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Comment by goda90 | Hacker News Reader

Two times this week I biked past a parked car and it emitted a horrible high pitched buzzing at me. I'm guessing it's supposed to be an anti-theft mechanism(entirely unnecessary in a Midwest suburb). I of course had no intention of stealing the car, but the noise triggers a desire to do other things to the car. I guess the owner is lucky I'm not an angsty teenager.

There's so much unnecessary noise pollution in our society, it makes me really sad.

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I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back. Those used to be a thing, but they'd mostly disappeared. But I keep hearing them in parking lots, with nobody anywhere near the car. At least they shut off after a while. That was legislated back in the 1980s.

Sometimes it can be a genuine mistake.

I was in my garage with my keys in my back pocket, checking the tire pressure on my truck, when it started honking at me. My butt triggered the panic button.

I have acute hearing. That was painful and hardly deliberate!

>>I've noticed that car alarms that go off for no good reason seem to be back.

So in the 2000s, this was fairly common in India. Then one day a installation mechanic told me the sensor had various calibration settings. You could get the trigger to be as sensitive as you wanted.

At times a rodent or a crow could trigger the alarm.

Not sure if it's the same thing but many stores will put noise emitting machines in their parking lots to make it hostile for people who wanna sleep in their cars there

Once you first notice it you'll realize these machines are kinda everywhere

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