Electric cars have to make noise on purpose because otherwise it would be a silent car. And most of these noises are are weird futuristic WEEEE-00000 UFO sounds. Therefore I posit that we should be able to change the noises our electric cars make
EDIT: These suggestions are Top-Notch! Keep em coming!
They’re the same for safety. People need to build a subconscious mental model of what a car sounds like so they can be safe as pedestrians and cyclists.
If there were 1000 different sounds, that mental model would never form.
You can but it takes some work
I want to do this very thing if/when I have an electric car. I specifically want that old school cartoon jalopy sound. Put put put put BANG BANG put put put put
Horn goes arOOga.
This reminded me of how I read the Grapes of a Wrath in its entirety before learning that it’s ja-LOP-ee, not JA-la-pee. Also, “oncet” is not On-set, it’s wunst.
Wunst!? I know the joke with reading something before hearing it is you won’t always be right but wunst??? vaguely gestures at everything😩😂😩
It’s a regional way of saying “once.” As in, “oncet I finish this, I’ll start on that.” The spelling is a crime though.
that’s mostly what I was getting at lol. who came up with that spelling??
It’s for grammatical reasons. It’s the same “t” as whenst. From whenst you came ~= from oncet you came
But then wouldn’t it be “onest”?
Whence/whenst, once/onest
But I would pronounce that o-nest, so six of one, half dozen of the other I suppose.
If I were to affect an oakie, I would produce “onest” to mean something like “singular” or “unique”, or possibly “solitary” or “lonely”. I would mean it as a superlative of the ordinal “one” and it would be pronounced slightly differently.
It’d be better spelt as “once’t”
For me, once’t in an oakie vernacular would be a contraction of once and it:
I’d grab a beer once’t finished.
but of course that’s just me and I left the Central Valley a long time ago and am not a professional linguist, I’m just telling you about my perception of the vernacular from where I grew up.
You say that as if “whenst” is a word we would’ve encountered before.
It’s an archaic version of whence.
This is very funny for me. The phrase “floppy jalopy” to mean flimsy still gets a lot of play in the region, and so I’d heard the word many, many times before I read it. It wasn’t until I read the Grapes of Wrath that I found out it referred to a car.
If I had an electric car, I’d turn my sound into Jeremy Clarkson yelling “POWER, MORE POWER!!!” over and over again so people would know I’m coming.
You already can on some. Hella videos of people doing it in Teslas, but my BF’s hybrid can also change the electric engine sound (or just leave it silent).
In the EU you can’t have a silent car.
one of the neighbours tesla would make horse drawn cart noise. not sure if they still can do that. i dont live there anymore…
I don’t think the manufacturers want to open that can of worms. You do have a choice of different sounds on some cars. I think it’s good that they all sound similar, making them more recognisable.
Old hybrids didn’t have those sounds and they’re dead quiet at low speeds which is creepy.
Recognizability is the key. That is the entire purpose of the fake car sounds: to have your car make noises that bystanders will immediately recognize as a nearby car. It’s a safety feature. The ability to change it to an arbitrary audio file negatively impacts a safety standard. Same reason why rainbow crosswalks are a bad idea.
Had me in the first half, ngl.
It’s not exactly the same thing, but it is analogous. Taking a standardized zebra striped crosswalk and recoloring it for any reason (pride, sports team colors, etc.) is taking away from that standardization, reducing safety.
It depends what you understand the purpose and effect of a crosswalk to be.
If you think it’s basically a signpost on the road saying “there might be pedestrians here” then the standardization is perhaps important. But even then there’s a decent amount of latitude as long as the feature is recognizable.
If it’s just visual noise that makes people uncomfortable to go fast through, then the specific design is far less important. (“Friction” as described in this video.)
Also, if you can customise the sound, you can remove the sound, which would defeat the purpose of the regulations.
You can remove the sound anyway. Some cars will throw an error if the speaker is missing, but you can buy hardware to fool it. Just a resistor with the right connector. Easy peasy. I’m pretty sure it’s not even illegal, it only has to be sold that way.
Ever snuck up on someone in a seven thousand pound chungus-mobile? I have. It’s hilarious.
Of course it can be done, but that doesn’t mean that it should be made easier to do.
It is my car. I should be able to do with it whatever I want!
I can remove the airbag, but do I really want to do that?
I can remove the exhaust (on an old car) and drive without it. It’s not efficient and not legal but I can do it. I won’t do it because if I get caught I have to pay a fine and I want a good car. Same for the sound. If I get caught, I’d have to pay a fine.
That’s just because where you live it’s the wild west but in other parts of the world removing an airbag or changing an exhaust without certification is a periodic inspection failure and you can’t drive that vehicle on public roads until you fix it.
