Truly, one of the most exciting aspects of driving an electric car is its almost completely silent operation. Drive a Tesla roadster, and your brain divides by zero. Lickety-split speed that you'd expect from a roaring 7.0-liter dino-burner, with nothing more than wind noise and slight gear whine. It's hard to get used to, but oh-so-cool at the same time. To me, one of the most compelling reasons to buy an electric car is near-silent operation. Now, Nissan's thinking of changing that with the Leaf.
Before you blow up the comments with safety arguments, let me assure you that I'm all about safety. Ever been snuck up on by a stealth Prius in a parking lot? Not fun. Something should be done to help the vision, hearing, or cognitive impaired be aware of electric vehicles running around, but I'm not sure Nissan's proposed sounds should be it. Hit the jump to hear for yourself.
Maybe if the sounds were selectable? Ahh, but then you'd end up with people playing profane music while driving. I'd find it humorous, but I'm sure parents of impressionable minds would not. Worse yet, these proposed sounds would be on all the time. One day, electric cars will be far more abundant, and if they're all emitting these wonky tones, imagine the noise pollution from a traffic jam. Suddenly, that dino-burner doesn't sound so bad does it?
I think the forward sound is futuristic and kinda cool, but I wish it were a little more spaceship-like.
Imagine a world where all the cars are electric, though, and this gets pretty annoying. Like being stuck inside a jet engine or at a World Cup match with all those dang horns.
The reverse sound is just lame. Better than the current Prius, though, which beeps on the INSIDE. Who thought THAT was a good idea? (Some lawyer no doubt.) It should have occurred to someone that distracting the driver while backing up is a bad idea, not a good one.
DrivesLikeAGirl - June 17, 2010 at 02:19PM
The forward sound is pretty spaceship-y! The reverse sound is very Star Trek-y Japanese. The JDM Mazda3 (Axela) has a beep *inside* the car when you shift into reverse. I think both are lame.
If electric cars start gaining ground, though, blind people will start clamoring for them to make artificial sounds. I've heard they're already having some issues with hybrids whose engines shut off.
Car Dude - June 15, 2010 at 11:19AM
OK the reverse sound I get.....but the forward sound has a weird high pitched noise that Im sure will make dogs go crazy.
I wish the car sounded like a jet on takeoff. That would be sweet! Or some goofy robotic sound from a 50's science fiction show. Or hey about about if it made R2D2 noises. Im sure there will soon be an IPhone app to address this problem.
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