[HN Gopher] Early 1980s Datsun/Nissan Voice Alert phonograph uni...
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       Early 1980s Datsun/Nissan Voice Alert phonograph unit [video]
        
       Author : mean_mistreater
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2023-06-12 07:02 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | dumbfounder wrote:
       | We had a 1984 Nissan 300zx growing up, it said "door is ajar".
       | Perfect Dad joke setup.
        
         | brk wrote:
         | I thought it was the Chrysler New Yorker that used "door is
         | ajar"?
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIpfUuRg1VE
        
           | dumbfounder wrote:
           | Ha, I like that one even better "a door is a jar". No it
           | isn't!
           | 
           | Here is some more evidence about nissan doing the same, but I
           | can't find a video:
           | 
           | https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-
           | asian/curb...
           | 
           | "In 1982, the ZX was facelifted, with an updated NACA hood
           | duct, alloy wheels, taillights, more integrated bumpers, and
           | other minor trim changes. '82s were also bestowed with the
           | infamous voice warning system, shared with the Maxima sedan.
           | Among other things, it would inform you that your door was in
           | fact, really a jar. I imagine it was a feature that was neat
           | for the first two weeks, after which point it would slowly
           | drive the owner insane."
        
         | reverheart wrote:
         | I have an '84 300zx Turbo. It doesn't say "door ajar", and
         | instead says "Left (Right) door is open" if I try to drive away
         | with a door not properly closed. There's no dad joke set up.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | "door is ajar" - jar of what, jelly? (and other variations)
         | 
         | That joke was already old in the 90's.
        
           | philjohn wrote:
           | Meanwhile feigning fear and going "where is it?!?!? where's
           | the bear?!?!?" after the GPS says "Bear right" will never get
           | old (no matter what my children's eye rolls might be trying
           | to say).
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Chrysler did it better:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjUvBxvVQNk
        
       | jeffrallen wrote:
       | The over-optimizer in me is screaming "why is the bong on the
       | analog track?"
       | 
       | The simplifier in me is screaming " Cool, less circuitry!"
        
       | kgwxd wrote:
       | Look Mum No Computer did a really cool hack with one of these:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3EuP7vZRSo
        
       | libpcap wrote:
       | I'd like to hear the Japanese version of this.
        
         | 404mm wrote:
         | I'm willing to bet the Japanese version sounds much more urgent
         | and serious lol
        
         | Melting_Harps wrote:
         | > I'd like to hear the Japanese version of this.
         | 
         | >> I'm willing to bet the Japanese version sounds much more
         | urgent and serious lol
         | 
         | You be the judge [0], in a US spec LHD Z31 no less.
         | 
         | There is a whole market for these kind of things, and Nissan
         | Japan has been well aware of this. Check out the aftermarkets
         | try at this anime sounding DASAI unit in an S15 [1].
         | 
         | Nissan JP took it even further when it announced its e-Power
         | system and marketed a sort of anime waifu option as a co-pilot.
         | I can't remember which it was, but it was really strange to see
         | what was once a niche thing only geeks did in order to out-
         | JDM/USDM each other on the internet or car meets to that.
         | 
         | 0: https://youtube.com/shorts/KtwcnUy9Rak?feature=share
         | 
         | 1: https://youtube.com/shorts/iGrSAxM3OHI?feature=share
        
       | ElevenLathe wrote:
       | One of these features memorably in the Kinky Friedman book
       | "Armadillos and Old Lace".
        
       | ajb wrote:
       | This sort of mechanism was in toys at that point, for example
       | this Doctor Who K9 robot toy:
       | 
       | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eXWEUCgw5e0
        
       | kamranjon wrote:
       | Does anyone understand what it does to play different recordings
       | on the same physical surface? Are they interlocking spirals and
       | it has slightly different starting point? Curious what's allowing
       | it to use the same space for different recordings without
       | swapping out mini records between plays.
        
         | phire wrote:
         | Yeah, 6 interleaved spirals, allowing it to select a track by
         | timing when it drops the stylus.
         | 
         | There are 6 electrical contacts spaced around the disc that
         | close at the correct timing for each track.
         | 
         | This is described in the patent (pdf)
         | https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/74/b1/1c/cb2bf12...
        
         | stronglikedan wrote:
         | Linked by another poster below:
         | 
         | https://jalopnik.com/1982-datsun-voice-warning-box-used-tiny...
        
