No sound, no soul?

[Canuck]

To the owners: do you anthropomorphize your Teslas? Or do you simply see them as fantastic, but soulless, machines?

To use your own examples, the Cavallino Horse Ferrari or Raging Bull Lamborghini both make noise when they move, galloping like an engine. This, you claim, relates to them having hearts and souls -- which you seem to oddly equate with noise.

So I must ask: Does a Cheetah, which moves and attacks its prey in silence, and with precision and stealth (and is not at all like the clumsy bull or awkward horse) have no heart or soul?

I view my car like a cheetah, not like a horse or bull. It oozes heart and soul.

 

[Lerxt]

Like many of you I have reserved a TM3.I know this will probably not relate to many of you, but for the true gear heads like me, won't you miss the sound of an engine and exhaust? I know 99% of the time, you really don't want to be hearing those sorts of sounds but that 1% of the time when you want to open it up and hear the engine hitting the limiter, the turbo waste gate fluttering. I wish that an EV had that drama just once in a while. I think without those sounds the car has no soul or character. Maybe eventually you will get a in car app which will play those sounds through the speakers, not the same I know

I'm not sure you are ready for an EV. When I hear and see a noisy ICE vehicle I cringe.

 

[Pdub2015]

To use your own examples, the Cavallino Horse Ferrari or Raging Bull Lamborghini both make noise when they move, galloping like an engine. This, you claim, relates to them having hearts and souls -- which you seem to oddly equate with noise.

So I must ask: Does a Cheetah, which moves and attacks its prey in silence, and with precision and stealth (and is not at all like the clumsy bull or awkward horse) have no heart or soul?

I view my car like a cheetah, not like a horse of bull. It oozes heart and soul.

Clearly, you and I see things differently, which is totally fine. Yet I like your characterization of the Tesla as a cheetah; that's very interesting. However, I didn't mean to limit the concept of "soul" to just the sounds that certain cars make (and note that I used the term "sounds" rather than noise), but sound is what this thread is about. Still, to answer your question, I would agree that your cheetah car has soul. Perhaps I'll feel the same way after I spend more time in a Tesla.

My previous car, an Audi S4 with stock exhaust, wasn't particularly loud. But it's seeming eagerness to slice through canyon curves convinced me that the car had the heart of a dancer.

 

[Caligula]

Living beings literally have electricity running through them. Fire, not so much. Just saying.

 

[ohmman]

To the owners: do you anthropomorphize your Teslas? Or do you simply see them as fantastic, but soulless, machines?

I may be in the minority here, but I think of humans as being soulless machines...

 

[Skotty]

Since this thread is showing tendencies to veer off unto the absurd, please indulge me...

Some would say that "soul" has something to do with living and life. Some have also likened the ICE as the "heart" of a living thing, which jibes somewhat nicely with the related concept of fire being a living thing. Old ICE car and motorcycle lovers (like myself) tend to see the entire operational noise as the machine's voice. For example, my old Moto Guzzi Griso motorcycle featured a 1,200 cc, DOHC V-twin mill that "sang" in a (to me) thrilling tenor. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is what some posters have been referring to as "soul."

Our beloved Teslas, however, are entirely different. My very limited time in a Model S impressed me immensely, but one impression that I did NOT get was of being in a living creature. A sleek and tiny spaceship, maybe, but certainly not a prancing Cavallino (Ferrari) or raging bull (Lamborghini). To the owners: do you anthropomorphize your Teslas? Or do you simply see them as fantastic, but soulless, machines?

On one hand, I'm not sure I want to be in a living creature, as that probably means it just ate me. On the other, I named my S Dumont, and I find myself referring to it by that name alot, and I've never in my life named a car before. I guess I don't need Dumont to sing to me, as he already dances quite well.

 

[Canuck]

I may be in the minority here, but I think of humans as being soulless machines...

I don't believe we have souls either which is why I used the words "heart and soul" meaning more the essence of what it means to be alive rather than anything that lives on beyond our physical death. I believe what Christopher Hitchens said he realized most fully when he was dying: we don't have a body, we are a body. I don't look at us as machines though. For me, no machine will ever come close to replicating the beauty and mystique of animals roaming the Serengeti, or the awe inspiring countless forces of life teeming in the Amazon rain forest...
Some of which are silent and some of which makes sounds, to bring my comments back to this thread's topic and out of dangerous territory.

