I’m told that the vroom-vroom-brrrraaap engine noises I make while driving almost anything do not, technically, meet the legal requirements for EV noise production as specified by NHTSA-2016-0125-0001, which specifies that EVs and hybrids operating in EV mode at low speeds should generate some manner of sounds, all to help reduce pedestrian crashes, since, when walking, we tend to rely on audio cues to be warned when and from where vehicles are approaching. As for what kind of sounds should be made, that’s not specified, and has been the subject of a great deal of debate. Should it be a completely fabricated, unique sound, or should it emulate the mechanical sounds made by combustion-engined cars? A recent study seems to have found what sort of sounds people want from their EVs, and the results are interesting. Mildly interesting, even!

According to an Automotive News article, the study was undertaken by “sonic branding agency” (that’s a thing, it seems) Listen and market research firm CloudArmy. Over 400 American adults, half of whom were “EV owners or consumers who would consider purchasing an EV” – which feels like a pretty broad category, it might make more sense to say half were people with no interest in EVs – were played 10 different types of EV low-speed driving sounds, five of which were “tonal” and five “nontonal.”

The requirements for these sounds are interesting; since the goal is to warn people and not entertain, the sounds must have some high-frequency tones that are hard to ignore, and, according to Paul Amitai, executive strategy director at Listen, must elicit “the right amount of tension” and yet not be too annoying or stress-inducing. That’s quite a line to ride, especially when the consequence is getting hit by 4,500 pounds of electric crossover.

You’re probably feeling a little curious about what kind of sounds current EVs are making; I know I am. Here’s some examples– first, the Chevy Volt:

That one sounds like the background music from some sci-fi movie during a scene when some astronaut is watching something numinous happening around them, likely caused by some wildly advanced alien species, and they’re suitable awed. There may be tears.

BMW famously hired composer Hans Zimmer to help come up with driving sounds for their cars, including their M-series of sports cars.

These Zimmer compositions feel much more derived from combustion-engined car sounds that people are already used to, an understandable choice given the context.

Mercedes-Benz has this video comparing their EV sounds to some of their combustion car sounds:

Tesla calls their sound the Pedestrian Warning System, or PWS, which is kind of funny to me personally, because I used to blame every time my computer had a problem on something I called a PWS, for Personal Worth Sensor, implying that the computer was evaluating my personal worth and adjusting its performance accordingly. So if I’d you know, committed the sin of Onan or something, the PWS would have a lower reading, and the computer would be more likely to crash. You get it right?

Okay, now we have some idea about what these things sound like. And, as you may have noticed, there are sort of two very broad categories that these sounds fit into: one of sounds that are completely fabricated and their own sort of thing, and ones that are based on more physical, real-world sounds like waterfalls or moving rocks or combustion engines or whatever.

Okay, so which types of sounds did the survey find that people liked? It’s the ones based on real stuff. According to the study,

“The type of sound that survey respondents liked best evoked wind, water and white noise, suggesting people gravitate toward sounds that remind them of the “whooshing” of a gasoline-powered automobile passing by. The losing type of sound was more tonal — hummable pitches in high frequencies that people likened to something out of science fiction.”

So, the ethereal space music, while it may be more noticeable to people walking around amongst the traffic, is less liked, and, I would think, may be less indicative of the type of threat approaching. Space music is great, but there’s not decades and decades of cultural training to suggest that the sound means to be alert and be ready to get out of the way of something that’s potentially hurtling towards you.

Sounds that resemble the sounds of something hurtling towards you, though, those may inherently just work better.

I do like the fact that this whole new realm of creating warning sounds for cars has opened up a whole new creative outlet; I’m curious to see where it ends up going!

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