Not that I’m personally a fan of the more invasive requirements, but there are things that affect others and if someone doesn’t have the respect or brain cells to avoid bothering others then a common ground needs to be set for everyone’s safety and comfort. That includes the noise you make going down the residential street.
Huh? I talk about having the physical possibility.
I want to be able to change anything on my car. If I can’t change it, I am not the one who is in charge, I don’t own it. If I can’t change the sound, who is in control of the car?
Well then you can change the sound of the car. You might have to bypass or add your own equipment, but you can do it.
Doesn’t mean the manufacturer should reasonably be expected to make it even easier.
Driving a car is a privilege, not a right.
When we’re talking about the safety of others, and a machine that results in millions of deaths per year worldwide, I could not care less if you’re sad that you can’t change something in your car. Get over it.
I won’t do it because if I get caught I have to pay a fine
Yeah maybe this is a problem. Maybe you should have actual reasons to not remove your exhaust beyond “I don’t want to pay a fine”
I can remove the exhaust (on an old car) and drive without it. It’s not efficient and not legal but I can do it.
Then you “can’t” do it by the same logic. Because it’s not legal.
That’s a great idea! I would just record myself making car noises and use that.
Brbrbrbrbrbrb
Rutabaga Rutabaga Rutabaga Rutabaga
That’s the best idea!
Can you imagine the sound of traffic if you lived next to a main road 🤣
It would be about the same. Above 25mph or so, the road noise is louder than combustion engines (unless you intentionally make the engine louder)
Classic!
I meant in everyone was able to change their engine sound after reading the comments
I think they knew what you meant. They’re saying that once a car is going fast enough you won’t be able to hear the chosen sound anyway, just the wheels on the road and the air being pushed by the car.
At least for my EV and in my state, it’s only required to simulate a noise up until a certain speed - 30mph, I think. I guess after that they assume you’re in a non pedestrian area or the car is making enough noise that it wouldn’t matter anyway.
It’s typically 19 mph (30 km/h)
Mmmm i disagree then
I live next to a large road in a city and can verify that cars are loud as fuck even without external speakers making customized car ringtones.
Just like this:
I want mine to sound like a TIE Fighter.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Apparently Tesla has a whoopee cushion feature that plays the sound from a seat of your choosing. It would be nice if you could change the back-up sounds into farts.
Back-up sounds? On a consumer vehicle?
Virtually all EVs already have that.
Have you never been near a modern EV/luxury vehicle?
Most cars made within the last couple years have started adding some sort of backup sound. Teslas make a weird angelic “AHHHH” sound, and I’ve seen/heard other cars with similar features.
The only EVs that I’ve encountered (and knew they were EVs) are delivery vans. Other than those and other commercial/industrial vehicles, I’ve never heard a backup siren.
The ones I’ve heard on personal EVs (and hybrids) are nowhere near a siren. They’re quieter and a steady tone/sound. I’m struggling to remember which are low speed forward sounds and which are reverse sounds because they’re similar.
It was kinda strange visiting family in San Diego earlier this year and hearing all the cars drive by with their “oohs” and “ahhs”
I want one to make the normal sound, but whenever you put it in park it moves to the Party Rock Anthem. Only the first little bit until they yell “Party Rock!” And then gets quiet.
Since there’s a long intro, it’s at about 1:38 the song starts, ignore the drums.
Would absolutely drive around with the spaceship noise from Scooby Doo.
I choose the THX sound.
I’d finally have a use for all those ringtones I bought in the 2000s
I wish we could bring back custom ring tones. Some people use the same sound for calls that I use for wake-up alarms. It’s jarring when I hear it, especially since my phone likes to fuck around on its own in my pocket sometimes (even though I use a biometric lock, it still finds a way.)
You can do this with any android phone and probably any iphone. My text notification is the “!” Alert noise from Metal Gear Solid.
Do you have one of those old people limited phones or something? Every phone supports custom ringtones lol.
I have an iPhone, about 5 years old.
You can load your own ringtones, but you have to use a Mac or Windows computer with iTunes. I did this years ago to help my old rocker mum to have Born To Be Wild as her ringtone on her iPhone (13?).
What do you mean “bring back”? At least with Android, any audio file you can transfer to your device can be used as a ringtone.
8-bit linkin park here I come!
Motorola put out pc software that allowed you to transfer any mp3 file you had to your phone and use it as a ringtone. AFAIK it only worked with their devices, but it felt awesome doing that and then checking how much money I didn’t just spend.
I used to have the circus music (Entry Of The Gladiators) as my ringtone in my Razr.
I’ve always wanted the Screaming sun
