Should EVs Make Artificial Sounds at Low Speeds?

[malcolm]

Absolutely!

And gladly.

You mean they're stepping out in front of you, or just admiring the car...or both? :smile:

 

[doug]

EVnut often mentions buses, seems they're getting noisier in Iowa.

To Avoid Pedestrians, Des Moines Buses Honk : NPR

A string of bus-pedestrian accidents in Des Moines, Iowa, has transportation officials on edge. All the accidents occurred while buses were turning left, leading to a no left-turn rule. Buses are honking every time they turn right, and critics say it's making downtown Des Moines noisier.

from the transcript:

RUSSELL: And Hopkins says he's noticed it's noisier downtown with the extra horns going off. But the honking really irritates Tiffany Schmit.

Ms. SCHMIT: Honking at a pedestrian isn't going to make you see the pedestrian. And all it mean is that a pedestrian has to run out of the way from a DART bus.

RUSSELL: The DART officials say if a horn can alert the person in the street and possibly avoid a collision, so much the better, whether or not the driver is in the wrong.

 

[johnr]

Evolutionarily speaking, one could say that when those people who aren't alert enough to cross the street safely get hit, they're removed from the gene pool and so the overall population improves. But that would be unsympathetic to stupid people, so I won't say it...

 

[Brent]

Evolutionarily speaking, one could say that when those people who aren't alert enough to cross the street safely get hit, they're removed from the gene pool and so the overall population improves. But that would be unsympathetic to stupid people, so I won't say it...

Funny.

But I would rather wish that the drivers who aren't alert enough to drive safely were removed from the gene pool ... like the ones against whom I regularly play matador when crossing in the crosswalk with the walk signal. Olé!

 

[doug]

But I would rather wish that the drivers who aren't alert enough to drive safely were removed from the gene pool ...

Though I wouldn't be as harsh, this is in the same spirit of the reason I posted the NPR story. Tiffany Schmit's comment points out the responsibility of the driver to watch out for pedestrians as opposed to relying on noise makers. "Honking at a pedestrian isn't going to make you see the pedestrian. And all it mean is that a pedestrian has to run out of the way..."

 

[dpeilow]

I'll admit to almost getting hit by a milk float the other day...

I was crossing a side road and as the milk float was turning left into it, it was obscured by a phone booth and a road sign. I stopped as soon as I saw it and luckily there was enough room between me and the curb for it to squeeze through. There was just enough time for me to appreciate the irony of my being knocked down by the thing to crack a wry smile and confuse the hell out of the driver.

Put noisemakers on the damn things, I say :biggrin:

 

[TEG]

Translation assistance for US readers:
Milk float - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

...A milk float is a small battery electric vehicle (BEV), specifically designed for the delivery of fresh milk. They were once common in many European countries, particularly the United Kingdom, and were operated by local dairies...

(We generally don't have them here in the USA.)

 

[johnr]

OK, the drivers need to watch out too. I agree with that completely. It just annoys me to see stupid laws being proposed that wouldn't see the light of day if people would just watch where they're going.

I'll admit to almost getting hit by a milk float the other day...Put noisemakers on the damn things, I say :biggrin:

Ah, the irony of almost getting run over by an EV, and how it can change one's perspective :biggrin: well thankfully you didn't get hit.

 

[vfx]

SBuyer has written some nice prose on the sound of the Roadster.

It got me thinking about how hooking op a sound generator -most say a "CD of Ferrari sounds" is so going backwards.

I realize people don't like change, sometimes even if it's for the better. But this is taking a high tech piece of equipment and making it dumb and loud.

Making Infernal Combustion Engine sounds come out of a Tesla is like a rotary dial phone app for the iPhone

It's like a slow cook button on a microwave.

Like painting a mansion in lead paint.

Hooking up only woofers to a stereo.

Setting a 60" plasma to just black and white.

*****

Feel free to add.

I like when the third guy walks up and says the same "You should get a CD..." comment, he get's a different answer from the first guy standing there.

 

[malcolm]

Ribbit!

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green: traffic din could be ruining the sex lives of frogs — Autoblog

In the worst case cited, the popplebonk frog can normally be heard more than a half a mile away when there's no noise. But around busy roads you can't hear the popplebonk more than 46 feet away.

