What should an electric car sound like?
Learning Stats
مستوى CEFR
Total Words
Unique Words
Difficulty
الترجمة (81 segments)
DownloadFor most of the history of the automobile …
Driving — inevitably — made noise.
In the internal combustion engine…
air intake, fume exhaust,
vibration, the combustion of fuel itself —
all make noise.
Carmakers spent decades trying to reduce that noise.
But could never really eliminate it.
And then one day …
Driving didn’t need to make much sound at all.
Electric vehicles are quiet ...
What does an electric motor sound like?
The problem is, the world we built around the automobile relies on sound.
For drivers expecting audible feedback…
Culturally we know that a car produces sound.
And for pedestrians and cyclists listening for cars.
That absence of sound could make it dangerous as well.
We need our cars to make noise.
Or at least, we expect them to.
But that noise could be…. Anything.
So what should it be?
Starting in 2019, regulators in the European Union and the
US started requiring EVs and hybrids to play sound while they’re in use …
From hidden speakers called an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System — or AVAS.
There are different standards around the
world setting the rules for those sounds.
And while they don’t dictate exactly what the sounds should be,
they each basically work by a common set of rules that sound designers have to follow.
You can get creative, but not that creative, I guess.
The first parameter is sound pressure, or volume.
The AVAS volume has to reach minimum decibel levels.
This makes sure people can hear the vehicle, without it being too disruptive.
That volume has to increase as the vehicle goes faster.
Until — at speeds over 30 kilometers per hour — the noise of tires on
pavement and wind against the car body become louder than the AVAS.
And the AVAS can slowly fade out.
As vehicle speed changes,
there are also regulations for the AVAS to shift in pitch.
Higher pitch as the vehicle speeds up, and lower pitch as it slows down.
Finally there are
regulations on the sound’s frequencies.
The AVAS typically has to hit minimum volume levels at both high and low frequencies.
High frequencies so that the AVAS can cut through low frequency background noise …
and low frequencies so it can cut through high frequency background noise.
This one is really the killer one for us as sound designers.
But it also becomes very hard then to come up with a design that is actually pleasant.
That actually sounds nice.
And that's the challenge:
To make something within those parameters that isn't too quiet... but isn't too annoying.
It's very easy to be alarming, but having
a good sound quality and not annoying at the same time — that's very difficult.
So what AVAS sound designers typically design is a short, perfectly looping sample …
That can play faster or slower depending on vehicle speed.
But a simple linear relationship doesn’t match the dynamic sounds
we’re used to hearing in combustion vehicles.
A simple pitching loop, it's very predictable.
It sounds very linear, it sounds very uninteresting, it sounds very artificial.
It's like when you have an LP player for example, and you spin it faster.
When you pitch it too fast, it sounds weird, it sounds artificial.
To keep the AVAS from sounding linear, designers will layer on additional samples, filters,
and modulations triggered by certain driving conditions — like full-throttle acceleration.
And those samples can be made of anything …
From instruments …
Didgeridoo.
For Cadillac, we have been
able to use this ancient Australian instrument.
To entire orchestras …
So this is, quite literally, the score of a driving sound.
And they can even be inspired by combustion engines.
There’s a name for that last one — skeuomorphism — where
a design resembles its real-world counterpart.
Like early electric lights that mimicked the candles that came before them…
Or early mobile apps that mimicked the look of the objects they replaced.
As a way to transition into a new era of technology.
There's this patent from the very early 1900s: Let's put half a horse on the front of
the vehicle. Basically, make the car look like a horse, because that's what the people are used to.
Electric vehicles don’t need to make noise.
But they do need to bridge the gap from cars that do …
… to a future that sounds different.
And that’s what these designers are working out.
What should that transition sound like?
Key Vocabulary (50)
toward
"Go to school."
belonging
"Cup of tea."
also
"You and me."
inside
"In the house."
specific
"That book."
A third-person singular pronoun used to refer to an object, animal, or situation that has already been mentioned or is clear from context. It is also frequently used as a dummy subject to talk about time, weather, or distance.
Used to show who is intended to have or use something, or to explain the purpose or reason for an action. It is also frequently used to indicate a specific duration of time.
A preposition used to indicate that something is in a position above and supported by a surface. It is also used to indicate a specific day or date, or to show that a device is functioning.
A conjunction used to compare two things that are equal in some way. It is most commonly used in the pattern 'as + adjective/adverb + as' to show similarity.
Used to refer to the person or people that the speaker is addressing. It is the second-person pronoun used for both singular and plural subjects and objects.
A preposition used to indicate a specific point, location, or position in space. It is also used to specify a particular point in time or a certain state or activity.
Used to identify a specific person, thing, or idea that is physically close to the speaker or has just been mentioned. It can also refer to the present time or a situation that is currently happening.
A coordinating conjunction used to connect two statements that contrast with each other. It is used to introduce an added statement that is different from what has already been mentioned.
A preposition used to show the method or means of doing something, or to identify the person or thing that performs an action. It frequently appears in passive sentences to indicate the agent or before modes of transport.
Used to indicate the starting point, source, or origin of something. It can describe a physical location, a point in time, or the person who sent or gave an item.
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The driving sounds of EVs, explained by the designers who make them. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Support our work. Become a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/memberships...
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