Answer: Horns

You may think the drivers in your city are horn happy, but they have absolutely nothing on the average motorist in India. To say that Indians love laying on the horn would be an understatement of enormous proportions. Drivers, especially in population dense areas like New Delhi, use their automobile horns for longer and at a higher frequency than any other drivers on Earth.

In fact, car companies create special horns just for the Indian sub-market. Audi stress tests their horns to an extreme degree before approving them for use in India: the horns must be capable of extended use and are even tested for 14 straight days of continual honking just to ensure they won’t burn out. Volkswagen includes a beefy electromagnetic horn that is louder and more durable than the models included in their European and North American cars.

Despite anti-honking initiatives around the country, the use (and abuse) of the automobile horn is deeply entrenched in the habits of many Indian drivers and, despite campaigns to raise awareness about noise pollution, old habits linger on.