Hybrid Cars May Include Fake Vroom for Safety

NY SLimes ^ | 10-13-09 | JIM MOTAVALLI

[WOBBLY BOB]

For decades, automakers have been on a quest to make cars quieter: an auto that purrs, and glides almost silently in traffic. They have finally succeeded. Plug-in hybrid and electric cars, it turns out, not only reduce air pollution, they cut noise pollution as well with their whisper-quiet motors. But that has created a different problem. They aren’t noisy enough.

[WOBBLY BOB]

I'd like to have it play that little tune that played when Mister Roger's Trolly was moving or that sound from the Jetson's little spaceship car.

that would be cute enough make algore's polar bears cry.

(so what ever happened to car horns?)

[rahbert]

they always know when my Road King is alongside.

[cripplecreek]

I want mine to sound like the Flintstone’s footsteps.

[massgopguy]

They’ve been mowing down Blind people.

[4rcane]

no noise car is a GOOD thing, ppl just need to get used to it

[4rcane]

we’ll just have to come up with a technology to replace their eyes, so they could see again

[4rcane]

we’ll just have to come up with a technology to replace their eyes, so they could see again

[Huskrrrr]

How about the sound of playing cards hitting bicycle spokes?

[steveo]

mebbe they could just put baseball cards in the spokes...

[a fool in paradise]

It will play “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...” in faster playback as you accelerate.

[Bud Krieger]

What about some playing cards and clothes line clips clacking on the spokes of the wheels? Clack clack clack...... Loved it on the bike when I was a kid.

[OldGuard1]

Imagine an Aptera with the Jetsons car sound:

[allmost]

Egads! I shall whip ye in my pennyfarthing!

[a fool in paradise]

except in Minnesota where it will play:

[org.whodat]

Whats wrong with the bicycle noise maker.

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2006/06/bicycle-noisemaker.html

[RckyRaCoCo]

[a fool in paradise]

How about the sound of playing cards hitting bicycle spokes?

You want to break the biodegradable wheels?

[org.whodat]

LOL, I wrote that and then say you beat me to it.

[luckystarmom]

I agree. We have a Prius, and that is one of the things I like about it. When our kids were little, he could pull into our driveway at night, and not wake them up.

I wish all cars were as quiet.

[stayathomemom]

Hahaha! Love it!

[a fool in paradise]

How will the highway patrolman hear you approaching his late night speedtrap?

[OldGuard1]

Or perhaps a Loremo with a semi's idling sound and horn:



The possibilities could be quite amusing and confusing. ;)

[Constitution Day]

This is becoming a nation of fake.

[Mojave]

Those electric carts in the airports need a fake vroom too.

[Anti-Bubba182]

It really isn’t a crazy idea. I am sure the noise a Harley makes makes it safer. It has to be the same with cars.

[READINABLUESTATE]

Nooooo! I can just imagine hundreds of ice cream trucks driving by with their loud speakers blaring.

[MrB]

I’m thinking more of the rattle of a diesel motor.

[MarkL]

I nearly got run over by a Prius in a Quik Trip parking lot. The driver didn't see me behind his car, and I was just standing there, waiting for the lot to clear of traffic so I could walk back to my car at the gas pumps. If I would have heard a motor idling, I would have known that the driver might be getting ready to back out.

My thinking the car was safely parked, along with the driver's not bothering to actually look behind him before he began backing out nearly turned ugly. BTW, if I hadn't been behind him, he would have backed out directly into a car driving through the parking lot.

I would settle for one of those "backing up" warning tones you hear on trucks so often.

Mark

[matt1234]

I’d like mine to play the national anthem of the USSR. Will that be an option?

[Huskrrrr]

:0)

[dfwgator]

I’d put on “Ride of the Valkyries.”

[RatRipper]

“no noise car is a GOOD thing, ppl just need to get used to it”

I agree. I bought a Nissan Rogue earlier this year with a variable (continuous- I forgot the correct terminology) transmission that does not have a shifting feel when it goes to a higher gear. It took a couple of months to get used to it, but it doesn’t bother me now. I figure the noise issue would be roughly the same kind of effect. . . takes some getting used to, but eventually you do.

[Lazamataz]

I want mine to hook into an MP3 player.

Sometimes it would be the Enterprise-to-warp-speed sound.

Other times it would be a low, wet, loud fart.

Othertimes a cool song.

Other times the sound of people making love.

HOW COOL IS THIS???!?!?

[smokingfrog]

[WOBBLY BOB]

it all make sense now...that seems appropriate.

-—Gore-Backed Car Firm Gets Large U.S. Loan ——
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2347678/posts

Plug-in hybrid maker Fisker Automotive gets $529 million from Obama administration

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fisker23-2009sep23,0,6092445.story

[WOBBLY BOB]

Greenies hate blind people!

[sheikdetailfeather]

Yes but..I am sure there will be a huge stereo system which plays rap music loud enough to break glass as it hums along.

[Huskrrrr]

LOL!

[OldGuard1]

I love it! What a better way to make commentary on overbearing government intervention in the marketplace?

[thackney]

I want to sound like a top fuel dragster for acceleration then switch to steam locomotive at cruising speeds.

[Oratam]

Loud pipes save lives.

[dinoparty]

I predict this will increase road rage dramatically. Can you imagine an intersection with 20 different cars with 20 different digital noises all at once?

[dinoparty]

This idea will get strictly regulated when the politicians realize that most good ole boys will have “Dixie” as their car sound.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I think so.

[dfwgator]

They’ve been mowing down Blind people.

I forgot, how many points were blind people?

[WOBBLY BOB]

[WOBBLY BOB]

In Chicago, it will have to play this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvxiG56M-eU

[FrankR]

May be a whole new market for "ringtones"....maybe "cartones"...you pick the sound effect of any type of truck, car, jet, and the type of muffler, i.e. glass packs, truck mufflers, NO muffler...whatever.

Or, you could load music on it too...Jesse Jackson's car would no doubt play "We Shall Overcome"; Nancy Pelosi's would be "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha", and obama's limo would play a book-on-tape reciting "Mein Kampf".

[Don Corleone]

Law of unintended consequences still has not been repealed.

[Wooly]

Not meaning to depress you, but given that you own a Renault, I mean Nissan Rogue with the CVT, you need to sign up on this forum so that you can stay ahead of the problem. I just got rid of a 2005 Nissan Murano that in the last year I owne dit suffered a Driver’s seat adjuster failure andauto door lock failure, which are very common to the Murano and Nissan Vehicles. I did not want to wait for the CVT to go out which seems to happen often between 90 and 110 thousand miles and costs $5500 to fix