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Comment by lenepp | Hacker News Reader

One interesting feature of articles like this that I don't really get is that they often leave out a huge huge quality of life benefit that electric vehicles bring: reduced urban machine noise.

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Even hybrid busses help a lot, and as a passenger it’s lot more comfortable to not feel the engine vibrating the whole bus when you are stopped in traffic. It seems that all the newer busses in London are hybrid or electric now, which seems like an easier target to reach than going full electric.

The visceral excitement from the noise and vibration is a key part of auto marketing, and automakers are struggling to sell cars without it. Some people enjoy the attention they get from their loud, smelly cars - old Porsches, Harley Davidson motorcycles, and large trucks come to mind. Which is why some EVs play engine noises from internal speakers.

This sounds so bizarrely immature to me - like the trolls that sabotage their vehicle's noise suppression. I wonder if they realise they catch people's attention because the onlookers are simply waiting for them to leave so they can resume hearing themselves think.

Also, I thought EVs make noise to alert pedestrians and bicyclists, because the general public isn't used to quiet cars yet and honking the horn is likely to have the wrong effect.

The engine noises I heard from the BMW i8 were ridiculous - not that they were bad but just because it seems so childish. It's like you're a 5-year-old sat on a chair making BROOM! BROOM! noises.

An example is on this YouTube video [0]. First you can hear the electric acceleration, then the driver then slows down and switches on the engine noise. It even simulates the noise of gear changes...

[0]: https://youtu.be/yerTSDJtJmM?t=6m29s

I think that sound is pretty cool! It also works as some kind of feedback.

You already do get a lower level of feedback from the noise of the electic motor. It doesn't make much noise but it does change in pitch as you go faster. Plus you have the speedometer and the colour of the dashboard changes colour I think as you speed up.

But buses? I'm sure it's good to care about drivers' concerns but for a public commodity like buses the aesthetic concerns are naturally less prominent than for personal items.

Hey some pickup trucks also play enhanced engine noises from internal speakers in order to sound "throatier" to buyers :)

don't worry about the noise. At least here in France we've got you covered with scooters all over the place, including the heart of town! these things seem to be mostly unregulated since the 80s or so when it comes to noise and "stinky" emissions... :|

Here in Berlin a good chunk of the scooters I see are already electric. I don't think that the noisy two stroke engines will live much longer.

Hey AdrianN! can you give some online shops where can I buy the most popular models? Thanks.

Since I have some Amazon stock, I recommend Amazon.

I really hope you're right.

Yes! I really wish they banned gas powered scooters and made people get electric ones. It's difficult to actually have a conversation when walking along the street in Paris. The scooters seem to be several times louder than an average car.

Yep! I’m sitting on one of the new electric buses at Schiphol Airport right now. They are so quiet and smooth.

I think they said something similar about when cars replaced horses - no more hooves clop-clopping on the roads.

As a pedestrian in Old Street, London, where there are tons of hybrids, I'm a bit worried about the absence of vehicle noise. Aural feedback is great to navigate traffic safely, and the few times I've almost been hit by a car in the area, it's always been a hybrid car.

My plugin-hybrid has a speaker that generates noise for exactly this reason. It's annoying to me (it spoils a nearly-silent ride), but I understand the safety reason for it.

I think that over time, this will be less of an issue, for a couple of reasons: First of all, people will be more accustomed to near-silent vehicles, and their situational awareness will adapt. Also, technology—both in the vehicle (to detect pedestrians), and for those with vision problems that otherwise need to rely on hearing—will prevent collisions.

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