[mynameisvlad]

Don't use them in cars. That's incredibly irresponsible both to yourself/others in your car and those driving alongside you, not to mention illegal in a lot of places. You use audio cues far more often than you realize while driving.

[chrisseaton]

They said when they're in a car - not when they're driving a car.

[irrational]

I once wondered what states have laws against headphones/earbuds and was astonished not only by how many places don't have laws, but how many that do have laws that specifically say its okay (or okay with one ear uncovered). Going in I expected to find near universal laws against it.

[mynameisvlad]

Yeah I think it's because most of the laws were written a few years ago, where in-car Bluetooth wasn't common but one-ear headsets were. Lawmakers probably didn't want to outright exclude phone use in the car, and figured having one ear in use was "good enough".

Most modern distraction laws (the ones actually written nowadays) are very thorough. WA just passed one last year where you essentially can't touch your phone while driving. BC has had one for a few years now which includes any non-fixed electronic device while the car is running.

[dzhiurgis]

There aren't that much of cues when you are the only car in a highway (I use them as a passenger too, but mostly when I drive alone for a long distance, usually somewhere remote, listening a podcast).

As for cues, the vibration from road surface is still there and plenty of cars come with ANC built-in. These headphones don't block noise completely, things like police alarms, honks or speech are still very easy to hear. I can even hear the wind from AC vents (if it blows directly into ANC's mic's).

[mynameisvlad]

I doubt the claim of "plenty" of cars coming with ANC built in, but even if all cars came with it, that form of noise cancellation is to national safety standards, specifically for the use of being in a car while on the road. The ANC in Bose headphones are for an entirely different purpose so it's like comparing apples to oranges.

Furthermore, Bose, and basically all other ANC headphones work at isolating and cancelling off the low frequencies you'd typically find in plane engines, which are also most of the time the kinds of frequencies that are also used on a boring road trip where you're the only one on a long stretch of highway (your exact use case). Speech and honks and police alarms aren't things you'd expect to find in this scenario, but early warnings of your car breaking down, or things happening outside of your car that would affect your car do.

Seriously, stop using your headphones while driving. It's illegal in many places for a reason, and you're missing out on far more auditory cues than you realize because your brain is good at moving sensory information into the background when it doesn't deem it as important. Let your brain do its job, it's not that hard to listen to the podcast over your car's BT/AUX connection.

[throwawayjava]

I assume he meant as a passenger.