At my way to work Something strange happened the other day. While I was waiting for a traffic light, I heard a strange whistling noise coming from the street, as if a strange bird was roaring at me. I ignored it for a second, but finally turned around to see what it was: A Backup beeperbut not that one traditional 1000 Hz tone we all know and love. It was a fancy, modern machine that used white noise – white noise that no one on the street recognized.
A block later, as I passed a laundromat, the same problem arose. An electric vehicle, parked at a red light and approaching in anticipation of the green light, silently made its way into the crosswalk. That seemed absurd to me, because they are electric vehicles is bound to make noise at low speedsuntil I recognized the car Was emit a sound – the same sound as the dryer on the corner. We can do better, and the best way to do that is with an old Casio keyboard. Let me explain.
We all know that beep-beep-beep B. a large truck reversing, there is a connection in our mind between that sight and the sound. We’re still at such an early stage of technology with electric vehicles that we can start building these associations. But just like the white noise background beep, this sound needs to be different from its surroundings And immediately recognizable. Current regulations on tones and pitches Do your best with the former, but there’s really only one way to achieve the latter: consistency. The ideal sound for electric vehicles at low speed is not only different from the neighboring laundromat, it is also consistent between vehicles.
The reason your backup beeper may switch to white noise is because it’s not really regulated – OSHA regulations that the sound is currentlybut not what the sound Is. NHTSA comes closer to this goal with its pitch requirements, but could go further: a single sound, universal for all electric vehicles traveling at slow speeds. Through repeated exposure, these sounds – whatever they may be – become embedded in their meaning in the public consciousness, just like the 1000 Hz tone of an emergency beeper.
Of course, that brings us to the important question: What is it supposed to sound like? Be? If every electric vehicle emits a single sound, we will all hear it frequently for decades to come. Obviously it can’t be as annoying as a reversing beeper. Nevertheless, it must be immediately recognizable as a warning, regardless of all other noises in the environment. With the criteria of “clear, recognizable and non-disruptive” my voice would go to something simple: a chord played on a synthesizer.
Multiple tones reduce the chance of a similar sound drowning out something, a synthetic instrument is less likely to be confused with a naturally occurring sound, and a nice chord just sounds good to the ear. The worst thing that can happen here is that crowded highways suddenly become a chorus of commuters jostling for space in slightly faster lanes. Or maybe this scene La La Land happens. Regardless, this is the best way to ensure that our increasingly quiet fleet of vehicles doesn’t hit pedestrians in crosswalks.