that allow this too. Not trying to sell people on Carista.

In reply to @MDB

I have a Carista and the first thing I did was turn off the infernal reverse beeper. You know, the one inside the car that no one can hear but the driver. One of the goofier attributes the Toyota Prius has. Prius owners will know. Also made a few other tweaks.

Yes! That’s why I got Carista. I also changed the automatic door locking to 15mph instead of upon starting, unlocking all doors on one push of the remote and turned off seat belt alarms. But the biggie was that blasted reverse beeping.

Besides allowing volume control, any such devices ought to offer the user a frequency component choice. Guess the idea of high frequency is that it’s more unusual, thus more alerting, and perhaps better able to be heard above low-frequency outdoor noise (trucks rumbling by, etc).

But I first got a clue to my hearing loss when our security alarm key pads got changed out. I complained to the security company that the volume of the alert to turn off the alarm on entering the house was so much weaker on the new key pads. That might have been true in part but I think the main thing was that the new keypad tone was just a purer, higher frequency whereas the manufacturer of the older keypad was smart enough to include some lower frequency components. So I’d be all for some tone settings options on any device alert, car or otherwise. Now that everything’s getting “smart,” it shouldn’t be too hard to provide for on devices on into the future.

Well my guess is that it’s probably turned up loud enough for a person with normal hearing. Hearing impaired seems to never or rarely taken into consideration

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