What other sounds do you think would work well? Personally I would love a loud tarzan yell when sneaking up behind my co-workers

Either the sound of a full auto, large bore, gun... or a juicy fart(with sent emitters... hey, if they can make gas smell like grapes... it can happen).

I'd be happy with either.

 

Part of the appeal of EV's is the quietness. I'm not in favor of any warning noises. I have never used warning noises and have never had any pedestrian dumb enough to fail to see a white car near them.

 

There will be those who ask about pedestrians with white canes. What about them? I'm not kidding, I've read that question in other posts on this topic.

 

The Blade Runner vehicle sound has to be tops....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcZHjKJBnE

MrEnergyCzar

 

It should be user configurable where you can upload your own sound samples.

Some suggestions
- Lexus LFA
- Chevy Stingray
- Jetsons Flying Car
- Batmobile (original Adam West version)
- Cylon Centurian (from the 80's series)
- Harley
- Old Model T Ford
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
- Tron Cycle (from the original 80s movie)
- Porsche 911

It seems that the folks who created Real Racing 3 could be contracted to generate the sound samples to react to the car's dynamics. Then we could have any vehicle in their library.

 

Actually, this is a serious issue. I just bought a Volt and although it has the alert sound button, the mandatory warning noise being considered is really needed to help the blind and other pedestrians hear the car. Studies on the websites linked mention that people actually hear the vehicles and are warned, before they see them, before stepping into a crosswalk.

It's great having a silent car, but Nissan has it right on this one. There should be a continuous, low speed warning noise outside the car to warn pedestrians/the blind, children, etc. Like the DRLs, the noise should be on automatically and continuously, until the car hits a speed where it makes enough noise on its own.

I think that this issue will be revisited -- it will either be mandated, or GM will install it as a retrofit into older Volts/Spark EVs. It's not worth any person accidentally being killed or hurt simply to have a silent car.

As long as I don't hear the noise inside the cabin, I'd be all in favor of it.

 

Either the Jetsons car noise or a TIE Fighter.

 

I like the Jetson's car sound.

Last week had someone walk in front of my Volt in the parking garage, earphones in, head down looking at their phone. Walked right into oncoming traffic (me) without looking and obviously didn't hear me either. Good think I wasn't looking at my phone and saw them.

 

If the walker has headphones on loud enough, they probably wouldn't have heard any car, ICE or EV with noisemaker attached.

 

Since it's an electric car, I'd love to have the sound of electricity arcing to warn pedestrians. One of these would do just fine:

http://www.soundsnap.com/tags/arc

To enhance the effect, perhaps we can have a reservoir of solder flux installed... small amounts of flux can somehow be vaporized in conjunction with the arcing sound so that the Volt will smell like it sounds. This concept was inspired by Madcat455's juicy fart scent emitter mentioned earlier in this thread. This feature could possibly save the life of a pedestrian with iPhone earbuds stuffed into the orifices on both sides of his head. Not sure how such an option might affect the Volt's TZEV designation, though...

BMW might have the perfect reservoir for the solder flux... I'm sure we could find a spot somewhere in the Volt to install that 1.9-gallon gas tank from an i3 REX that nobody in their right mind would plunk down $4000 for.

 

I like the sound of the TIG Welder from Audiofruit: mean and powerful 8^) That sound, together with the solder flux smell would be a winner, IMO 8^D lol

 

EU is already passing bill that this will be mandatory by 2020, even though its not yet approved it will be.

Personally I already hate this and the whole topic is either engineered by gas companies or result from 20% of human population who resist any changes. If this comes to be, then it must be targeted to ALL cars instead of just EVs. Small and efficient diesels do not make any noise while slowing down, so why is there no warning sound on those?

For the warning sound my suggestion is to use the same beep beep beep sound, with similar intensity, as when trucks are making when reversing. That will ensure that this non-sense will be cancelled in few years.

 

My Mitsubishi i-MiEV had a system they called AVAS (Acoustic Vehicle Alert System) which makes a soft whirring sound up to about 22mph and then shuts off.

It wasn't objectionable at all when driving and was much more "elegant" than the pulsed horn that the Volt uses, in my opinion.

