171–180 of 303 posts
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The article makes it sound like that is going to have to go away, if laws are passed to make electrics play fake engine noise.
I just wonder, why does it have to be engine noise in particular? If I saw a Tesla, Leaf, Volt, etc. I wouldn't expect any engine or exhaust noise. Beeping, maybe.
As a motor vehicle enthusiast, I think it's important to distinguish "real noises intentionally amplified by physical audio routing" and "electronic recordings or audio processing played through speakers." I don't object to routing engine noises to the cabin to allow for a loud-feeling vehicle (without necessarily being loud to people outside the car). To me, this isn't fake. The driver experiences real engine noise,…
Not long after I got the truck, the original 305ci engine gave up the ghost (it had over 400,000 miles so it had had a great run) and I had a 350ci engine built for it and installed. None of the pipes were changed, and the exhaust manifold was a factory fit version for that new engine, not custom headers. Still, the sound difference was night and day. Now the truck positively thunders, where it merely growled before. While a lot of its sound can be attributed to the custom pipes and muffler, a lot of it is in the engine too.
To me, it's similar to the difference between a miked acoustic guitar and an acoustic-electric. Either way it's amplification, but the former sounds pure and natural, whereas the latter sounds forced and way too bright, and loses out on the nuances of left-hand technique and right-hand flourishes, as it only picks up the string vibrations themselves instead of the entire ambiance.
My hybrid silently rolls down the back alleys unnoticed by pedestrians. I've had to sit for 10 minutes because people would walk out in front of my car. Women with strollers. Old people talking.
I've watched traditional cars. They have far less problem. There is a sense that hearing an engine means that someone wants out.
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With a sane legal framework surrounding driving, the driver would need to be sure they were not going to hit you, rather than you needing to be sure you wouldn't be hit.
In the end it does not matter. The pedestrian is the one needing the wheelchair afterwards.
It'd be nice if they didn't add insult to injury.
As a motor vehicle enthusiast, I think it's important to distinguish "real noises intentionally amplified by physical audio routing" and "electronic recordings or audio processing played through speakers." I don't object to routing engine noises to the cabin to allow for a loud-feeling vehicle (without necessarily being loud to people outside the car). To me, this isn't fake. The driver experiences real engine noise,…
This reminds me of the trams in Manchester, which play the recorded sound of a horn through some little tinny speaker. I'm sure it's cheaper than having an actual noise-making device (I think other trams use bells?), but it sounds ridiculous. If you're going to fake it, you should at least do a good job of it.
This discussion is very reminiscent of the debate over skeuomorphic user interfaces. As with the transition from physical interfaces to virtual ones, which has drawn interface designers towards the use of skeuomorphic elements to varying extents over the years, we are in another period of technological transition away from normally aspirated internal combustion towards quieter, more efficient means of making motion. To ease the transition for the conservative masses, some degree of skeuomorphism will be needed at first (although I personally think that creating synthetic engine noise is a horrible, horrible idea!).
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Playback recordings are a facsimile. Even in my '08 1.6L Swift Sport I can very well hear and feel the exhaust pipe through the floor as it responds to various throttle inputs. Haptic feedback is just as important to me as the sound, and is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. I'm totally not against electric cars, but it just seems wrong to me to make them appear like what they're not (…
> is part of what makes a car feel alive, playful, and eager. IOW, fun. Car porn, literally.
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With a sane legal framework surrounding driving, the driver would need to be sure they were not going to hit you, rather than you needing to be sure you wouldn't be hit.
For a pedestrian hit by a car, legal liability is often not the main concern.
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"These switch off above 25 MPH or so, so they don't contribute to freeway noise." Ugg. So they only contribute to the destruction of the street-level soundscape to the detriment of walkers, cyclists, sidewalk cafes, and birds.
It's dangerous if pedestrians and cyclists expect to hear cars and they approach silently.
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At city speeds, tire noise exceeds engine noise in many internal-combustion vehicles as well.
At highway speeds it definitely does, but not necessarily at city speeds as the speed is low (and a stationary car makes no tyre noise but combustion engine still makes some engine noise). This of course also depends on the road surface and tyres. Where I live we have rough asphalt (with large granite chips sticking out) and rought tyres, at least in the winter. The highway noise is practically all from tyres.
No, but often enough for it to be a factor. As a pedestrian I don't assume I can hear an engine.
> (and a stationary car makes no tyre noise but combustion engine still makes some engine noise)
Unless you have a start-and-stop, and it's approaching insanity to require that stopped petrol cars have speakers that make engine noise if they turn off the engine.