The Pobblebonk?

ROFL!

 

[malcolm]

Mum's warning over 'silent' electric cars - News - Tameside Advertiser_

She went into the side of the patrol car and fell to the ground.

Tameside council said the car was only doing about 10mph. Jacqueline said: "Emily fell into the road. She had bruises on her head and a cut on her face."

I understand why these cars are being used. The patrollers weren't going fast and I'm not blaming them for the crash, but I'd just like to tell parents to be aware that these cars are being used.

 

[EV_de]

good answer's:

And which bit of "STOP, LOOK and LISTEN" did you not teach your daughter, I wonder (?!)

Look Right, Look Left, Look Right again... That´s fine in the UK. It will get you killed very quickly in the rest of Europe.

.... i've got that experience in HongKong .... they all driving the "wrong" side ...

 

[doug]

Mum's warning over 'silent' electric cars - News - Tameside Advertiser_

Yet another innocent victim!
For chrissake, THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!

But seriously,

Jacqueline said: "Emily is aware of the dangers when she crosses the road, but she couldn't hear this car coming and just stepped out."

Emily had been playing in her garden with a friend on the day of the collision.

She had taken her friend across the road and was heading back home at about 7.30pm when she tried to cross near a parked van.

What's a 5 year old doing crossing the road by herself in the evening at an unsafe place (near a van, likely not a cross walk)? Yet the central problem is clearly that she couldn't hear the vehicle??? Let this be a warning to all parents to teach your kids how to safely and properly cr... err... watch out for scary electric cars.

 

[vfx]

I this thread.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Never once was it mentioned in the article for children to LOOK both ways before crossing (though the comments mentioned it).

This is the first thing my parents taught me when they let me outside (that and not to jaywalk, which seem to be what this girl was doing).

 

[doug]

Well I honestly doubt the kid had the sense to say "I couldn't hear it" on her own and was prompted by the mother. The mother's quote sounds like she's trying to compensate for her guilt by deflecting responsibility away from herself.

Jacqueline said: "Emily is aware of the dangers when she crosses the road, but she couldn't hear this car coming and just stepped out."

 

[dpeilow]

Ha, so it was a Prius: The Citizen 41 - Page 1 - not even a proper "electric" car.

Definitely not looking...

 

[Arnold Panz]

Well I honestly doubt the kid had the sense to say "I couldn't hear it" on her own and was prompted by the mother. The mother's quote sounds like she's trying to compensate for her guilt by deflecting responsibility away from herself.

This is absurd -- I don't recall my mother, or any mother, teaching their child to "listen both ways" before crossing the street. If the kid really "aware of the dangers" of crossing the street, she'd hopefully know that you need to do more than just listen for a loud ICE!

 

[dpeilow]

This article contains many of our favourite bugbears, but I will go with this one:

BBC NEWS | Business | Car firms disagree about electric future

Silent cars

If Mr Ghosn and those who think like him are right, then the future looks bleak.

If the question is if there have been any major technological developments since then, the answer is no

At least, that is, if you are a pigeon.

"Normally, when they hear a car they fly away last minute," says the man from Sixt, the car rental firm that handles the German energy company RWE's fleet of electric cars, during the Tesla drive in Frankfurt.

"But when this one comes along, they don't hear it."

Pigeon lives lost may seem trivial when compared to electric cars' potential to slash vehicle emissions from and help curb global warming.

But this is not just an issue that is keeping pigeons up at night. If pigeons cannot hear electric cars then perhaps people should worry too?

Not at all, insists Volkswagen's Ulrich Hackenberg as he presses a button on the dashboard of the company's E-Up concept to release a canned sound of a revving engine.
"Electric cars could sound like this in the future," he says.

In fact I saw this happen with a Prius the other day. The pigeon heard it and got away at the last second.

 

[Arnold Panz]

This article contains many of our favourite bugbears, but I will go with this one:

BBC NEWS | Business | Car firms disagree about electric future



In fact I saw this happen with a Prius the other day. The pigeon heard it and got away at the last second.

Haven't these people ever tried to play golf while an electric golf cart drove up behind them?! I drive an electric golf cart and birds always here us coming, not to mention irate golfers because it's loud enough to break their concentration!