Warning! Nearly Half of Millenials Can't Identify This Dashboard Warning Symbol!

Is it necessary to have your kids memorize each symbol, OR is it better to have them be aware that ONE of the symbols is lit and pull over to determine what to do.

… like the ones on the assembly instructions for Ikea furniture.
:rage:

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Pictograms have bee used for drivers for decades? Why do you think a stop-sign is Red Octagon, Yield signs are Yellow Triangle.

Here’s a look at one possible future of the driving experience:

Sorry, I can’t stomach Ellen, but I managed to watch the overly contrived non-humorous clip created by her/his writers. I thought it was actually going to be illustrative of the future, but I just wasted my time.
CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

I’ve been driving 44 years in a variety of cars. Recently the low tire symbol stayed on when I started the car one morning. One of those brain dead mornings, I couldn’t remember what THAT weird symbol means. But, aha, there is that ever so useful CAR MANUAL in the glove compartment! Mystery solved, I then checked pressure on all four tires, aired up the one which was low, stopped at the indie shop I patronize and from where I had bought the tires. Voila, tire had a screw in the tread. Tire repaired and I’m safer and with renewed knowledge about ALL the warning light symbols courtesy of a quick read in the manual.

Moral of the story, heed warning lights and, if necessary, look up in the car manual what they mean. :grin:

EDIT: BTW, I check tire pressure, oil, fluid levels, etc. every week. And if there is major change in outside temperature or if when driving it feels different than normal, I check the tires. I’ve had TPS on my cars only the past twelve years. Old habits of keeping a regular check rather than relying only on the TPS although the sensors are a great feature I appreciate.

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The first time I experienced a low pressure warning light was in a 2002 Ford Windstar. Mrs. Triedaq, another colleague, and I were returning back to East Central Indiana from a conference in Minneapolis where we had given a presentation. The Windstar belonged to the university where we were employed. We left Minneapolis in the late afternoon and I was elected to drive the night shift. I was on I-74 in Illinois on a section of the interstate that was under construction. The pavement had been milled and there was only one lane in each direction. The milled pavement caused quite a vibration. At any rate, about midnight the tire pressure light popped on. There was no place to pull over and I couldn’t stop in traffic, so I had to keep going. I surmised from the shape of the symbol that it had something to do with.the tires. Both my wife and my colleague were asleep, and I didn’t detect any pull in the steering, so I just kept going and hoped for the best. I didn’t come to an exit until we were out of the construction zone. I pulled into a truck stop and looked at the tires. None appeared to be low on air. Mrs. Triedaq woke up and I told her why we had stopped. She got the manual out of the glove box and we found instructions on resetting the low pressure warning light. We reset the light and it stayed off. We did decide to go into the truck stop and have coffee. We didn’t get back into town until 3:00 a.m. and I didn’t get to bed until 4 a.m. I got up at 6:30 because I had to teach an 8:00 class. When I walked into my building, I found out my department head had died while we were out of town.
I did find out that the Ford Windstar we used didn’t have sensors in the tire valve stems, but used some system that was connected with the antilock brakes. The vibrations from the milled pavement had set off the low pressure warning light. I hope that type of low tire pressure monitoring system isn’t used anymore.

Overall, my 2014 Camry has proven far more reliable than the 2007 Impala but I confess I liked how the Impala would display the actual tire pressure for each tire whereas the Camry merely has an idiot light. It’s likely that a higher trim level of the Camry would have that nice feature but I didn’t spring for all the $$$$ bells and whistles.

Exactly. Adding nonsense for the 10 character limit.

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+1
Let us not forget that we get VERY frequent posts from people who can’t distinguish between warning lights for the following situations:
Low oil pressure
Low oil level
Time to change the oil

Rather than seizing on one age group’s ignorance regarding one particular warning light, I think it is time to remember that a significant percentage of drivers of ALL age groups have little–or no–clue regarding the meaning of any of the warnings that pop-up on their instrument panel.

Because all of that info can be found in one’s Owner’s Manual, I think that we need to file this thread under the topic of Willful Ignorance.
:thinking:

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But it is.

@PvtPublic I suppose the chances of the system setting off the low tire pressure symbol from uneven road surface such as milled pavement are small, but for me it was rather disconcerting. I have driven enough years and miles I can sense in the handling when a tire is low. However, I think the system with the sensors in the valve strms, though adding to the expense, is a good feature.

