Interesting, before delving into the article I thought maybe that's a malfunction of a system in which static is played to induce acoustic reflex if a crash is imminent, to protect passengers' hearing. Alas, it's just an amplifier issue.
The PRE-SAFE® system makes use of the time prior to an impending accident on your behalf. A host of measures are able to reduce the loads generated as a result. The innovative PRE-SAFE® Sound system generates a sound from the speakers and is thus able to trigger a protective reflex in our bodies: our hearing briefly disengages to protect itself from loud crash sounds.
> When presented with an intense sound stimulus, the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles of the ossicles contract.[7] The stapedius stiffens the ossicular chain by pulling the stapes (stirrup) of the middle ear away from the oval window of the cochlea and the tensor tympani muscle stiffens the ossicular chain by loading the tympanic membrane when it pulls the malleus (hammer) in toward the middle ear. The reflex decreases the transmission of vibrational energy to the cochlea, where it is converted into electrical impulses to be processed by the brain.
This is probably built into all trucks to be remotely activated only on specific targets, but due to a bug it got activated where it should not have been.
