Should EVs Make Artificial Sounds at Low Speeds?

[ilovemycoffee]

I could have done with that in the car park the other day. Dosey pedestrian wandering in the middle of the road and, short of using the loud horn that would have made her jump out of her skin, I just edged past her. When she turned to see me she jumped out of her skin anyway!

I keep threatening to hook up a bicycle bell sounder under the hood with a remote button; can't find the YouTube I originally saw it on, but this one is humorous and clearly works well

An electronic bicycle bell sound gets my vote. We are trained as pedestrians to move out of the way when we hear this, but it's not obnoxious like a car horn. I wish we had a small button on the main screen just for this purpose at low speeds.

 

[EVie'sDad]

An electronic bicycle bell sound gets my vote. We are trained as pedestrians to move out of the way when we hear this, but it's not obnoxious like a car horn. I wish we had a small button on the main screen just for this purpose at low speeds.

no don't want my $100K+ car sounding like a cheep bicycle. Perhaps the La Cucaracha song option instead, or that Train Horn blaring I mentioned earlier? And this needs to be manually controllable, I may not want the sound option enabled on my vehicle depending on the programmers choice of audio file.

 

[malcolm]

The solution for the relative quiet of low speed driving has already been showcased by @buttershrimp in many of his AP videos: Loud music.

In his case it's rap.

 

[GMan324]

I could have done with that in the car park the other day. Dosey pedestrian wandering in the middle of the road and, short of using the loud horn that would have made her jump out of her skin, I just edged past her. When she turned to see me she jumped out of her skin anyway!

I keep threatening to hook up a bicycle bell sounder under the hood with a remote button; can't find the YouTube I originally saw it on, but this one is humorous and clearly works well

The idea of forcing any car to make noise to conform to what we are used to is bordering on ridiculous, but my Volt does have a pedestrian horn, which is not a loud or abrasive as the normal horn. I do use it from time to time, but people still look at you like why are you honking at me walking down the middle of the parking lot.

 

[daniel]

An electronic bicycle bell sound gets my vote. We are trained as pedestrians to move out of the way when we hear this, but it's not obnoxious like a car horn. I wish we had a small button on the main screen just for this purpose at low speeds.

I agree. A bicycle bell would be perfect. Except that it cannot be on the screen. Horns (both the loud horn and the pedestrian horn) are things that you need to be able to invoke in an instant. It needs to be right on the steering wheel.

 

[Merrill]

I’m not for any noise, I live on a narrow road that gets lots of walkers it is not very heavily travelled and weather I drive my F150 or my Tesla some of these people are clueless. They look at me like what are you doing on the road, never walk to the side of the road and if there are more than one they will separate on each side of the road not leaving room for me to get by. I drive very slowly on this road and and noise or not it is still a problem.

 

[dhrivnak]

I really like what GM did on the Volt. Tap the end of the turn signal stalk and there is a pedestrian horn. Not very loud but enough to warn them.

 

[arnis]

Why there should not be an artificial sound?
Because a) when it is very quiet, you can hear any movement of a vehicle.
b) when it is a street with lots of cars, you can't hear it anyway.
c) elderly, who likely need the sound the most, can't hear high frequencies
d) there has been no proof that in real life scenarios, artifical sound avoids accidents*
There is a very narrow window when artificial sound can be heard and vehicle not.

*When person accidentally steps in front of a vehicle in the parking lot, it is not an accident.
This is done by many with any car regardless of what type that passenger vehicle is.

 

[Futuresystem]

Apologise in advance: not sure if this has been mentioned previously... (I've not got the time to go through 66 pages to look), but our Mitsubishi PHEV makes an artificial noise at low speeds which is not at all intrusive or objectionable, and sounds a bit like a Starship Enterprise mother ship according to friends.

It can be turned off at the touch of a button if you want to sneak in quietly late at night.

I think it's a great idea, but pedestrians still tend to walk out in front of us in carparks, so maybe it needs to be even a fraction louder.

I do believe that some non intrusive sound like our PHEV is a great idea.
It is still way more quiet than a petrol engine at idle, so I don't think noise pollution is that much of a concern.

Cya

 

[WannabeOwner]

I think a bunch of cars crawling along in slow rush-hour traffic making white-noise will be horrific for pedestrians nearby ...

