It sure makes people take more notice of MY ride.
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I think a pleasant dinging or beep noise that the driver can control (like a car horn just not as loud) would be a nice addition.
Good idea. I do try to toot the horn so I donāt kill anyone when the car is driving quietly and a person isn;t hearing it, but it still sounds really loud and obnoxious. I might suggest a quieter horn honk (or beep), because anything out of the ordinary might not be recognized as coming from a car.
As I understand it this practice started with Euro manufacturers of supercars and sports cars. But people like loud cars has a been a pretty recognized for a pretty long while. Previously manufactures just stuck with tweaking the engine, exhaust, interior etc to make sure the engine both sounded āpleasantā and was audible to the driver. But quieter modern engines, better interiors etc had moneyed enthusiasts complaining that their cars didnāt sound right (or complaining that electrics sounded lame). So you had Ferrari and what have starting this nonsense a few decades ago.
Both,and youāve got a pretty good weekend in Vegas.
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I think in 2016 we can expect to have a Tesla option that plays barbershop quartet music outside the car at a tempo logarithmically bound to the current speed.
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I think Iām going to add a bicycle bell to my Prius. It has a sort of spaceship/flying saucer noisemaker that operates when itās in all-electric mode and moving faster than a slow walk, but pedestrians often donāt register it as a ācarā noise, especially when theyāre phoning or texting.
People do seem to register thumb-operated āding-ding-dingā bike bells as a "watch out for moving vehicleā warning, so I think Iām gonna rig one up with a solenoid and a dash button.
Hopefully people wonāt walk into the side of the car because theyāre swiveling around looking for a bicycle. (-:
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But if your engine is baffled, it wonāt make as much noise. 
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This is the worst kind of dis-connect, and I see all kinds of motor-heads getting on board with this. But really, its the wood-grained vinyl siding of the auto world. Icky.
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Indeed.
Music is just organised noise -
and noise is poison for the mindā¦ 
Itās not just engine noise: for (well, more or less forever since they started trying to minimize total chassis mass) a while, car mfrs have teams of engineers to ensure that your door-closing sound matches what youād expect for a solid, strong, protective car door.
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Are you sure about that? The current 4cyl Mustang one makes over 300hp - as much as the 65/66 Shelby GT350ās everyone gets weepy about.
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āSplit lanesā I presume you mean? Something that is legal practically everywhere in the world except 49 unenlightened US states.
Breaking traffic rules? My stars, Martha, where is my heart medication?! Those rascals! 4-wheeled horseless carriages never break traffic rules.
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Excellent idea, I could steal the bicycle bell with a cool skull and crossbones on it from my 6 year oldās bike, but he would totally kill me if I took it.
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It reminds me of the Dortmunder novels. Where Murtch & his mom used to like to listen to records that were recorded traffic sounds on certain routes.
The requirement for an engine noise is based on a flawed study which claimed to prove that hybrids and electrics are more likely to hit pedestrians and cyclists. The study compared arbitrarily chosen models of cars (such as the Prius and Corolla) and did not control for the fact that electrics and hybrids are far more likely to be driving in urbanized areas with heavy bike traffic than the population to which they were compared. Note that another study quite clearly showed that rural drivers are far less likely to hit cyclists or pedestrians - and while Iām not a maths guy, the numbers look consistent to me.
Anyway, I find that the noisemakers on the Nissan Leaf and Plug-in Prius are irritating (which is no doubt intentional) and were louder than the engine noise on a Honda Odyssey in my tests.
An actual blind person told me that he can hear my inverters singing and the sound of my tires on pavement and does not need the noisemaker. I have therefore conceived a fantasy where I change these noises to the Jetsonsā car noiseā¦ ppprrrwbbbwwwrrrrrrrrrā¦ anyone with tips on how to do that please speak up!
PS: @pixleshifter, Plasma Boy FTW!!!
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Attaching tempo to speed would be pretty sweet, and would work particularly well for certain tunes. Iām thinking In the Hall of the Mountain Kingā¦
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I sometimes drive a prius (v) for work, and the inside beeping thing irritates me. The other annoying thing is that Iām backing out, and people are still walking behind the car because thy canāt hear anything and then look at me like Iām the that asshole.
Well a Harley engine is still basically 40ās tech, so the irritating 1/16th-of-an-airplane noise is natural.
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I get why people do it. But motorcyclist are putting a lot of faith (and their morality) into other drivers. Bitch and moan all you want about other drivers needing to pay attention to the road, in the end only you are responsible for your life when you split lanes.
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