I went looking around on YouTube for some audio of AVAS, with apologies I could only find this really long video someone posted with their camera attached to the steering wheel of their i-MiEV. It will make you seasick if you watch it too long, but you can hear the AVAS kick in about 30 seconds into the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeqadrAep3Q

Cheers
Rich

 

Any laws that target EVs should be struck down.
Rather, they should target a decibel level, if the goal is indeed to have a minimum sound level for safety.

However, if we are going down that road, what about the deaf? Perhaps we should have some sort of minimum rumble transmitted through the ground so people can "feel" a car coming?

Both pedestrians and drivers need to be careful. Trying to regulate for every possible hazard is, IMO, nonsensical.
Doing so for only one segment of vehicles (EVs only) is idiotic.

Oh, and I would vote for the Enterprise going to warp speed, or a volley of photon torpedoes!

 

Any laws that target EVs should be struck down.
Rather, they should target a decibel level, if the goal is indeed to have a minimum sound level for safety.

However, if we are going down that road, what about the deaf? Perhaps we should have some sort of minimum rumble transmitted through the ground so people can "feel" a car coming?

Both pedestrians and drivers need to be careful. Trying to regulate for every possible hazard is, IMO, nonsensical.
Doing so for only one segment of vehicles (EVs only) is idiotic.

Ah, that's it! How about a squirt gun with a driver joy stick? Yes, it would require some driver skill, but it would work for all pedestrians.

 

I think it should be Sammy Hagar singing "I can't drive 55" The slower you go the louder it gets! LOL

 

Some personal thoughts and observations:

It a low speed situation when an EV has the A/C on and thus the compressor and cooling fans are running, it is no quieter than a conventional ICE vehicle.

Above about 15mph, tire noise is generally louder than the output of most ICE/exhaust.

EV's are more quiet INSIDE the car due to the reduced levels of NVH.

I have had conventional cars "sneak up on me" in parking lot situations too.

Distracted drivers are a bigger danger than quiet EV's.

 

How about this sound?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwbxqPuzmBE

I happen to prefer the sound of near silence.

But yeah, targetting EVs specifically is unreasonable. A lot of newer ICE cars are quite quiet at low speeds, with tire noise being noticeable before the engine sound.

Maybe some amount of noise helps some people... I can't say I've been bothered by quiet cars though, I much prefer lower noise pollution. I don't know any blind people to ask for their opinion. They might have no problem hearing it anyway. Maybe the majority do want more noise - or maybe someone has a solution, and is looking to create a problem to solve with that solution.

The volt is a lot quieter on the inside than it is from the outside. It both makes noise when it's simply on, and tire noise when it's moving.

 

For the Gods sakes - how about we all just pay attention like we are supposed to do. Never hit anyone yet, certainly don't expect to, and don't feel like I need my hand held all the time by folk who think they can protect the world from all danger if they only make enough rules. If we have to go there - let the market decide on it - offer it as an option and see how well received it is. (although, if I had to choose one, I do kinda like the Blade Runner sound)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwbxqPuzmBE

If Dominoes can do Dom Min Oes, Dom Min Oes...we should be able to do Chevy, Chevy, Chevy...Volt, Volt, Volt.

Personally, I like the Harley D idle sound. You know, Potato, Potato, Potato...

 

Instead of sounds of cars, how about sounds of TV shows with cars.

- batman
- knight rider
- the A team
- dukes of hazard

 

This is your bought and paid for politicians working hard to make the world a worse place. I walk to the train station and back every day. With few exceptions in my area, ICEs are just as quiet as EVs. I have had both drive by me while I walk on the road, and they are often indistinguishable by sound alone. We need a loud outcry against this discriminatory treatment of EVs. Adding noise to quiet cars is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

And, seriously? "Someone walked in front of me with earphones on and staring at their phone?" What makes you think it would have been any different with a noisier car?

 

We wouldn't have to worry about legislation if all EV manufacturers voluntarily included a low speed pedestrian warning system that could be controlled by the driver (ideally: config>vehicle settings: Passive Low speed pedestrian warning default: On/Off).

