EV's Too Quiet ?!

palmermd said:

I just can't imagine why this keeps coming up. It is simply a non-issue. All modern cars are extremely quite at slow speeds. EV's are not any quieter than other cars except when you put the accelerator pedal to the floor.

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Well, I'm not quite sure that it's completely a non-issue. I've been behind someone walking up the center of a parking lot a few times where it's taken a little blip of the throttle to let them know you're behind them. Of course you could "bip" your horn at them too, but that can give them a bit of a fright if they happen to be completely oblivious.

I agree that some sort of horn/annunciation would be nice. But as you pointed out, this is not an EV problem, but all cars. If they would just mandate that the horns in all cars be changed to make a quieter sound that would be OK. I hate when people pull up to the neighbors house and blast the horn instead of walking up to the door and knocking. I had a neighbor who was picked up at 5 am every day by one of these knuckleheads. There is no reason I can think of that we need loud horns on our cars.

It keeps coming up because EVs are often advertised as "silent" (which they are not), and the national association for the Blind (or some such organization) keeps getting legislation introduced that would require "noise-makers" of some sort to be operating on EVs.

In California, we have already had to defeat one such bill (that would create a commission to study and recommend which noise-maker to use).

No, all hot or sharp objects, or holes or trenches do not (yet) require noise-makers on them.

Do we need constantly-speaking signs for the illiterate?

It seems many in power or law enforcement do not really understand "disabled", "handicapped", "illegal alien", or even "stupid".

Maybe all ICEs should have "silencers" installed, so people can hear the little noise that the EV does make!

From yesterday's article in NYT:

Mark Perry, a Nissan spokesman, said the company’s Leaf battery electric car, which is planned for release at the end of the year, will include a sound. Nissan will introduce the sound at a Japanese media event in two weeks. “It’s a little too early to disclose it, but when we do you’ll understand the work that went into it from our audio guys,” Mr. Perry said.

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LEAFer said:

From yesterday's article in NYT:

Mark Perry, a Nissan spokesman, said the company’s Leaf battery electric car, which is planned for release at the end of the year, will include a sound. Nissan will introduce the sound at a Japanese media event in two weeks. “It’s a little too early to disclose it, but when we do you’ll understand the work that went into it from our audio guys,” Mr. Perry said.

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A more likely candidate would be the sound of an internal-combustion engine idling when the electric car is at a traffic light and a more aggressive note that would kick in when the car starts to move.

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“Bruup, bruup” is an approximation of the sound that will be made by the Chevrolet Volt, according to Micky Bly, General Motors’ executive director for hybrid electric vehicles and batteries

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This is getting silly.

Reminds me of this ....

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/25379-nice-article-creation-vistas-startup-sound.html

SEATTLE (AP) - Some musicians spend 18 months working on a whole album. At
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), that's how long it took to perfect just four seconds
of sound.

Of course, this isn't just any four-second clip. It's the sound - a soft
da-dum, da-dumm, with a lush fade-out - that millions of computer users will
hear every day, and perhaps thousands of times in total, when they turn on
computers running Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Vista operating system.

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My intended emphasis in pointing out the article was ... we will find out in two weeks what the LEAF has "in store" ... good or bad.

And after the Leaf starts shipping to customers, we find out how to disable it. :lol:

The Volt is apparently going to make a "bruup, bruup, bruup..." sound:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/04/and-the-chevy-volt-goes-bruup-bruup-bruup/

How annoying does that seem?

mwalsh said:

The Volt is apparently going to make a "bruup, bruup, bruup..."

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see also 4 posts up from the other article. crazy isn't it.

mwalsh said:

Well, I'm not quite sure that it's completely a non-issue.

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I am!

I've been behind someone walking up the center of a parking lot a few times where it's taken a little blip of the throttle to let them know you're behind them. Of course you could "bip" your horn at them too, but that can give them a bit of a fright if they happen to be completely oblivious.

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The idea here is to make the blind safer... not the idiots who are oblivious to their surroundings. If we cater to them, what's next? Can't we have SOME personal responsibility expectations in this country?

mwalsh said:

The Volt is apparently going to make a "bruup, bruup, bruup..." sound:

http://green.autoblog.com/2010/06/04/and-the-chevy-volt-goes-bruup-bruup-bruup/

How annoying does that seem?

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The Volt solution is THE solution to be considering here. It is the same that the EV1 had, and it is IDEAL. It is driver-operated. It does not happen all the time. You see somebody in your way (blind, obvlivious... whatever) and you pull the "flash to pass" stalk toward you. at parking lot speeds, the brights flash, and the warble tone sounds (at higher speeds, only the brights flash as you would expect). It is exactly what we need. It says "excuse me, I'm coming." It does not make an annoying sound constantly at low speed that simply adds to the deafening din of ambient noise.

I guess we're just a few days away from finding out what noise the Leaf is going to make...there is supposed to be a press conference about it early next week.

I still think it would be cool instead of generating an audible sound to transmit an RF signal sort of like bluetooth that could be received by a portable device. That would alert a pedestrian listening to an ipod, or a blind person could have something with flashing lights.

LTLFTcomposite said:

....or a blind person could have something with flashing lights.

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Not sure you actually meant that, did you?

You only have a virtually silent car at walking pace, and even then I've not been able to creep up behind anyone yet. However, there are times when I'm in a busy car park when I turn the heater fan on full blast so that there is some additional noise coming from my car - just to be on the safe side.

After all, I don't think there is a problem - but it isn't an issue you want to be "dead right" about, if you get my drift...

MikeBoxwell said:

LTLFTcomposite said:

....or a blind person could have something with flashing lights.

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Not sure you actually meant that, did you?

You only have a virtually silent car at walking pace, and even then I've not been able to creep up behind anyone yet. However, there are times when I'm in a busy car park when I turn the heater fan on full blast so that there is some additional noise coming from my car - just to be on the safe side.

After all, I don't think there is a problem - but it isn't an issue you want to be "dead right" about, if you get my drift...

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ROFL!!! let's make that a deaf person...

This is funny. Someone noticed that the Leaf's generated sound is the same as that of the futuristic cars in Woody Allen's movie "Sleeper."
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnT6_S-aECc[/youtube]

MikeBoxwell said:

LTLFTcomposite said:

....or a blind person could have something with flashing lights.

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Not sure you actually meant that, did you?

You only have a virtually silent car at walking pace, and even then I've not been able to creep up behind anyone yet. However, there are times when I'm in a busy car park when I turn the heater fan on full blast so that there is some additional noise coming from my car - just to be on the safe side.

After all, I don't think there is a problem - but it isn't an issue you want to be "dead right" about, if you get my drift...

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There's going to be a problem if they don't leave in the 'on/off' switch. Who in their right mind wants to hear that on a nice day while stuck for miles in 'stop/go' traffic?

Notice that other (ICE) cars, especially luxury models, are often "silent" (below the ambient noise level) when moving slowly in a parking lot near an intersection with "noticable" traffic. Shouldn't these "silent" cars have "noisemakers" like EVs?