This Pixel safety feature is making my driving less safe

Our hearing is important, and it’s something we must protect. Google agrees; Pixel phones have a thing called “Sound Exposure Notifications” that monitors how loud your audio is and warns if it thinks things are too loud. This all sounds well and good, but in some situations, like while driving, this feature puts users in danger instead of protecting them.

So, why do I feel that noise exposure notifications are compromising my safety? Notifications are triggered whenever the phone hears what it considers to be an unsafe sound level, and it doesn’t matter what position you’re in. When the notification appears, ignoring it causes the phone to automatically reduce the volume to a safe level. In my experience, it’s only a button click above complete silence, making it impossible to understand what’s going on.

If I’m driving, I can’t use my phone to dismiss the alert or turn up the volume when the alert comes up. My Pixel needs to know that I’m driving – I have a portable Android Auto screen in my car that I’m always connected to. Why can’t Google send volume alerts to my Android Auto display or, even better, turn off the feature while I’m in the car?

Having your music stop on its own is annoying, but there’s more to the problem. My setup in the car has my phone wirelessly connected to my Android Auto display with an AUX connection for car sound. This means that my Google Maps audio is also muted whenever my phone decides things are too loud.

It’s frustrating enough that whenever I’m going on a long trip, I pull the SIM out of my Pixel and put it in my Z Fold 7 instead. This is annoying but possible for me, but what about people who don’t have more than one phone?

My setup may not be as common with the portable Android Auto screen, but this is a problem for other users as well. If you have your phone mounted on the dashboard for navigation and music, you’ll at least see the loud volume alert. But in the UK, touching your screen to dismiss it is illegal, and if the police see you doing so, you will be arrested. Perhaps Google is unaware that using my phone to dismiss alerts is illegal, unsafe, and irresponsible.

Last year we reported that Google was working on a solution that would allow us to turn off sound exposure notifications, but that hasn’t happened yet. Adding a toggle, or at least making the phone smart enough not to glitch while I’m driving, shouldn’t be that hard. None of the devices from other manufacturers I use do anything like this, so why Google insists on promoting it to us so much is beyond me. I remember when a Google phone, Nexus or Pixel, gave you freedom that many other phones didn’t. I lost him.