Electric Cars Brumm Brumm?

[brightspark]

So what does Culture Club, The Clash and the Beach Boys have to do with Electric Cars?

 

You know the "zero emmision" vehicles that are going to save us from global warming/next ice age/etc while taking us to Tesco.

 

Well the answer is Steve Levine who is a record producer for the above pop beat combos.

 

The story in the latest edition of the Engineer (19/9/11) is that he is working on the HALOsonic project with Harmon and Lotus.

Apparently, there is a concern that as electric cars are silent(?) Pedestrians (especially the visually impaired) might not hear them coming. So this project is working out what noise an electric car should make.

 

Apparently noise "forms part of the sensory landscape" i.e. gear changes, sharp engine note rise as the car accelerates etc.

 

It is antispated that there will be an opportunity for after sales sounds especially among the boy racers.

 

So I was thinking...what sound do you want your electric car to make?

[Guest]

An Ivor The Engine sound appeals to me.

At least it would for about a minute after which it would be very very annoying. I think everything will just end up making a discreet hum after the first irritating-car-ringtone related murder occurs.

[Western Stalwart]

Class 37

[great central]

Class 37

 

 

:yahoo:

[ian]

4'33" by John Cage Edited September 26, 2011 by ian

[pete_mcfarlane]

I'd imagine most of the drivers would want their electric/hybrid cars to play a prerecorded lecture to the rest of us on how we should all drive electric/hybrid cars to save the planet.

[The Stationmaster]

They certainly count as 'silent but deadly' as far as I'm concerned - a Prius reversed out of a space in the local surgery car park the other week and thanks to an idiot driver who didn't bother to look nearly hit a couple of folk who weren't expecting a moving car. And one passing in a local car park seemed just as dangerous with not a sound coming from it. So I reckon they do need a sound card and a suitable 'punishment' would be the sound of a Fordson Major running on TVO or a single cylinder stationary engine.

 

I don't go along with the Class 37 noise because if you heard one of these cars in a station car park the potential excitement arising from confusion for us 'more mature' folk could lead to other problems.

[Oldddudders]

I still think hybrid is the way for the foreseeable future, so an IC engine would still be part of the package. In the recent American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca, the fastest GT car (it wasn't eligible for points or a placing) proved to be a Porsche 911 GT3 with added electric motors. I believe it refuelled twice during the 6-hour race, i.e. using half the fuel of others in the class. Let's keep the petrol engine for the noise and add the motors for economy.

[Fat Controller]

They certainly count as 'silent but deadly' as far as I'm concerned - a Prius reversed out of a space in the local surgery car park the other week and thanks to an idiot driver who didn't bother to look nearly hit a couple of folk who weren't expecting a moving car. And one passing in a local car park seemed just as dangerous with not a sound coming from it. So I reckon they do need a sound card and a suitable 'punishment' would be the sound of a Fordson Major running on TVO or a single cylinder stationary engine.

 

I don't go along with the Class 37 noise because if you heard one of these cars in a station car park the potential excitement arising from confusion for us 'more mature' folk could lead to other problems.

They need something- I'm old enough to remember Cardiff Trolleybuses, and recollect my little sister almost getting run over because she didn't hear one approach.

Given the seeming profile of the Prius driver, perhaps a continually-repeating ' Caution, self-righteous prat approaching' loop could be played...

[The Stationmaster]

I still think hybrid is the way for the foreseeable future, so an IC engine would still be part of the package. In the recent American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca, the fastest GT car (it wasn't eligible for points or a placing) proved to be a Porsche 911 GT3 with added electric motors. I believe it refuelled twice during the 6-hour race, i.e. using half the fuel of others in the class. Let's keep the petrol engine for the noise and add the motors for economy.

But even a modern petrol engine running at tick-over wouldn't make much noise and certainly wouldn't rev in a way that attracts attention. The menace of the Prius lies in its low speed manouevring when by implication the petrol engine isn't running (unless the batteries have drained down too far to provide power). Once you start using the petrol engine as a noise generator you start to undermine the fuel saving because you'd be running it when it isn't needed.

 

Picking up Brian's point it's quite noticeable round here that those driving a Prius do seem to come from an identifiable type although I'm not entirely sure if his suggestion is quite on target. Personally I prefer the occasional Ferraris I see in Tesco's car park as you can very definitely tell when they are moving

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I am pretty sure that no added noise is needed. There are several near silent road users in current use; milk floats, pedal cycles, some exceptionally quiet cars like Lexii, in addition to hybrids running on batteries. As the proportion of near silent vehicles on the road increases, the population as a whole will become aware of the need for a complete visual check, and not to depend on audibility to go short on looking first in all directions.

 

When it is considered that people are regularly struck by noisy IC engine vehicles, sonic output is no certain protection. The additon of silent vehicles to the mix should - perhaps counter intuitively - improve matters, as it will force people into making a visual check in areas where road vehicles may be moving.

[Tom Bayford]

Bulleid Pacfic?

[298]

I'd want mine to sound like a Stuka Dive-Bomber....

 

....or just it's natural quiet noise. If the motor car had been silent from the start, would it have been engineered to be audible, or just made do with a simple horn...? Perhaps some need to be reminded who the infallable one is in a person-car intereaction.

[Oldddudders]

Perhaps some need to be reminded who the infallable one is in a person-car intereaction.

Sadly the courts and insurance companies tend to take the view that the pedestrian is almost always the innocent victim, irrespective of his/her actions prior to meeting the car.

[Welly]

Fit a DCC sound chip blown with 4VEP noises into any electric jalopy I own! I'll have the air compressor sounds going when I'm at the lights...