They're the same for safety. People need to build a subconscious mental model of what a car sounds like so they can be safe as pedestrians and cyclists.
If there were 1000 different sounds, that mental model would never form.
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2026
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I always wanted to mod my car so the stereo plays different pod-racer sounds depending on rpm, but it never got past the idea phase. Wonder if you could do the same for EV's
The sound from a car is mostly tire noise.
True but that's not relevant.
So we need noisemakers on gas and EV cars.
Yes because drivers of EVs hit pedestrians and this helps save lives.
If cars (EV and gas) are travelling at road speed, tires are the loudest sound. If cars (EV and gas) are traveling at very reduced speed, neither make a sound. I have no idea what you are talking about.
The engine and everything in an ICE car make sound at reduced speed. It's not the loudest on new cars but its still like 40db. I have no idea what you are talking about.
I'm saying a gas car travelling at low speed doesn't make a sound. Does it help if I repeat myself?
That's wrong. It very much makes sound.
I'm not suggesting the following is standard, but the specific sound my car makes allows for people to not just hear the car, but to also know what direction the sound is coming from. The sound is engineered this way.
Compare this with those utility trucks that have those signature "reverse/backing up" (beep...beep...beep) sounds. You can hear it, but it's almost impossible to tell from what direction. It's been a complaint by blind people, and there's still worker incidents where they step into a moving path of a vehicle despite the sound.
You can even make sounds that work against this technique. Home audio systems use directional audio to give the effect of sounds being in certain locations. I wouldn't want people to be able to change a car sound to something that is more dangerous.
I think that's what the static sound is for. It doesn't have a broken speaker it's easier to hear where the truck is at
I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, I could drive a car that makes a TIE fighter sound, or the time machine DeLorean from Back to the Future.
On the other hand, someone could have their car make the Dumb and Dumber "most annoying sound in the world," or just one long continuous wet fart, or pro-fascist propaganda. Or worse, something completely silent and incredibly dangerous.
Maybe if you could download special sound packs, like you can for GPSes. I bet Lucasfilm and Universal would go for that.
Silent is actually the easy one, for many EVs you can just pull the fuse for the noise maker. It was pretty cool rolling down our driveway in a near completely silent car, but it felt very wrong, immediately replaced the fuse.
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I’d argue the sound should be standardized across all models. It needs to be immediately recognizable to nearby pedestrians.
Yeah it's like saying that you think we should be able to customize our headlights to show the bat signal or something.
Like people die because of this shit, I frankly could not care less about what you wish your car sounded like.
Yes, because that is actually the purpose of those sounds. Not to sound "cool" but to warn pedestrians the otherwise nearly silent car may be moving.
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really loud bubbles.
"silent car"
lmao nope those things are loud as fuck because of the tires and weight
This is a you think you want this but you don't moment. If this is allowed you will constantly hear ads or people saying check out my channel at annoying.TV as they use driverless cars to circle your block.
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Under 20 I want choo-choo train noise, 20-50 would be tie fighter noise, over 50 flight of the valkyries.
I want to do this very thing if/when I have an electric car. I specifically want that old school cartoon jalopy sound. Put put put put BANG BANG put put put put
If I had an electric car, I'd turn my sound into Jeremy Clarkson yelling "POWER, MORE POWER!!!!" over and over again so people would know I'm coming.
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That's a great idea! I would just record myself making car noises and use that.
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