Tip: In parking garages, pulling the high beam lever not only provides a flash to alert pedestrians but also the clunking sound of the shutters provides a less startling sound than the honk.

 

First, a train horn would be my pedestrian warning sound of choice. The ones that are so loud they have you looking for a train. So that way even if you are deaf and blind you could "feel" the noise... Or maybe something designed like a crow-cannon - obviously it will need to be a lot smaller. Loud bang and a concussive pulse through the air.

If those are unacceptable, the Star wars racers warbles in Episode 1 would be a neat driving sound.

Second, for the people with ear buds looking down at their iPod, I like a mini-emp button to knock out the device. We should be able to charge up a Capacitor high enough for a short range blast with our battery pack. And you can pre-condition the first charge before you leave.

BTW, I do not have the best hearing in the world and my wife has never surprised me moving in the driveway or parking lot. I can hear the car. Enough electronic gadgets are whirring away to produce sound.

 

While I'm generally against nanny-legislation unless there is a clear public health or safety issue with a reasonable proposed fix (is the latter true here?), the study is actually pretty clear and the stats are well done. The best data is for pedestrian vs. HE or ICE crashes where the biggest difference is in daylight where sound would provide the most likely clue to a vehicle's presence.

 

The best data is for pedestrian vs. HE or ICE crashes where the biggest difference is in daylight where sound would provide the most likely clue to a vehicle's presence.

It's assumptions like these that lead to spending lots of money that doesn't add to safety. Someone should study the factors in each accident and find out why there is a difference in accident rates. If they require EVs to be noisy, it will likely have no affect on accident rates, and they will find out some other factor was at play. All car/pedestrian accidents are some combination of the driver's responsibility and the pedestrian's responsibility. Distracted walking is increasing alarmingly, and no one looks for cars by closing their eyes and listening.

 

There are two things that annoy me, which are relevant to this discussion. 1: alarmists who are a afraid some blind person somewhere in the world might be bumped by an EV so lets load on a bunch of useless regulations. 2: People who expect someone else to be responsible for their own pedestrian safety. Blind people have a lot of hazards to watch out for, not just EV's. It looks like Volt owners are about evenly split between requiring a artificial sound from a speaker and not. If a sound is required, it has to be familiar and immediately recognizable as a vehicle in the vicinity. Blasting "Baby You Can Drive My Car" by the Beatles (or any other song) doesn't cut it. Strange hums and UFO noises won't work either. Most likely it would have to be the beep, beep of a truck in reverse. Also, it shouldn't have to be louder than the quietest ICE-based vehicle, otherwise you're discriminating against EV's. Personally I drive pro-actively and watch pedestrians to be sure they hear and see my vehicle no matter what I'm driving. I always have.

 

Instead of complicating our lives with more and more legislation that is well intentioned but will also have unintended consequences, maybe there should be a push for a certain percentage of jobs where you telecommute and not drive at all. Or start building high tech cities where nice housing is within walking distance to offices or industrial parks, or everything is accessible via a Disney-like monorail, then we can eliminate the use of cars altogether.

One of my wild ideas is to create a new city where ICE vehicles are not allowed, only EVs or hybrids. Visitors with Ice are forced to park in a big parking lot near the off ramps then jump onto public transportion. Every house and parking spot has an EVSE. Every house has solar, geothermal, etc. Every public garbage can has multiple bins for recycling, composting, etc. whatever the best ideas are at the time, because the place is starting out new, the city ordinances can require some level of participation. I'll bet if someone creates something like this in California or Oregon, some residents would eat this up.

 

Or start building high tech cities where nice housing is within walking distance to offices or industrial parks, or everything is accessible via a Disney-like monorail, then we can eliminate the use of cars altogether.

That's just what EPCOT was originally intended to be (experimental prototype city of tomorrow), except the public transportation between the city and the homes was going to be the Wedway people mover, a bigger version than what they have at Disneyland. That would be electric transportation with no noise makers.

 

If all cars were as quiet as EVs, then there would be less background noise, so all cars would be easier to hear, making the roads even safer for the blind. Why not require all cars to be very quiet? There are already limits in place, so it would only be an alteration of existing laws, not new ones.

 

Better yet, just bubble wrap the volt!!!