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Comment by IAmGraydon | Hacker News Reader

Unless I'm missing something, these sounds only occur inside the car. Can you explain how that affects you?

Oh but they don’t! Lots of German “performance” cars now have speakers under the car to make obnoxiously loud sounds. They can’t produce them naturally because the muffler regulations prohibit unfiltered exhausts - hence speakers.

AMG, Audi RS, M Power - they all do it.

Do you have an AMG example? Afaik they only play engine sounds in the interior.

That's incorrect. I just did some searching and they play the sounds through the interior sound system.

EVs at low speeds need to produce external sounds to warn pedestrians.

Warn pedestrians about what?

That they’re near. They’re so quiet unless you hear them shifting gravel on the road you won’t hear them. It’s dangerous to walk around anywhere vehicles park if an EV is present.

I know that HN is not one person, but this is getting out of hand. Some commenters are so upset about EV sounds they write petitions to have them banned, others swear that pedestrians fall dead from their sheer quietness.

Maybe the EVs adapt to local regulations, because from my experience, depending on the model, they sound like a sad harmonica, hurdy-gurdy, or a model fighter jet, all of which are quite entertaining but fulfill the function.

I think the complaints were about EVs with fake sounds, added because they are so quiet. So both things are happening - some EVs are too quiet, others are too loud with the fake sounds.

Yes, you are missing something. Query for your favorite search engine is "active sound exhaust system". This is how it affects me.

I think you're the one missing something. I just searched that exact phrase and all the sources I can find says they play the sound through the interior sound system. Can you find me a source that says otherwise? I can't.

These are results from the first page. Not an endorsement.

https://www.maxhaust.com/en/accessories/v4-ab-022023/active-... https://schawe-shop.de/en/bmw/bmw-5-series/bmw-5-series-seda... (no product page) https://ixsound.eu/ https://milltekshop.com/active-sound-control-single-sound-ge... https://thor-tuning.com/eu/shop/thor-electronic-exhaust-2-lo...

From the descriptions it's unambiguous that these add-ons are not pumping 100dB into the car's interior.

In ICE cars, some people remove the mufflers and modify the exhaust for louder and more deeper sounds.

anti-social vehicles

I'm aware of that. We're talking about artificial engine sounds, though.

I'm not a motorhead, so I only skimmed second hand part offerings and found this: OEM Maserati part number 670006946. For optics it's advertised as noise cancellation system, but owners' forum [0] suggests it can work either way. They also discuss a defeat mechanism.

[0]: https://www.ghibliforum.com/threads/increase-diesel-active-e...

That’s because it’s a microphone with a speaker playing the inverse wave form.

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