This is why radios come with volume controls 
Wearing anything which blocks out exterior noise is brainless.
You cannot hear if something is wrong with the car, the engine speeds for gear changes or if someone is trying to warn you. It’s just wrong. When driving you should take the same approach to safety as a pilot and be totally committed to driving safely. You will probably be offended by my comments but I value my own safety when I share the roads with others.
I’m pretty sure its not illegal to use earplugs when driving. These are recommended wear for motorcyclists, police bikers use them too.
It is a point on a spectrum where the sweet spot is.
For example, if it is brainless to block exterior sound, then do you always drive with the windows down? Should motorcyclists be told to ride without helmets?
Should all slightly deaf people be banned from driving?
Of course not, that is ridiculous.
The point is there are a range of compromises in everything we do, lots of grey area between the compulsory and the forbidden. To say someone is brainless to pick a place in that discretionary area that you disagree with and call brainless, is a touch arrogant.
Personally, I was thinking of headphones, which ear buds are a form of
I have read of drivers being fined for wearing headphones, though it’s not specifically illegal the Police feel your not in total control!
Search on Google
Nope it’s not arrogant, it’s common sense. Sadly, there is also a spectrum for that too.
Headphones as a driver distraction factsheet March 2017 (rospa.com)]
https://www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/drivers/headphones-as-a-driver-distraction.pdf
Hmm. a study with 12 people in it. In a simulator. In 1990. 1 person [the 8% mentioned in the document] made steering errors in the simulator. What sort of headphones were used? How loud were they?
How this ‘study’ correlates to the real world scenario of driving a particularly noisy car in a predominately white noise environment is anyone’s guess.
The counter to this study is the effect of noise reduction on stress levels and and overall fatigue of the driver/rider. I know as a motorcycle rider that if I were to ride any distance without earplugs I would be far more fatigued by the end of my journey and my overall hearing ability would be reduced in the long term. The same applies [to a lesser extent] to driving my MX5 at motorway speed, the effect takes longer to manifest but the ambient noise on the motorway is already in excess of 75db***, add to that the noise of the car engine, wind noise and the stereo struggling to make itself heard and you are well into the 80db range.
According to the CDC anything over 70db** for prolonged periods can cause hearing damage.
So if protecting my hearing and arriving at my destination less fatigued is brain dead then count me in. Just bear in mind that by not wearing the protection that the ear buds provide, my hearing in 10 to 20 years would be the same level as it is now with the ear buds in.
Of course all this is reliant on the volume level of the ear buds. I keep them at a level so that I can hear both what’s going on around me [horns, sirens and screeching tyres] and still make out what Vanessa is waffling on about. I am able to control them from the steering wheel and often take them out when at city speeds so I can hear the birds sing.
*** http://www.extrium.co.uk/noiseviewer/FAQs.pdf
*** Extrium > England Noise and Air Quality Viewer
Does Vanessa have her own buds??
Vanessa on the radio