What sound should electric cars make to help people hear them coming?

they were talking about making the noise directional so it is mainly heard by people in front of the car and in danger of walking out infront of it.

Could also be tied in with a radar detection system so only activate when needed.

Should mean less noise for those living next to roads.

Silent cars combined with a law of assumed liability for a motorist colliding with a pedestrian, equestrian or unpowered vehicle. The world would be a better place.

Would be great in car parks.

they were talking about making the noise directional so it is mainly heard by people in front of the car and in danger of walking out infront of it.

Could also be tied in with a radar detection system so only activate when needed

Should do it to all cars then.

Lotus have been dabbling with this for some time:

http://www.lotuscars.com/engineering/en/active-noise-control-halosonic

you could choose external sound via a menu – big V8, twin pot ducati etc etc all from you eurobox

simple. All electric cars have an ipod, and the driver selects the song they want to play, which is output through external speakers. Then speeding up and slowing down affects the pitch and speed of the song, so you could hire race tracks, and have big raves, where a dj tells the drivers to speed up or slow down, and he can mix the cars, like records. and planes could fly past with strobes and stuff, it will be AWSUM

Warton – that would indeed be awesome 🙂

make them all play this

Warton +1

They should all be made to sound like ice cream vans.

Thread closed.

One of the most annoying things about cars is the noise, anything to reduce it is good.

Indeed, one of the reason I hate cars is the fact they noise pollute so much and (IMO) make our towns and cities horrible places to live.

Isn’t this the modern day ‘man with a red flag’? As they become more common we’ll just adjust.

Should come with a soundboard you can interchange or download new sounds and themes for. Such as ‘clown car’ ‘tie fighter’ ‘a day at the zoo’ stuff like that.

Like customisable ringtones but for cars? That sounds truly horrible.

Could also be tied in with a radar detection system so only activate when needed

how does the car know that the ‘radar detection system’ has detected a person who needs to hear the car, and not detected a bin/post box/other car/snowman that doesn’t?

for me it’s still white noise, or spokey-dokey/proII (sound would indicate speed – very handy)

how does the car know that the ‘radar detection system’ has detected a person who needs to hear the car, and not detected a bin/post box/other car/snowman that doesn’t?

are you serious? it would obviously have a heart rate detection system, or a heat detection system, or both

Thing on TV this morning and it appears deaf people are the issue they can’t hear electic cars comming at low speeds, and apparently guide dogs are trained to listen for engines rather than look!

lollipop sticks in the spokes, worked for me back in the 80’s 😆

In the USA many dustbin waggons (garbage trucks for our US cousins) have a big bell attached to the axle and a hammer that falls on the dome every rotation of the wheel. When they travel faster centrifugal force stop the bell from clanging. There’s one of their better ideas.

this 😀

Applause for XKCD once again.. best thing on the interweb.

Get the driver to wear a bell on his hat maybe…..