Should EVs Make Artificial Sounds at Low Speeds?

[Peter_M]

A friend of mine has a Prius and she said she has almost hit pedestrians a number of times coming out of driveways in Seattle. She thought some kind of sound generator would be a good idea. I suggested a recording of a GTO. She thought it was hilarious.

My Prius V (2013) has a noise generator when running on electric at low speeds - I think all of them do. Just goes to show that a noise generator isn't the solution. Drivers and pedestrians just need to watch where they are going. If you're coming up to a blind corner where pedestrians might be walking in front of you, just toot the horn as you approach. We should all be happy that electric cars (or cars that sometimes run on an electric motor only like a Prius) are reducing noise pollution. Last week (ironically, at the local Tesla club meeting) we had to warn a pedestrian in the parking lot that a car was coming up behind him that he didn't appear to hear. And no, it wasn't a Tesla, it was an ICE SUV.

 

[S'toon]

OK, this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The lawmakers who suggest artificial noise.

I'm a guy who goes on daily walks for exercise. In summer I'll bicycle rather than drive for the exercise, and save gas. I drive mostly in the winter.

The first thing I'll hear from any ICE car is the road noise, and wind. I won't hear the engine until it's right on top of me, if even that. Cars are quiet these days. Now they want to add artificial noise to EV cars because they're quiet and ICE cars not? These people are out of touch.

 

[mspohr]

I was reading an interview with a movie sound person and he said that in the movies, they add the sound of a roaring lion to automobile sounds to give it more of a (?) roar!
Maybe Tesla could just go with the roaring lion and skip the mechanical noise part.

 

[wdolson]

I believe the friend who has the Pruis had to contend with a blind driveway at work that emptied out onto a busy street with a lot of pedestrians.

In movies they add a lot of sounds the make no sense in the real world. My father has always pointed out that sound of planes diving in movies is the sound of the wind in the wires on old biplanes. The only plane that had made that sound since the end of the biplane era was the Stuka which had a noise generator on the landing gear to scare troops on the ground (they were removed fairly early in the war).

I always laughed at Hollywood thunderstorms too, especially at movies set in Southern California. Unless you're up in the Sierras, the west coast never had thunderstorms like that. A really big thunderstorms will rumble about once every 10 minutes. I thought those frequent rumbling thunderstorms were just made up until I spent a summer in Wisconsin and experienced one. Other than that I've spent my entire life in Washington State and California and I've never seen a Hollywood thunderstorm out here.

 

[dhrivnak]

I really like what Chevy did with the Volt tap the end of the turn signal stalk for a relatively quiet horn. It works well and is there when you need it and quiet when you don't.

 

[ggr]

I always laughed at Hollywood thunderstorms too, especially at movies set in Southern California. Unless you're up in the Sierras, the west coast never had thunderstorms like that. A really big thunderstorms will rumble about once every 10 minutes. I thought those frequent rumbling thunderstorms were just made up until I spent a summer in Wisconsin and experienced one. Other than that I've spent my entire life in Washington State and California and I've never seen a Hollywood thunderstorm out here.

Our Big Gay Car was scheduled in the San Diego Gay Pride Parade just over a week ago, and it was basically washed out by the kind of thunderstorm you say never happens out here. Actually there were two big storms that day, one around sunrise and the other went from 11am-1pm... just exactly the time of the parade. Lightning basically every 30 seconds or so. The same storm system wiped out a bridge on I-10 just east of Palm Springs a few hours later. Admittedly, this was unusual; average rainfall for all of July in San Diego was 0.02", so getting 1.5" in a single day was ... special.

 

[wdolson]

Our Big Gay Car was scheduled in the San Diego Gay Pride Parade just over a week ago, and it was basically washed out by the kind of thunderstorm you say never happens out here. Actually there were two big storms that day, one around sunrise and the other went from 11am-1pm... just exactly the time of the parade. Lightning basically every 30 seconds or so. The same storm system wiped out a bridge on I-10 just east of Palm Springs a few hours later. Admittedly, this was unusual; average rainfall for all of July in San Diego was 0.02", so getting 1.5" in a single day was ... special.

