Personally, I find the whole "noise" issue to be a HUGE distraction! Have you driven any higher end luxury vehicle over the past 10 years or so? The Cadillac XLR that I drove made virtually no noise at speeds of 15 mph or less. I can't count how many times that I saw the same startled look on pedestrian faces as I backed out of a parking spot or turned a corner at a stop sign. The same goes for any newer Audi or Jaguar. People who drive nicer vehicles do not want to hear road noise (or any noise that interferes with their ability to communicate with others around them). Yes, EVs are refreshingly quiet to operate, but they still make the same amount of tire noise as any other muffled vehicle out there. The argument that blind people need the sounds for their own safety is ridiculous. Growing up, I had 3 close friends who were blind. Each of them could tell me what type of vehicle was coming by the sounds that they made (usually, they were clued in to the size of the vehicle by the tire noise, before the other tell tale sounds). Think about it, when you are taking a walk in the summer or fall, on the back roads, and you hear a car coming, what to you hear first, the motor or the "road noise"of the tires? For me it is almost always the road noise, unless it is a hopped up muscle car or diesel truck.
Just my 2 watts worth! -Tom On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 10:15 PM, brucedp5 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > % Synthetic ice noise to keep from being sued/harassed % > > > http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-12-29/daimler-electrics-get-fake-vroom-to-thwart-silent-threat-cars > Daimler Electrics Get Fake Vroom to Thwart Silent Threat: Cars > By Dorothee Tschampa December 30, 2013 > > [image > http://www.bloomberg.com/image/i5887hbDPpIY.jpg > A Smart Electric Drive Automobile - Daimler Electrics Get Fake Vroom to > Thwart Silent Threat: Cars - On Daimler's electric Smart, the engine tone > is > standard in the U.S. and Japan and an option in Europe. Photographer: Jason > Alden/Bloomberg > ] > > Christoph Meier, a sound engineer at Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG, > typically spends time making engine noise less jarring. For the carmaker’s > new electric models, he’s had to do the opposite -- create sound. > > For Daimler’s e-Smart city car, Meier and his team invented a “sonorous > purring” that was pitched higher than conventional vehicles, while > Mercedes’s 416,500-euro ($569,600) SLS AMG Coupe Electric Drive gets > huskier > tones to reflect its power. > > “People expect some exterior noise from a vehicle, because we all grew up > with the ‘vroom vroom’ of combustion engines,” said Meier, who oversees 250 > people as head of powertrain acoustics at the Stuttgart, Germany-based > company. > > Daimler isn’t alone in adding noise to electric cars. Renault SA offers a > choice of car tones -- pure, glam and sport -- on the Zoe hatchback, while > Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf, the best-selling electric car, also comes with > artificial sound. The issue has become more critical to carmakers as > regulators look to require warning noises as soon as next year, while the > rollout of more and more models forces manufacturers to seek ways to stand > out. > > Synthetic motor noise, like the jangly, high-pitched whir of Renault’s glam > track, could save lives and at the same time protect investments in > electric > cars. The vehicles emit almost no sound at low speeds, making them a > potential silent threat for cyclists and pedestrians used to reacting to > the > rumble of engines. With electric cars already struggling to gain > popularity, > a spate of accidents could further damp demand. > > Not Looking > > “If a silent electric vehicle knocks over an elderly person or a child, > it’s > not worth the risk,” said Neil King, an analyst with Euromonitor in London. > “It happens often enough in urban areas that people are stepping into the > road without looking. You can’t get around that.” > > Although no data yet exists on injuries caused by electric vehicles, the > European Union takes the threat seriously enough to propose legislation > making acoustic warning sounds mandatory, and worldwide guidelines are > expected in early 2014, according to German auto association VDA. > > Blind and visually impaired people, who rely on acoustic cues to navigate > through city streets, could be most at risk. > Blind Threat > > Without noise, “we could step right in front of a vehicle and the driver > would have no chance to brake in time,” said Gerhard Renzel, who’s blind > and > a traffic expert for the German association for the visually impaired DBSV. > “What is important for us is that we don’t get killed in traffic.” > > Electric vehicles are mainly silent at speeds less than 30 kilometers (19 > miles) per hour. Then tire and wind noise kicks in. While adding motor > sounds at slow speeds may help avoid accidents, it also undercuts one of > the > unique selling points of electric vehicles. > > “One of the big competitive advantages of electric vehicles is their > soundlessness,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive > Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, > Germany. “It’s a justified goal to have quieter cities.” > > Because of this, some carmakers are seeking to keep the din of electric > vehicles to a minimum. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) will add > artificial > sound to the i3 city car only where authorities demand it. Volkswagen AG > (VOW) also isn’t planning to add sound to its e-Up! model unless required. > > Directed Noise > > Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA:US), said in > June that electric cars should direct “a pleasant-sounding noise” as a > gentle warning to nearby people rather than be required to emit sound all > the time. > > Daimler, by contrast, sees sound as a safety feature. On the electric > Smart, > the engine tone is standard in the U.S. and Japan and an option in Europe. > Unlike Renault, which equips its Zoe, Kangoo and Twizy electric models with > sound, the German company doesn’t allow customers to shut off the noise > manually. > > Smart’s sound mimics the noise of a combustion engine by getting louder as > the driver presses down on the pedal and higher as the car accelerates. The > German automaker will equip electric Mercedes models -- including a variant > of the B-Class, which hits U.S. showrooms next year -- with a similar > system. Still, the real dilemma is finding the right tone. > > “Simply imitating the sound of a combustion engine was not an option,” said > Ralf Kunkel, head of acoustics at Audi, who developed a tone for the A3 > E-tron plug-in hybrid, which debuts next year. “We discarded ideas of > giving > electric vehicles sounds such as birds twittering or leaves rustling.” > [© 2013 Bloomberg] > ... > http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sonorous > > > > http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-international/electric-cars-get-purring > Electric cars get purring 30 December 2013 - Manufacturers add fake noise > to electric cars ... > > > > > For all EVLN posts use: > > http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date > > Here are today's archive-only EV posts: > > EVLN: driveelectricorlando.com lets you plugin through Orlando, FL > EVLN: Number of US public charging stations climbed 30% in 2013 > EVLN: Even Bhutan wants-in on a Leaf EV taxi fleet > EVLN: EVs are beneficial to Singapore drivers > + > EVLN: Digital dealerships copy Tesla & transform car buying > > > {brucedp.150m.com} > > > > -- > View this message in context: > http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Daimler-s-sonorous-purring-to-protect-their-EV-investment-tp4667123.html > Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at > Nabble.com. > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -- Remember, it is not that the glass is half empty, in reality, the glass is merely twice the size that it needs to be! -TNT'82 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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