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Comment by ChrisMarshallNY | Hacker News Reader

> Are there really cars where the horn is not a physical button/ring on the steering wheel?

Yes: https://antiquecarmuseumofiowa.org/wp-content/uploads/1913-F...

Well ... "are" is kinda stretching it...

Touché! It's interesting how early vehicles were very different in their controls, but seemed to mostly converge and stabilise for a few decades, before again diverging and changing rapidly.

The Model T (Ford) had a throttle on the steering wheel and 3 pedals, but not the ones you'd expect today:

https://www.fordmodelt.net/images/ford-model-t-controls_smal...

> but seemed to mostly converge and stabilise for a few decades

Due to regulation.

The US Congress mandated the PRNDSL quadrant for automatic transmissions. (GM had PNDSLR, and people kept shifting into reverse by accident.)

Congress didn’t “mandate” it, they made it such that the federal government could only buy vehicles that used the PRND sequence for auto transmissions. If you don’t want any corporate welfare you can make your transmission shift in any order you feel like.

I drove stick for most of my early driving years, and they were all over the place.

My 1995 Renault Clio had it as a button on the indicator stalk. Worked very well, in my view. Much easier than pressing the centre of the steering wheel. There's often no need to even move your hand!

That helps explain Paris drivers :D

Probably a French thing. My dad’s 70’s Peugeot had the horn where in most cars today is the windscreen washer action, ie pull towards you the right stalk.

I would prank my 6-7yo cousin at the time that all you had to do is ask the car to beep and it would do

80s Fords in Australia had horn on a stalk too

It's a French thing - my Peugeot Partner was the same, horn on the indicator stalk.

My Dacia Sandero has it on the tip of the left stalk

Although it seems to have changed, my 1990's Twingo also had the horn on the indicator stick but a 2000's Megane already has it in the steering wheel proper.

I had the same on a 2003 Twingo. Very handy, except for that time when I horned at a poor jogger on the side of the road instead of activating the turn signal :(

Our family Peugeot 305 also had the horn on the indicator stalk.

My grandmother used to have a car where the horn was a button at the end of one of the stems. I think it was on the same stem that controlled the wipers. I wish I remembered what kind of car it was. I think it was from the 40s.

The old Mini had that. I remember seeing it in the 80's.

First generation Chevy Volt (2011-2016) has a button at the end of the left stem that sounds an alternative polite (aka "pedestrian") horn. It's several very rapid, but somewhat quiet honks, that sound like "brrrap".

I like that. I used to have a car that would give that kind of polite honk with a light press and a louder honk with a harder press. I’ve always wished that were still a thing.

My parents had one of these... I believe it was Ford Corcel from 1978 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Corcel), a South American model, according to Wikipedia, based on Renault 12.

My Land Rover Defender has that too and that’s from early 2000, think they kept that for quite a bit longer than that too.

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