I grew up in Los Angeles. Occasionally a Pacific hurricane would come through and make it humid for a few days, but I don't recall ever seeing any rain in July or August. I don't recall ever hearing about the remnants of a Pacific hurricane dropping any significant rainfall in the summer. The Pacific has been acting weird the last couple of years. Off the coast north of you there has been a phenomenon meteorologists are calling "The Blob" that has given the Northwest a couple of the warmest summers on record. Though the blog from a meteorologist at the U of Washington has said this is not due to global warming, it's sudden, weird, and there are no models that explain it.

I heard about the bridge washing out. That makes getting from LA to Phoenix more difficult.

 

[mknox]

I grew up in Los Angeles. Occasionally a Pacific hurricane would come through and make it humid for a few days, but I don't recall ever seeing any rain in July or August.

I was at my brother's place in Riverside last summer and we were out somewhere when it started to pour rain. I didn't give it a second thought, but as I looked around, people everywhere had stopped what they were doing and were just staring, dumbfounded. My brother said that the rain would probably be the top story on the local news that night.

 

[FlasherZ]

The rule is now final, I believe. This means that 30% of a manufacturer's autos must be produced with it by Sept. 1, 2016 - note it's *not* 2015. 60% adoption by 9/17, 90% by 9/18, and full adoption by 9/19. The wording in the rule is a bit confusing, because the full compliance date is September of the calendar year that begins after 3 years after the rule becomes final. So final rule 4/2015, three years is 4/2018, next calendar year begins 1/2019, and full compliance required by 9/2019. Backtrack, 90% required 9/2018, 60% 9/2017, and 30% 9/2016.

As it turns out the vote on the rule was postponed to the end of 2015. If the rule is adopted before December, then compliance starts with 30% beginning September 1, 2016. If the vote goes into 2016, then it would be another year later - starting September, 2017 with full compliance by Sept 1, 2020.

 

[yobigd20]

well Tesla's already got this covered with the loud Milling noise sooo....

 

[AustinPowers]

The e-Golf (at least in Germany) is now available with artificial engine noise as an optional extra.

Edit: correction, I just checked, because I couldn't remember what the cost for the extra was, and apparently, it is gone again. But it was definitely there in the online configurator about two weeks ago. Strange.

 

[abasile]

Somebody at our church has a Fiat 500e. I initially mistook it for the gasoline version because of the fake ICE sound it was making while parked and turned on. As an owner, I'd definitely find that sort of gratuitous noise annoying. At least our LEAF's noisemaker only comes on when the car is in Reverse or Drive, and as it's a 2011, there's a built-in "noise off" button that Nissan later eliminated.

Forcing noisemakers into EVs is government intrusion, pure and simple. The solution is for people to get used to quiet cars, and for cars to incorporate active safety features to prevent them from running over people whenever possible.

 

[J1mbo]

The e-Golf (at least in Germany) is now available with artificial engine noise as an optional extra.



Edit: correction, I just checked, because I couldn't remember what the cost for the extra was, and apparently, it is gone again. But it was definitely there in the online configurator about two weeks ago. Strange.

In the UK the option is listed for the i3 for £60. Can't see it being a very popular choice!

 

[ecarfan]

I wonder if there is an option for those EVs to slowly drip oil...makes about as much sense.

 

[hcsharp]

I wonder if there is an option for those EVs to slowly drip oil...makes about as much sense.

Yeah, I was gonna order that but I heard you can only turn it off if you take it to a dealer.:biggrin:

 

[Terra117]

I live on a street with a dog park, so I almost always encounter a dog walker in the street. When I come up behind a dog walker, they always hear me when I get within 15-20ft behind them and move over to the curb. The only exceptions are dog walkers are on their phones.

A horn, even a "subdued" one will unnecessarily alarm the dog walkers, and the dog walkers on the phone deserve a max decibel 6-horn blast.

People who know nothing about electric vehicles do not understand tire noise. Too bad legislators are simply doing the bidding of their donor masters.

 

[EVie'sDad]

You can make it an option, but leave it off by default, I don't want it.

 

[Terra117]

If we're going to have to live with such a nonsensical law, then I say follow the model of the ringtone. Have a default noise pollution per manufacturer or model, but allow the owner to change it to anything they wish.

I would choose a 9500 rpm rev matching downshift.

 

[raysspl]

Nope, I don't agree with artificial sounds but I do understand & respect its valid points. There's already enough noise pollution in this planet. Do we need to add more?

 

[Evee]

NO.