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Comment by xnx | Hacker News Reader

Tangentially: Does anyone know where to find a collection of the low speed sounds emitted by electric vehicles (in the US at least)? I'd be interest to hear the different approach different manufacturers have taken.

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i too would be very interested in this! i am for now a petrol head but continue to be fascinated and also mildly irked by the varying EV sounds.

some sound like galactic spaceships, some like weapons, some like "blurred mechanical noise", and some are almost indescribable in words. some can be semi-nightmarish.

i'd love to play with a soundboard that had all the different EV manuf sounds on it.

Shortly after moving into my current place, I would randomly hear this hum that for the life of me I could not figure out what it was. I had even looked at maps to look for some sort of place nearby that might make sense. It wasn't a constant hum, and there was seemingly no schedule for it. A week ago, I just happened to be in my drive way instead of the fenced backyard when I heard the noise. It was my neighbor's EV <facepalm>

There was a short moment when I thought the future looked like no fumes and no noise (well, at least no engine noise; tires are quite loud at speed). And then the government decided that EVs should not be quieter than ICEVs, in fact they should be louder. And some of the hybrids on the roads (looking at you, Toyota) are the loudest of them all.

Different strategies for different cars, though.

My neighbor's Highlander hybrid is audible a couple blocks away as it comes into the neighborhood.

Our old Bolt EV was not quite as loud, but still distinctive and never a surprise to anyone as it came down the street.

My Model 3, however, makes a white noise sound going forward that you don't really notice aside from very low (single digit) speeds in a very quiet environment. But in reverse, it howls pretty loudly, and is probably louder than any of the hybrids.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWxrK_3LlEr9WsfOL8N41...

I absolutely love the reverse sound my Toyota RAV4 Prime (hybrid) makes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUT94MBt_Ao To me, it sounds like the future. Sort of a hovering UFO. People's heads definitely turn when I back out of my driveway.

When I first got a RAV-4 hybrid, I had no idea that this sound was being pumped out of a speaker. I thought it was an artifact of the electric motor. As it happens, companies spend a lot of time designing their unique electronic sound as a signature of the vehicle. My dog has learned to recognize the sound and he barks when the car is as much as 1km away.

Video coincidentally posted today that details some of the design requirements of these sounds: "What should an electric car sound like?" ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnAGXvVNMB8)

I think you’re the only one.

I wouldn’t mind as much if the volume wasn’t 5 times louder in reverse than drive.

That sounds horrible.

Let me make sure I've got this right... According to the video, if the driver of a Toyota EV reverses through a "cross walk", and hits a pedestrian, it's the pedestrian's fault for not getting out of the way?

And, in order to prove that it must be the pedestrian's fault for not noticing the vehicle reversing through said cross walk, the vehicle omits an obnoxious noise at high volume?

I didn't watch the video, but both practically and legally speaking, in the US when a car hits a pedestrian it's considered the car driver's fault, excepting some circumstances. The noise doesn't have anything to do with it- cars have to stop for pedestrians in marked crosswalks, and should stop at any formally defined crosswalk (not all "crosswalks" are directly labelled or signed as such).

My main objection to the newer EV sounds is that they are tonal enough to be recognized as a musical chord, but not a pleasant one. It’s either vaguely minor like a horror movie score, or a downright dissonant mash of pure sines.

> semi-nightmarish

There's one I hear regularly that sounds like a choir of demons.

Is it the Honda hybrid sound? I owned two hybrid CR-Vs (loved those cars, but got into an accident one year ago today that totaled a three month-old CR-V hybrid and car prices went up so fast we had to downgrade). We always called it "Hell Choir". It makes for an amusing contrast to the horn, which sounds like a clown car.

https://youtu.be/K_7Hd3M2qrc

I recently started getting something related in my youtube recommendations and that is the recordings of PWM motor signals from japanese and american trains[0]. There's also people building their own boards and motors to generate these same waveforms[1].

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgxlM_kiDL0 [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0B2bvd9rFQ

i3 with Jetsons sound (fake but fun): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgSZ8sjDgU

I’m not going electric unless I can choose the Hampsterdance as my motor sound.

I really hope we can get to a point where there are multiple approved sounds to choose from. If the car has to make noise, might as well be able to select from some options.

Probably won't see Hampster Dance approved, however...

On the one hand, yes!

But more realistically, think of the headache of trying to keep your engine's Hampsterdance in sync with the Hampsterdance blaring from your car's stereo, (as it naturally would be).

Not to mention all the other excellent tracks on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampsterdance:_The_Album

Seems like a great choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WpMlwVwydo

I think I'll petition NHTSA etc. to make this song mandatory for electric vehicles.

God, the Hyundai sounds are terrible in Korea. They sound like a UFO and are very loud. They tried to go too hard with the future vibe and it drives me nuts living in the small streets of a very busy Seoul.

Oh my god it actually sounds like a more high pitched version of the Jetsons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NgSZ8sjDgU

Edit: Found it, look how loud this shit is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgvUu2YZ5ps

Having a loud/annoying low-speed sound would be a dealbreaker for any EV purchase.

That's the thing. When you're driving you most likely can't even hear it unless it's dead quiet (and when it's dead quiet these things don't adjust, they are LOUD).

I did notice this when I had a city apartment with a window facing the street: regulators have not taken noise pollution into consideration. They made it very loud so as to be sure to alert all pedestrians, which is good, but it is also far more noticeable than a quiet ICE in several situations. If I’m in a building, I really do not want to hear a vehicle! Noise pollution is a real problem and the current regulations unfortunately do step backwards in my opinion.

It will happen eventually... hopefully. I'm usually ahead on my complaints to the average Joe. So since I started complaining a couple years ago I give it til next year to start being enforced.

Holy crap, is that modified or do they all sound that loud? And not just in reverse? Not the future we were promised.

They all sound like this (the newer models obviously, probably as far back as 2020)

I'm sure there's a way to hack it and turn it off... but who's going to do that?

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