... but yesterday I was driving a narrow country lane and came upon two horse riders side by side, taking up the whole road, and completely unaware I was behind them. Clearly tooting my horn was not an option ... but I don't know what the horses would have made of continuous white noise either? One of the horses was clearly jumpy, and its fidgeting was what eventually enabled the rider to become aware I was behind, but I suspect an unfamiliar noise could have made it chuck a novice rider off

Bluetooth upgrade for the horse perhaps?

 

[wdolson]

In the case of a country lane and horse riders, there is always rolling down the window and saying something.

I had a case with a neighborhood cat a few months back. Sometimes when I'm out and I know mail has come while I was out I stop at the mailbox which is up the street instead of walking. The cat really likes me and comes running when he's out and I go to the mailbox. That day he hung around the car when I got back in and would not leave. I finally had to honk the horn and scared him, but I didn't want to run him over.

With the weather colder he now goes home shortly after I get back in the car, but it may become a problem again next summer.

 

[physicsofx]

I think voluntary sound the driver could use would be appropriate. The horn is often too alarming for the circumstances. The loud horn scares people and can be misunderstood. I suggest a way to make a voluntary "polite" noise (a bicycle bell type of sound).

 

[arcus]

Interesting... when I was a small kid we were taught that you should always look to your left-right-left (right-left-right for those with a steering wheel on the "wrong" side ) before attempting to step onto the road. There was no mention of going by the ear. That was way before the ever-present earphones era.

I think any attempt at soft audible nudge will not be efficient anyway. Nothing replaces alertness and common sense - the latter one seems like a hard commodity to come by unfortunately.

 

[arnis]

I think a bunch of cars crawling along in slow rush-hour traffic making white-noise will be horrific for pedestrians nearby ...

I drove in a EV only formation (something like 100 EV's). And a tenth of EV's that were making that dumb sound all together sounded weird. Hard to understand what comes from where.

 

[WannabeOwner]

, there is always rolling down the window and saying something

Hehehe ... true. Quite cold yesterday though ... Mostly I'm pissed that horse riders think that its perfectly OK to block the road at very low speed and that any driver that comes upon them is automatically at fault ... (I ride too ... but not like I own the whole countryside ...)

I suggest a way to make a voluntary "polite" noise (a bicycle bell type of sound).

Here's one I posted up-thread. There was another post about someone putting a bicycle-type bell under the Hood with a remote button in the cabin ...

 

[wdolson]

Hehehe ... true. Quite cold yesterday though ... Mostly I'm pissed that horse riders think that its perfectly OK to block the road at very low speed and that any driver that comes upon them is automatically at fault ... (I ride too ... but not like I own the whole countryside ...)



Here's one I posted up-thread. There was another post about someone putting a bicycle-type bell under the Hood with a remote button in the cabin ...

I haven't ridden in years, but my sister had quite a herd of horses at one time (she was trying to breed the perfect trail horse by crossing quarter horses with gaited horses). Around Bakersfield, CA you need to stay out of the lane because the pickups will just mow you down. Sometimes a horse will misbehave and get out in the road though.

One of her horses was a great trail horse because he was very smart, but he often thought he knew what he was doing better than the humans. An advantage sometimes on the trail, but you had to be on constant alert riding him. He was also quite the escape artist, he figured out how to rotate up and slide back the latch on his pen. She kept finding him eating her fruit trees until she caught him escaping one day.

 

[Grossvater]

Is there actually any evidence that hybrids are getting involved in a higher percentage of pedestrian accidents?

If people are managing to get themselves knocked down by existing ICEs, surely this line of reasoning suggests that we should all be knocking holes in our exhaust silencers.

I wanted to click on like but it is not an option.

 

[smac]

Going to be EU law. All EV's must come with AVAS (Audible Vehicle Alerting System). It can be disabled, but must switch back on when the car is restarted.

The i8 already has this system, and from the cabin you wouldn't know it was there.

 

[arnis]

Going to be EU law.

Usually, a lot of research is done to prove that something actually makes sense.
But in this case, I've not seen any clear research papers that this s**t actually works.
I do agree with reversing beep (statistically, it is one of the most dangerous action), but not forward creep.
I've not aware hitting pedestrians at bicycle speed is very dangorous. Money on AVAS box should rather
be used on mandatory AEB (+pedestrian) which would save much more lives (my estimation).

 

[smac]

AEB is mandatory for 5* safety. Not long before it's mandatory for WVTA IMHO. (Same pattern true for ESP, DRL's, seat belr warnings, etc. etc.)

But don't get me started on how Tesla promised me a 5* rated car and shipped me a 4* rated (AEB was needed for 5 stars when Tesla shipped the first batch of pre-AP cars to the UK)