Jalopnik:
If you look at the front and rear bumpers on many new cars, you’ll notice little squares and circles about the size of potato chips sitting right there in the plastic bumper covers. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know why they’re there! I’m about to tell you.
I’ve often wondered what those were.
I love some of the comments on that page. “Doesn’t everybody know what these are,” indeed. Sounds familiar for some reason.
This is an odd compliment, but that final paragraph was basically the perfect TL;DR summary of the article.
I had the same thought. I have been working on cars all my life and I didn’t know what they were. I don’t think I have ever owned a car with one. Simple as that.
I had guessed they were for and optional lane departure sensor or other accessory.
It’s the “RTFM” phenomenon. We see the same sort of condescension from a lot of hardware nerd and hobbyist categories.
Right, if it’s in the manual. I actually do read through the manuals. If you don’t have the option, it obviously won’t be there. I dislike then rampant assumptions people often make when online commenting.
Myopia is a trait of the species when individuals specialize and form insular groups.
Classic RTFM.
Every car’s owners manual explains this.
With pictures, even.