 

[Red Sage]

Like many of you I have reserved a TM3.I know this will probably not relate to many of you, but for the true gear heads like me, won't you miss the sound of an engine and exhaust? I know 99% of the time, you really don't want to be hearing those sorts of sounds but that 1% of the time when you want to open it up and hear the engine hitting the limiter, the turbo waste gate fluttering. I wish that an EV had that drama just once in a while. I think without those sounds the car has no soul or character. Maybe eventually you will get a in car app which will play those sounds through the speakers, not the same I know

Here the thing is... Believe it or not, not all high performance cars actually sound good. Some of them sound as if there is a collection of snakes and weasels battling each other under the hood. Others sound as if they are ~*this*~ close to either exploding or falling apart at any given moment. Some of them actually SING -- as long as you rev them beyond 8,000 RPM... While others just grumble and roar for no reason except to perhaps remind you how disturbed they are at being bothered to burn gasoline at 3 MPG.

So, no... I won't miss any of that. It can go away for good. That will allow me to choose my own soundtrack as I please.

DEF LEPPARD -- 'Hysteria'
JOURNEY -- 'Greatest Hits'
DANNY ELFMAN -- 'Batman Score'
THE POLICE -- 'Synchronicity'
FISHBONE -- EVERYTHING
MICHAEL JACKSON -- 'Thriller'
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS -- 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik'
AEROSMITH -- 'Pump'
MOZART -- Anything...
BEETHOVEN -- Anything...​

 

[UKM3]

User selectable sounds with a mute button to cater to generational differences could be the way to go

 

[jerry33]

The kind of sound that comes from engine noise is sound I don't need or want to hear. Nothing soulful about it; just another irritant.

 

[UKM3]

The kind of sound that comes from engine noise is sound I don't need or want to hear. Nothing soulful about it; just another irritant.

by sound I mean EV relevant sound.. Like this at 0'50"

and this.. at 0'58"

 

[UKM3]

a bit of explanation on how they achieved this "new sound" of electric motors: At 07'20" here:

 

[James Anders]

I had the chance to hear a Lexus LF-A. It was really sweet. Full of "soul". I can appreciate both ICE and EV on their own merits.

No need to put down one over the other.

 

[ilovemycoffee]

Speaking of sounds, is it me or do the new BMW sound like my 20 year old Civic? I'm talking about the sound outside the car. Several of my colleagues have purchased new BMW's, they have a thin, raspy note to it. Mustangs and Camaro's sound much better. (My wife's Model S has the best sound)

 

[arjay]

I'm in favor of the sound of silence except for the safety aspect of low speed reversing and just starting out in parking lots etc.

 

[GoTslaGo]

Speaking of sounds, is it me or do the new BMW sound like my 20 year old Civic? I'm talking about the sound outside the car. Several of my colleagues have purchased new BMW's, they have a thin, raspy note to it. Mustangs and Camaro's sound much better. (My wife's Model S has the best sound)

The newer bmws (320s etc...) are 4 cylinders. Rougher and rev higher. You are correct in your assessment. 330s on up are 6s and 8s and are not so rough. I don't like the 4 cylinders.

 

[Topher]

Here is an interesting way of thinking of this question:

If regulations require us to have our cars make noise under certain conditions (e.g. low speed, in parking lots, near blind people, etc.), and we could choose that noise, how many would use the sound of some other car?

Thank you kindly.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

The reason we like it is simply because we have associated the sound with power.

This. This is why Ford has used fake sounds on their pick-ups and muscle cars as they reduced engine displacement.

It's just a cultural thing, coming from the side-effect of using explosions to generate linear motion, plus mechnical links to convert that to circular motion. People will adjust.

 

[bxr140]

It's just a cultural thing...

It's not a cultural thing. It's a sensory thing. It's human nature. Natural or contrived, humans have been finding extra sensory inputs for millennia.

Like mashing the go pedal in a tesla...

 

[rEVhappy]

Every so often, I open up the taps and let my S2000 zing to its 9000 rpm redline. It is, like mentioned above, an external sensory input.. It connects me to the car, gets me focused, in the zone, and away from the daily grind. It gives the car 'character'.. as it's screaming its guts out for dear life at that high of an RPM. It's the same way good music can get you in a certain mood

I don't do this when there are many cars or people around. It is not to 'show off' or to prove a point to anyone. I do it on open and isolated roads, and simply for MY pleasure. There are a lot of people that agree with me, and that's why sports cars have been loved and have a fanatical following for just about a century now.

So, that makes me an AHole? Okay.. if you want to play that game, I consider you a self-righteous, narrow minded, unimaginative douche.

What's funny is I also love the stealthy, ninja like character of a Tesla, and it makes for a great daily driving experience. But what's the harm in liking both? Just like a nutritious well balanced meal is good for you day to day, but damn ..a nice juicy burger and a cold brew hit the spot at the end of a long week.