I own vehicles with both monitoring systems and I personally prefer the one run off the ABS wheel speed sensors. It’s simpler and has worked fine for me with never a false alarm (although, these are GM vehicles).

It does not indicate which tire is low, but with any tire alert, all tires should be checked and adjusted anyhow.

Problems with sensors in the tires are the expense of the ultimate replacement of each transmitter when the battery is depleted and many systems require resetting tire locations when tires are rotated. Additionally, many of these systems aren’t reset and give a driver a wrong low tire location.

I’m not looking for any extra complications and expenses. I think the system that utilizes the already installed and functioning ABS wheel speed sensor is genius.
CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

Could it be that the driving public was actually better off when service stations actually had people that serviced customers cars when they filled up? You know, the ‘good ole days.’

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Per a blog post from Concordia University in 2018, “More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level.”

Beyond this, how well-written are the owner’s manuals that come with cars? My Vibe’s manual is terrible. Too many of my friends are published writers, and some of them write for corporations, I am the lowly English major. I’ve taken my car to a Toyota dealership to get some questions answered. Of course, I also posted questions in this forum for help. My most recent complaint with the manual is their instructions on replacing tail light bulbs; yes, the bulb #s are in the manual, but how to replacing all of them is tricky. I did it, but I can only hope all were replaced correctly. I’ll drive to a store with a glass facade to test them. The tire pressure symbol is explained in the manual, by the way.

Probably that. Also, in the ‘good ole days’ people were more self reliant. People tested their own tubes from their radios and TVs, ironed their own clothes, sewed buttons, darned socks, cooked and ate all their own meals, navigated their cars with a map. They kept records, wrote things down, paid attention. There wasn’t an “app for that (this, that, and the other thing)” and no reminder messages on the little phones people now walk around staring at and no messages jumping from a car dashboard.

People lived more within budgets bought cars they could afford (with lots of skin in the game) and wanted to take care of them so they’d last. Now folks charge an entire car purchase for cars that are too extravagant and expect it to be smart enough to manage itself. If maintenance is neglected they blame the manufacturer for selling a lemon or some cyber-space outfit that told them to drive into a lake through GPS technology.

CSA
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

You think that because of advancements in technology people still don’t do those things? I’m very tech savvy, and we sew our own buttons and cook our own meals and write things down (although there are very nice reminder apps that can be shared among family). You should try embracing technology sometime. Tech can enhance your life. I didn’t have GPS when my oldest started playing Soccer. Some of those soccer fields are damn near impossible to find without GPS. You can’t look at a map and memorize the 20+ left and right turns needed to navigate to the field. Trying to get to one of those fields to watch my daughter play was sometimes a nightmare. I had to stop 2-3 times to look at the map. And in MA and NH at that time you better have an up to date map because of the constant construction going on.

Texting is probably my one big complaint about over use of a technology. But you can easily turn off any alert messages when driving. Hands free talking is good. Hands free voice navigation is great.

Has that ever happened…maybe. But it’s extremely rare. Less then .000000000001% of all the safe navigation events that ever happened. And I’ve seen that happen with someone using a map. With GPS from my phone I was notified about a bridge being closed for removal the day it happened. Your paper map is probably 5+ years old, and the next map that will show the bridge out won’t be printed for at least another year.

@common_sense_answer. At 77, I am a product of the “good old days”. I serviced my own radios, high fidelity system, and television set. In fact, I went to college with my my only electronic device a clock radio. I didn’t have a record player. I purchased a record changer for $25 and reasoned that every radio had an amplifier section and a speaker, so I figured out how to install a jack and switch to be able to play records through the radio. Later, when I had a little money, I purchased a used Eico amplifier and preamp both for $25, bought a $25 12" speaker, spent $3 for a sheet of celotex and built a speaker enclosure. I then had a good sounding high fidelity system. I bought my first television for $25. It was a little Philco 14" screen portable. The sound would cut in and out and the original owner had it in the shop a couple of times and the shop couldn’t find the problem. I opened it up and found a cold solder joint on the volume control. Two minutes with my soldering iron and it was fixed. I used my television and high fidelity set for years. Please understand that in the early 1960s, the $100 I spent on my high fidelity system and television set was a lot of money–probably equivalent to $700-800 today. I replaced spark plugs and ignition points in my car and set the timing by ear. I was able to replace the water pump and fuel pump and do other maintenance.
Today I feel as though I have lost control. On the 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan used to own, the engine had to be raised to replace the water pump at a cost of $975. I was in Walmart a couple of days ago. There were new 32" flat screen television sets on sale for $99. The 1960 equivalent is probably less than $15. If the $99 television quits working after the warranty expires, it is tossed on the scrap heap.
I was more self reliant in the “good old days”. I bought a bottom of the line 1965 Rambler Classic 550 with 7000 miles on the odometer in 1965. I ran that car 8 years and over 100,000 miles until the rust finally was doing it in. I fixed s lot of rust places with a fiber glass kit, bondo, and and spray paint in an aerosol can. I couldn’t do this kind of body repair today with the clear coat finish and have it look right. I could make the body repair on the 1965 Rambler look reasonably acceptable. Yes, I was more self reliant in the “good old days”. Do I want to go back to those days?
NO!!!

