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Normal Operating Sounds

tesla.com

41–50 of 273 posts

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#41
post #7

This one is pretty cool and definitely surprised me. > Motor Humming or Whirring when Navigating to a Supercharger … > In some circumstances (such as cold weather), it is normal for the motor(s) and components to make noise, such as humming or whirring as it generates heat to warm the Battery. Super cool that the motors can be used for things other than moving the vehicle. It reminds me of how ESCs for RC vehicles us…

I have a relatively analogue car (Subaru BRZ) and there are times when you shut it off on a warm day and then randomly about ten mins later a radiator fan kicks on. I guess it's to help cool down but I don't remember exactly what the manual says.

Basically it's cool how cars do things largely on their own sometimes to stay within certain parameters.

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#42

It's astounding just how quiet EV's are; they can make you hyperaware of other noises (hence why this page exists).

I hope legislation gets enacted that will make it illegal to blast artificial "exhaust" noises from EVs.

Not like cops will actually enforce it, but one can still dream...

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#43
Today I learned. The Tesla owner's manual has alt descriptions for its images. They're not good alt descriptions, but they are there.

In fact, it is one of the most screen reader accessible manuals for any device I've ever seen, most are some weird PDF abominations where all the button names are replaced by their unlabeled icons. Even devices made specifically for the blind have these issues sometimes. This? This is just perfectly readable HTML.

It's especially ironic considering that Teslas (as far as I know) aren't accessible in any way. Even the infotainment system, which a blind person might want to use, for example when waiting for a sighted acquaintance in the car, does not have a screen reader and is not in any way usable.

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#44

What's the UX reason to use a chime rather than an (customisable) announcement? I suppose I'd get used to the alarms if I used the car but all of them on a page is confusing.

Speech gets annoying, like webex's "Muted" / "Unmuted" / "Lower microphone to unmute"

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#45
post #5

What's the UX reason to use a chime rather than an (customisable) announcement? I suppose I'd get used to the alarms if I used the car but all of them on a page is confusing.

Text would take a lot longer to convey information than a short chime. You would also have to localize all the sounds.

"TERRAIN, TERRAIN! whoop whoop PULL UP!" -- the makers of the Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS) thought that this extra information was useful. Maybe the timing is different or maybe it's just cultural.

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#46
post #7

This one is pretty cool and definitely surprised me. > Motor Humming or Whirring when Navigating to a Supercharger … > In some circumstances (such as cold weather), it is normal for the motor(s) and components to make noise, such as humming or whirring as it generates heat to warm the Battery. Super cool that the motors can be used for things other than moving the vehicle. It reminds me of how ESCs for RC vehicles us…

I have a relatively analogue car (Subaru BRZ) and there are times when you shut it off on a warm day and then randomly about ten mins later a radiator fan kicks on. I guess it's to help cool down but I don't remember exactly what the manual says. Basically it's cool how cars do things largely on their own sometimes to stay within certain parameters.

My Kawasaki Ninja 500 will do the same thing, and it's a bike with very old tech. It is air-cooled, so it's probably a safety feature. Still cool.

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm... too many projects :) And that list is only getting longer, I think I'll pass it on to my kids. Right now (and for the past couple of years) it has been mostly music but also still some more interesting tools to play with. Currently making a set of super realistic traffic lights for my youngest including pedestrian crossing and automatic cycle influencing (road coil pickup to detect car presence in front of the…

Even more off-topic, but something I’m struggling with personally: how do you find the time for projects, with kids in the picture? Me, I can just barely eke out a truncated workday, then it’s kids and housework until the kids go to sleep and maybe 1.5 hours of time until bed, which mostly I spend with my partner. So I see people with diverse interests and kids and I just wonder: how!

Hm, that's a hard one. I try to involve my kids in them, this doesn't always work, but when it does it is fantastic.

I'm also an insomniac (it's 7:20 am here and I'm still awake...) so I have a ton of time when everybody is asleep (that's when I do most of my coding and reading), and when everybody is off to school I catch up on sleep. Not ideal but it mostly works. Another nice-to-have is that I can make ends meet with a relatively small fraction of the year spent on work (and that simply means I'm not reducing my savings, if I want to grow my savings I'd have to work more than that).

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#49
My previous car, a 2014 Model S, had my favorite acceleration sound of any car: a guttural whine in a perfect third, ascending as speed increased, and louder as load increased. It's the only thing I miss after upgrading to a Model 3. Well, that and the ability to do burnouts. Confused quite a few people doing that.

Re: Normal Operating Sounds

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought about this growing up. How the engine’s heat is used directly to heat the cabin and there is no heater. Also my gaming PC in the winter. It feels like free compute given I’m heating anyways.

A gasoline based ICE is so incredibly inefficient it needs to shed heat or it would melt down. It makes more heat than that it makes motive power (the thing it is designed to do...). A 50 KW engine makes 200 KW(!!) of heat (at full throttle). Most of that heat energy exits the system through the exhaust gases but there is plenty that gets stuck in the body of the engine and you need to remove it from there somehow be…

>Some diesels got so efficient though that they needed an extra in-line heater to have enough heat for the cabin in specific operating domains

I live on the top of a hill, so the first seven minutes or so of me driving anywhere is coasting at minimum engine power. Once air temp gets below 10C it's a long, slow painful wait for the vents to start blowing warm air. Especially unfortunate when you're waiting for the defroster to start doing something. I've considered installing a block heater, even though it wouldn't be needed to start the engine at all, just to warm the coolant up!

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