Dont mess with the PWS on your EV.

[rhuber]

…

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[Ladiver]

If one wanted to, would it be easy to disconnect the speakers?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Mysta]

If one wanted to, would it be easy to disconnect the speakers?

Asking for a friend.

I'm sure you could - though I would be curious what the implications if a pedestrian were to walk out and get hit by you.

 

[Ladiver]

I’m sure gear guard will show they were not paying attention.
Too bad stupid isn’t illegal!

 

[SoCal Rob]

I’m sure gear guard will show they were not paying attention.
Too bad stupid isn’t illegal!

I know there are countless adults with perfect vision walking around as if everyone else should value their safety more that they do and I understand your frustration with them. I also find the artificial noises to be annoying, especially while in a natural setting far from other people.

However, there are a lot of people out there with vision problems which cause them to rely on sound to at least augment their ability to detect threats in addition to the folks who are legally blind and who will rely entirely on sound. Plus, kids can get pretty engrossed in whatever captures their imagination not noticing anything going on around them and they are not as easily seen by drivers. We need to consider all of these folks, too.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I’d be devastated if I injured or killed someone because I disabled a safety feature which could have saved their life. I cannot imagine the guilt I’d feel for the rest of my life over having prioritized eliminating a noise which which I found annoying over the welfare of someone else.

 

[lostpacket]

Was thinking it was kind of sad to lose the opportunity to reduce noise pollution so I decided to do a bit of googling to learn more about why the sound is required. Turns out the Wikipedia entry for this is surprisingly good. It explains the studies that showed the difference between ICE and EV and how dramatic the effect was. It also talks about how it's especially dangerous for the blind, children, and the elderly. Anyways food for thought. Maybe someday when all cars are EVs we can lower the decibels of these sounds (background noise from ICE vehicles is currently a big factor in being able to detect EVs).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds

 

[rhuber]

Yeah again I’m not condoning disabling it fully for now. A similar parallel I’d draw is the “look left” signs painted at (seemingly) every crosswalk in the UK. When I moved there, those probably saved my life multiple times, because most of us aren’t used to traffic coming from that direction.

When you’re used to certain indicators in the world to evaluate your surroundings, it takes time to unlearn them. I would definitely prefer the option to disable pws on a per drive basis, or perhaps having an option and a pop up where you confirm you’re not on public roads.

 

[gsqrd]

Curious. Many modern cars can sense nearby cars and persons. They are displayed. I wish those sensors could activate (or not) the sound effects at low speed.

 

[Ladiver]

I agree that it is a great safety feature. In a perfect scenario, it would be disabled in rock crawl mode. Or being able to turn it on and off from inside the truck.

If it would be easily turned on/off then the discussion to disconnect it would not be happening.

 

[lostpacket]

Yeah again I’m not condoning disabling it fully for now. A similar parallel I’d draw is the “look left” signs painted at (seemingly) every crosswalk in the UK. When I moved there, those probably saved my life multiple times, because most of us aren’t used to traffic coming from that direction.

When you’re used to certain indicators in the world to evaluate your surroundings, it takes time to unlearn them. I would definitely prefer the option to disable pws on a per drive basis, or perhaps having an option and a pop up where you confirm you’re not on public roads.

I can 100% appreciate not wanting to hear the sound. I have enough issue with my ears from my many years of delusion growing up and wanting to be a heavy metal drummer

But it looks like the NHTSA has pretty rigorous data on why and how they chose the specs for these sounds:

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/812347-minimumsoundrequirements.pdf

I am just learning about this stuff myself, so just wanted to share. I am no expert on any of this, but it might be worth considering when deciding if the sound is good enough for others to hear.

Edit:
Sorry, above is the the environmental assessment link, this is the rule link:
https://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/rulemaking/pdf/QuietCar_FinalRule_11142016.pdf

 

[Hopper]

It’s a shame there aren’t options for a more natural sound.

 

[SoCal Rob]

It’s a shame there aren’t options for a more natural sound.

I suggested the sound of tires crunching on gravel a while back but I don’t know if that could be made compliant.

 

[SoCal Rob]

I agree that it is a great safety feature. In a perfect scenario, it would be disabled in rock crawl mode. Or being able to turn it on and off from inside the truck.

If it would be easily turned on/off then the discussion to disconnect it would not be happening.

It would be nice if you could turn it down or off if off pavement as determined by GPS and mapping. It would probably be the kind of thing you’d have to deactivate each time you start a driving session.

Speaking of starting a driving session, I think we need better terminology since we aren’t turning a key, or actively starting the vehicle in any way.

 

[Hopper]

It seems to make the noise when “hold“ is on and you are not moving. Changing to “park” stops it.

 

[moosehead]

I’d kinda prefer the growl of a naturally aspirated V8.

Yea, I’m a Neanderthal.

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