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!
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
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
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.
I was teaching my native English speaking students German and explained that woher and wohin are like whence and whither, and the looks of utter unrecognition made me realize I was doing this. I tried for a moment with “thence and thither? Hence and hither?” And 4/7 knew “hence,” but that was it, and it’s not really used in the same sense as the others, anyway (I mean, it is, but it’s metaphoric and most people saying it probably aren’t thinking of it in that sense).
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.
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.
That’s a great idea! I would just record myself making car noises and use that.
This is a you think you want this but you don’t moment. If this is allowed you will constantly hear ads or people saying check out my channel at annoying.TV as they use driverless cars to circle your block.
They already do that with moving billboards. In my neighborhood the billboards are louder than my tv at half volume. Really pisses me off when they roll by.
I see three and can imagine where a fourth would be, but where are the 5th and 6th?
Slightly behind the front ones, they do seem to be slightly obstructed from view though.
https://billboards-n-motion.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GregHart-002-2048x957.jpg
These seem to be the same trucks from the same company, so the other guy saying double wheels in back is more likely correct
What the fuck, is this real? Moving billboards that make noise? That is just fucking insane
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 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.)
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.
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.
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?).
I’d argue the sound should be standardized across all models. It needs to be immediately recognizable to nearby pedestrians.
Yes, because that is actually the purpose of those sounds. Not to sound “cool” but to warn pedestrians the otherwise nearly silent car may be moving.
Then why are Kawasakis much less noisy? I thought it was for the Harley’s owner’s inflated ego?
Yeah it’s like saying that you think we should be able to customize our headlights to show the bat signal or something.
Like people die because of this shit, I frankly could not care less about what you wish your car sounded like.
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.
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 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.
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”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ftJX_HZ5S4g
Somehow when I first saw this it didn’t seem like an ad.
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.
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.)
I want the sound of a man making car noises with his mouth
Just like saying “THUNK” when the doors close or “vrrrrrrr- Vrrrrrrrr” or making engine starting noised when you turn it on
Should I ever get an EV (probably my next car) I will ask my kid and my friend’s kids to make noises for it, this is awesome.
As someone who lives in a city and is constantly exposed to car noise: No.
Like, people have no idea how loud cars are. When I turn the volume of my ear buds to 100%, it hurts my ears. It’s so loud it’s uncomfortable. But when I’m riding my bike along the street to the city center, I can barely hear my podcasts, even at 100%
Just imagine what it was like 50 years ago. How did people live in such insane noise polution conditions. Getting rid of noise should be one good enough reason for ev switch
But when I’m riding my bike along the street to the city center, I can barely hear my podcasts, even at 100%.
Get something with noise cancelling.
That seems dangerous when riding a bike through a busy city. I intentionally wear these regular earbuds that don’t seal your ear airtight. I don’t like the feeling of having one of my senses completely cut off, especially when participating in traffic. That seems like a big security risk.
TBH it seems dangerous to listen to a podcast without oncoming traffic blaring through it, as [email protected] wants.
I have this exact experience. To hear music on some busy streets, I have to turn the volume up to unhealthy levels (I stop listening at that point).
… How many hours have you spent here on earth ? Adaptative senses is a nifty feature which allows you to see better in the dark, listen in on quiet conversations, feel the texture of stuff and all of that only when it matters.
That doesn’t answer my question. Things can be different volumes and voice only productions are especially quiet.
I’m not suggesting the following is standard, but the specific sound my car makes allows for people to not just hear the car, but to also know what direction the sound is coming from. The sound is engineered this way.
Compare this with those utility trucks that have those signature “reverse/backing up” (beep…beep…beep) sounds. You can hear it, but it’s almost impossible to tell from what direction. It’s been a complaint by blind people, and there’s still worker incidents where they step into a moving path of a vehicle despite the sound.
You can even make sounds that work against this technique. Home audio systems use directional audio to give the effect of sounds being in certain locations. I wouldn’t want people to be able to change a car sound to something that is more dangerous.
I think that’s what the static sound is for. It doesn’t have a broken speaker it’s easier to hear where the truck is at
Under 20 I want choo-choo train noise, 20-50 would be tie fighter noise, over 50 flight of the valkyries.
Weird that no car manufacturer implemented some overpriced “car sound store” where you can change the obnoxious default UFO sound with another sound from a list for only $29.99 each
This is quite close: https://faq.bmwusa.com/s/article/BMW-ConnectedDrive-Upgrades-BMW-IconicSounds-Sport-Availability-UzXZE?language=en_US
You can buy a sound package addon in the BMW “Connected Shop”.
I’m of two minds about this. On one hand, I could drive a car that makes a TIE fighter sound, or the time machine DeLorean from Back to the Future.
On the other hand, someone could have their car make the Dumb and Dumber “most annoying sound in the world,” or just one long continuous wet fart, or pro-fascist propaganda. Or worse, something completely silent and incredibly dangerous.
Maybe if you could download special sound packs, like you can for GPSes. I bet Lucasfilm and Universal would go for that.
Silent is actually the easy one, for many EVs you can just pull the fuse for the noise maker. It was pretty cool rolling down our driveway in a near completely silent car, but it felt very wrong, immediately replaced the fuse.
I question the need for a noise sometimes. My son has a 2001 Tahoe that is dead silent and has caused him to try to start it with it running a few times. Meanwhile if I start my car it’s loud enough to wake the dead (at least until it idles down), different strokes for different folks I guess.
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).
one of the neighbours tesla would make horse drawn cart noise. not sure if they still can do that. i dont live there anymore…
