Taxi driver wearing noise cancelling headphones while driving in the city

[u/BiteInfamous]

Look I’m PMSing so I’m admittedly in a very nit picky time of my life. But. Don’t love weaving in and out of traffic in a major city while the taxi driver has noice cancelling headphones on. The sound is loud enough I can hear whatever (moderately funny) comedy show he’s listening to in the backseat. This is ill advised, yes?

ETA thanks to everyone who taught me about transparent mode today :)

ETA2 : Okay, I’m the asshole, comments have shown me there’s lots that could be going on with the driver to make him need to use these and there’s way he could do so safely. Mea culpa. That’ll teach me to knee jerk react.

[u/slaw_daddy → u/[deleted]]

I just feel like I’m losing my mind.

You're aware that deaf people drive, right? What do you need to hear while driving? A car horn? (which is loud enough that you'll probably easily hear it anyway). What else could you possibly need to hear? Cars are literally built to cancel as much external noise as possible. People listen to music in their cars loud enough to drown out most surrounding noise.

What is the difference here, other than unregulated emotional reactions?

[u/YLCZ → u/slaw_daddy]

Both Uber and Lyft allow deaf people to drive. I was surprised but this is the case. I knew someone who drove lift who was pretty deaf and had cochlear implants.

[u/sappho_snot → u/slaw_daddy]

I’m someone who started losing my hearing about two years ago. I’m not practiced in a world without it, and I constantly have to manually remind myself to monitor what I’m missing.

If someone is deaf, and experienced in navigating without hearing, I am not at all worried.

What worries me is someone who can hear, and using hearing whether they think they do or not, willingly sacrificing it so they can hear their music or podcast uninterrupted, while they’re driving.

If you can hear, and choose this, it locks out the world.

[u/VaporCarpet → u/slaw_daddy]

Lmao you're aware that blind people exist, right? So what's wrong about closing your eyes and walking down the street?

Is the dumbass logic in your comment. We can't taste other cars while we're driving. Smell isn't very helpful, either. Touch, maybe if you look at it from the angle of being able to feel if you're starting to skid or something. You've got two senses left and you're saying "who cares if you can't hear, you can still see". Willingly disabling one of those senses is only going to make you a worse, less attentive driver. There is no possibility where preventing your ability to hear other things on the road allows you to sense more.

[u/Mirihim → u/VaporCarpet]

I'm a bit confused. Where did this person say, or even imply, that preventing the ability to hear would allow you to sense more? Seems like you've fabricated that part of their argument.

Further, their point in bringing up deaf people was to illustrate that deaf people CAN drive, and can in fact do so safely. Their argument is basically questioning what does hearing add to one's ability to safely drive.

Your claim that willfully disabling one of their remaining two senses will only result in a worse driver is a bold claim and not one you've bothered to back up with any kind of data other than "well it's obvious, idiot". I get it though, it does seem intuitive that the more senses available, the more responsive one will be. But as the other person asked, what does being able to hear add to one's ability to safely drive?

It would seem, based on the fact deaf people can and do drive without the need of ANY safety accomodations (and don't seem to be responsible for a disproportionate rate of accident) that hearing might not be as vital for operating a car as is suggested in this thread.

Additionaly, there are many things that can also limit or reduce one's ability to hear while driving that no one questions as unsafe. Actions that many probably use themselves. For example, listening to any form of music, audiobook, podcast or radio not only limits hearing but also pull attention from the task and people FREQUENTLY use these while driving. Being distracted while driving is up there for the most common cause of car accidents.

I can respect an argument that dulling a sense is in essence, a form of distraction. But to that I say many people are able to focus on the task at hand better when they aren't overwhelmed by sensory overload. Dulling or dimming sound could help with being more attentive to the road, especially when hearing isn't necessarily vital to the operation of a car.

(P.s you do realise that humans have WAAAY more than just 5 senses, right?)