       | vrtnis wrote:
       | Actually, a few other cars had similar voice alert systems e.g.,
       | Mitsubishi and Oldsmobile.On the Oldsmobile the speech synthesis
       | (Digitalker) was engineered by National Semiconductor. This page
       | has more on it https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-
       | profiles/talking-car-from-...
        
       | vandahm wrote:
       | When I was a small child, my dad drove a 1983 Datsun Maxima that
       | had this. As cheesy at it seems today, it felt magical and
       | impossibly high-tech at the time, especially to me.
        
         | Melting_Harps wrote:
         | I grew up with Nissan my whole life, even worked for them for a
         | bit when I was in the Auto Industry: it ranged from S30s,
         | Hardbodies, B11/12, several L and D chassis, and then my own
         | foray with mainly S chassis.
         | 
         | And can confirm it's a thing. Hell I still make the bing-bong
         | chime (sounded like it was saying NI SAN) before the engine
         | turned over in any car (over 50 now) I've ever owned because of
         | those memories.
         | 
         | While Nissan may not be in it's glory days anymore, maybe the
         | EV era will allow things to get exciting again.
         | 
         | 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyEtcURyOmY
        
           | leo8 wrote:
           | You had 50 cars til now? What are you doing to those cars?
           | Driving not longer than a year?
        
             | Melting_Harps wrote:
             | > You had 50 cars til now?
             | 
             | Easily. Probably before even hitting my early 30s.
             | 
             | The term is known as carcaine for a reason, funny enough I
             | attribute not getting into (much) trouble growing up to
             | cars, and it's what gave me access to meeting more people
             | in tech/engineering/medical fields than just about anything
             | else when I was outside of it. I spent most of my teenage
             | years and young adult life immersed in motorsports at
             | various levels and as I said worked in the auto industry
             | for a while.
             | 
             | I had delusions of being a GT pilot for a while, too; so
             | given the company I kept I got access to a lot of
             | cheap/crashed chassis or front clips with misc parts to
             | make things out of for a while. My first 2 businesses were
             | all car/car part based, fintech was the outlier in that
             | regard.
             | 
             | > What are you doing to those cars? Driving not longer than
             | a year?
             | 
             | Bought, fixed, drove, got bored and sold/traded mainly.
             | 
             | 50 is conservative to be honest. I still own my very first
             | car, which also makes that same chime noise I mentioned.
             | 
             | Time wise... hard to say, I just keep them until I no
             | longer want to deal with them and do the aforementioned or
             | give it away if all else fails.
             | 
             | The only Nissan I still really want but haven't owned is a
             | Nissan Patrol, which I almost bought when I was in Europe,
             | but decided against it at the last minute and bought a
             | really cool MK4 GTI to teach my friend how to drive and
             | eventually give to him.
             | 
             | I got a Land Cruiser when I got back to the US instead and
             | I'm happy with my purchase.
             | 
             | Sidenote: its stupidly easy to get a car registered to
             | drive in Germany, even as a auslander, if you play their
             | stupid games; what they get you on is that TUV BS which is
             | honestly just another of making sure people subsidize the
             | auto industry--who are incredibly powerful in that country
             | and write many of the laws.
        
       | mfragin wrote:
       | I can't believe this showed up on the front page today! I was
       | just talking to a co-worker about this:
       | 
       | Back in 1989, my college buddy Matt had a used Sentra that had
       | that same voice. We assumed his got "warped" or something because
       | the inflection of the female voice kind of rises at the end of
       | some of her statements, making her sound annoyed with the
       | human(s).
       | 
       | Listening to the video, however, it sounds exactly like I
       | remembered--so I guess that was standard.
        
       | mean_mistreater wrote:
       | Described at https://jalopnik.com/1982-datsun-voice-warning-box-
       | used-tiny...
        
       | brk wrote:
       | Whoever recorded those messages seemed a bit aroused about the
       | right door being open.
        
         | jkingsman wrote:
         | Yeah there's some intensity in those door announcements for
         | sure.
         | 
         | Sounds like the kind of intonation you get from being in a
         | recording studio having your diction of four words picked apart
         | so much they stop being words and suddenly you can't even say
         | them in a neutral tone. "clipped vowel on 'right'" "emphasize
         | 'door'" "nice long vowel on 'open'" and then you end up with...
         | whatever that was.
        
           | mfragin wrote:
           | I posted about this at top level, but should have done so
           | here. My friends and I assumed our buddy's car had a warped
           | disk or something that caused her to sound slightly pissed
           | off. :-)
        
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       (page generated 2023-06-12 23:01 UTC)