Heh heh heh. Yeah it was. Tuition at a private college was $425 a semester and if you paid an extra hundred dollars in a deposit, you could freeze the rate for four years. I think it was up to $575 when I left. Three of us that roomed together went in on a used $25 TV too. I don’t remember what it was but got handed down to the last man standing for the $8 share.

Way before that in I think it was about 1962, the Ward’s store advertised a used TV for $5 for Washington’s Birthday sale. I wanted it but I was in school but dad was working nights so he had the morning off and was elected. Yeah he was there and he said you never saw such a line of people waiting to rush the door when they opened. He claimed it was a near death experience but he got the TV. I still feel guilty about putting him through that for an old TV, but hey was was the only kid in the neighborhood with a TV in his room.

I think it was karma though because I was sent to the grand opening of the Mall of America in Bloomington to get a basketball backboard that was on sale. Same thing like the multitudes of hungry people after the last few scraps of food. Turned out to be no good deal at all but at least I was there paying my penance.

Although I’m just a young pup, 70, I did all those things (including soldering bad joints in an RCA TV a guy wanted $50 for), too, and still do.

Although I can easily afford any problems that arise, I just can’t help not paying somebody for something I can do for myself. It keeps me going. I thrive on it. Keeping my brain active makes it a little better.

Yesterday, I was on a bike ride and got a flat rear tire east of Sarasota, early in the morning (hit a very bad R/R crossing and pinched a tube) about 8 miles out. I considered calling AAA as they now cover bicycles, but couldn’t bring myself to feel that helpless/reliant.

I considered an S-CAT bus with bike carrier on front. I was at a stop and as the bus approached I asked a lady about the bus service. Holding my emergency $20 bill, the lady looked at it and said, “You know they won’t give change?”. That was out. I continued to walk the bike.

Almost called my wife to rescue me, but she’d miss Water Aerobics, ha, ha. Don’t want my problem to become hers. That was out.

I tried googling bike shops, but I hate using my phone for that… one bike shop didn’t open until noon, etcetera! I didn’t have a Sarasota county map with me and walked the bike west back into Sarasota. I asked passersby if they knew of any bike shops. They fell into 2 categories, most were tourists and couldn’t help and others gave me wrong info causing me to walk further. That was out.

Back to googling… I remembered crossing Osprey Blvd where 2 bike shops were to my south. I literally walked a few more miles and went to Village Bikes & Coffee Bar.

Tyler was very helpful and sold me the exact tube for an almost reasonable $8. When I inquired I was told it was an addition $10 for installation. TEN DOLLARS! Couldn’t do it.

Tyler let me borrow a pump and I sat outside on a bench and had the new tube installed, inflated, and mounted on the bike in under 5 minutes without any tools! TEN BUCKS! 5 minutes!

I’m retired, the day was sunny, warm, and beautiful! I had nowhere to be and looked at the whole situation as an adventure and what I call “an exercise opportunity.” The only thing on my daily schedule was to go with my wifeand meet her sister and BIL at a beach on Anna Maria Island at 2:00. I called my wife because I was supposed to return home and go with her. I told her to bring me a swim suit, beer, and lots of food with protein and go to the beach, alone! I’d be there.

Besides the walking, I logged a bike ride of 33.04 (Garmin Edge GPS) miles (half riding on keys and islands) in paradise. It was a wonderful day. That’s just how I am, I guess.
CSA
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