[Closed] I heard a talking lorry today.

An alarm in the cab warning of something in the driver's blind spot may be more useful, buts it's a good start at least.

"Now I'm just a country bumpkin up to the big city for the first time in a while but I'd never heard that before. Is this a new thing?"

😆

It's been annoying us sophisticated city slickers for years.

It's been annoying us sophisticated city slickers for years.

"Vehicle reversing BEEEP BEEEEP"

Except it's not a beep, it's some sort of beep/claxon hybrid.

Sets my teeth right on edge.

Well to be fair it was only Loanhead so not that sophisticated.

I've heard the reversing thing plenty of times but never 'turning left'

The thing with all these systems is that they are fine whilst they work but you begin to rely on them such that when they don't you make the very mistake they were put in to prevent. Basically they don't "fail safe".

A case in point would be the reversing sensors fitted to most cars, ours went wrong and I only realised as I was rolling back towards a parked car. It's reasonable to argue that I should have been looking as well as listening for the increased tone of the beep (and I'd be hard pushed to argue convincingly otherwise) but I fell in to the trap of relying on the technology not my own observation.

"Except it's not a beep, it's some sort of beep/claxon hybrid.

Sets my teeth right on edge."

Ooh, when water's got in and affected the beeper, and it sounds like a deranged magpie on crack. 😡

The other day we had 3 cement lorries turning left.It was a bloody racket.
A bit over the top I think.

I remember once hearing a securicor van shouting "help under attack call police" with 2 sheepish looking guards locked inside 😆

I was on a meeting on a ship moored in the middle of the Portsmouth Harbour.

Suddenly all the klaxons went off and the Tannoy started shouting (like *really* shouting) "THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ABANDON SHIP! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ABANDON SHIP!"

Then a bloke dressed like this;

[img] [/img]

walked into the passenger lounge where we are having the meeting carrying the end of a hose.

He stopped and we heard a muffled "Oh, no one said you were here. It's just a drill."

So we carried on with the meeting with all this shouting and running about going on. Very British.

scruff9252 - Member

An alarm in the cab warning of something in the driver's blind spot may be more useful, buts it's a good start at least.

I'm often riding shotgun in trucks for work. To be fair to truck drivers visibility is carp... There are already an array of mirrors to check and by the time you've checked them all (particularly when sitting /pulling away from the lights) things could have changed.

Making cyclists aware that it is never a good idea to ride down the inside of anything bigger than a Smart when the indicator is on would be better.

So we carried on with the meeting with all this shouting and running about going on. Very British.

"Caution: This vehicle does not pay attention to other road users."

[i]only Loanhead[/i]

Watch oot pal, ah'm gawn left ken?

We get the reversing white noise ones around yer - very odd.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07pmyd6/inside-the-factory-series-2-4-bicycles

There is a segment in this show on some of the tech to help keep cyclists safer.

I remember once hearing a securicor van shouting "help under attack call police" with 2 sheepish looking guards locked inside

There are traffic lights right outside my house and years ago a G4S Van broke down outside and it's alarms went off.

Really annoying. The Police came and sat with it until breakdown recovery arrived. It then went off down the road on the wrecker still screaming out " securicor vehicle under attack "

As a supermarket trucker I've got the dubious privilege of driving some lorrys with the 'Caution this vehicle is turning left' soundtrack.The trouble is it's so irritating you modify your driving to shut it up.When driving vehicles fitted without the warning I sit at lights with the left indicator flashing,with the lorrys fitted with the warning alert I only switch the indicators on a few seconds before I move to keep the noise pollution down..
Strangely they haven't got round to fitting one that says don't pull in behind this vehicle when it's reversing.
The artics don't have these fitted but they have one that shouts out 'Attention remember to drop trailer legs',this is supposed to stop F***wits pulling the unit out from the trailer without remembering to drop the trailer legs,but if there's a bit of wear on the electrical connections it goes off as your driving along,gets some funny looks going through busy areas...

Was it an articulate lorry?

Talking lorries are a great idea, stops boris bikes doing something silly around them.

My gripe at the moment is the "cyclists don't pass this vehicle on the left hand side" plastered on vans, not even long ones but the converted Ford Fiesta vans. Wtf! Come across as disclaimers to me; "warning I may not bother to check my left hand mirror when I'm about to turn left"...

You don't see (or I haven't seen, at least) trucks with the "no entry" sign on the left and the white arrow on blue -"overtake this side" sign on the right. All trucks in Greece seem to have them (the other way round, of course).

BigJohn WINS

My gripe at the moment is the "cyclists don't pass this vehicle on the left hand side" plastered on vans, not even long ones but the converted Ford Fiesta vans. Wtf! Come across as disclaimers to me; "warning I may not bother to check my left hand mirror when I'm about to turn left"...

Apparently, this was something to do with the fleet operators scheme in London mandating them for *every* vehicle. Not sure if that's true or not though.

I agree with you, it's BS.