Listening Experiment for Electric Motorcycle Sounds

[EJ3]

If E-motorcycles would mean we wouldn't have to deal with obnoxious Harley riders or other ear blasters….where do I donate?

I find cars that have been turned into boomboxes for the whole neighborhood to be annoying.
The only time that I find the Harley Riders annoying is when every 3 seconds they blip the throttle (I'm not talking about the 2 or 3 times that it is done to get the attention of someone starting to make a left turn in front of them) But the times that they pull up to a stoplight or stop sign & continuously do it for the whole time they are there.
I'm a rider but only do that if I need to get someone's attention.
It's easy to ride without being annoying, even when you have loud pipes. Especially on a Harley, because it has the low speed torque that you do not HAVE to REV IT to make it go.

 

[Ron Texas]

If E-motorcycles would mean we wouldn't have to deal with obnoxious Harley riders or other ear blasters….where do I donate?

Gas powered leaf blowers are a worse problem around here.

 

[Chr1]

Personally, I would like any future E-Moto I own to have the sound and volume of a Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine.
No silencer/muffler. Headers only.

Or like a Mandalorian jumpspeeder: the "Balutar-class Swoop"

...In fact, if possible just give me the Swoop.

 

[Cbdb2]

What about looking before you cross the street? Why has the stupidity of individuals become the responsibility of the public?

 

[Cbdb2]

This will be useless for most of the worlds motorcycles.

 

[DVDdoug]

IMO - An online experiment/survey is useless.

You need to set-up a real-life experiment with real people (including senior citizens with normal age-related hearing loss), with real acoustic sounds from a speaker, and an SPL meter to measure loudness.

 

[Blumlein 88]

This will be useless for most of the worlds motorcycles.

I think cars are becoming more common in Vietnam. That video is over 8 years ago. Not that long ago you could find video of worse in China. Now it is mostly cars.

 

[Blumlein 88]

What about looking before you cross the street? Why has the stupidity of individuals become the responsibility of the public?

To me it is more of a parking lot issue. On most streets yes you can look. Even so if a little sound lowers pedestrian accidents for those who don't look or get distracted seems like a good idea. In parking lots you might have someone whip out of one row in front of the store when you cannot know which way they are going. Sound will alert you if they come your way. In those situations you may need to watch 4 closely space lanes and you cannot look all 4 ways all the time.

 

[Prana Ferox]

Most e-cars have some sort of Jetsons-beeblebeeble sound for parking lot alerts, and frankly I hear the high frequency noise from a lot of their electric motors a half block away.

Sorry but that's not correct. I've been riding for 60 some years and couldn't count the number of times I've eye'd a driver
in a cage that was looking the other way at an intersection. Normally a quick blip of the throttle a few times will get their attention and then they'd be looking me right in the eyes.

If you're talking about being stopped at an intersection, that's obviously not the scenario we're talking about. Can you imagine if all the e-cars and e-bikes made constant noise at stoplights, or when stuck in traffic?

Harley riders think their bike is noticeable because it's really loud in their native environment, parked in the driveway with the exhaust reverberating off the open garage behind them. Out on the road and in movement they just aren't that loud in the forward hemisphere, not for a pedestrian in an urban environment, and not for a cage driver with the windows up and the music blaring. I recognize I have to specify a safety context here, but who cares if someone can hear you long after you've passed by them? This is why as a motorcyclist you assume your safety is solely up to you, and a pedestrian should do the same.

 

[Killingbeans]

South Park S13E12

Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

[pablolie]

... This is why as a motorcyclist you assume your safety is solely up to you, and a pedestrian should do the same.

Agreed. I have ridden motorcycles for over 40 years on open roads. I shall never outsource my safety to being "heard" and even being *seen*. I'd assume the visual element is more important, and yet the most common incident is visibility. If cars drivers don't see us, why would you assume they pay attention to some sound. And if visibility doesn't work despite daylights and LEDs and flashing stuff, again, why would you assume *sound* helps. You're better off assuming (actually - knowing) that you're both invisible and unhearable.

The only thing loud pipes do is annoy people - including me as a motorcycle rider.

And if I were legally mandated to ride an electric motorcycle, I think some unnatural silly noise would annoy me and perhaps even distract me and reduce my attention after a long ride.

 

[kemmler3D]

Why has the stupidity of individuals become the responsibility of the public?

Because it's considerate to EMTs and other first responders if you take steps to avoid letting the idiots splatter themselves all over the road. Someone has to clean it up, after all. Not being facetious, a person can only see so much gore in their line of work before it takes its toll. It's only fair to minimize it.

The only thing loud pipes do is annoy people - including me as a motorcycle rider.

As a city dweller, I have a deep loathing for people with unnecessarily loud pipes.

 

[dasdoing]

just acoustically amplify the actual sound the motor makes. making electrics sound like combustion is super cringy

 

[pablolie]

just acoustically amplify the actual sound the motor makes. making electrics sound like combustion is super cringy

make it the sound of a poorly carburated engine as you cut off the throttle... that'll wake anyone up :-D

 

[dasdoing]

make it the sound of a poorly carburated engine as you cut off the throttle... that'll wake anyone up :-D

I actually get scared sometimes when I pass a road and I see a big electric bus before I can hear it.
I can think of better solutions though than permanently emitting artificial noise. with all the camera technology we have now it should be possible to emit noise only when necessary (automatically)

 

[kemmler3D]

with all the camera technology we have now it should be possible to emit noise only when necessary

If the pedestrian and the bus can see each other, it obviates noise anyway. Noise is for when lines of sight are broken and/or someone visually impaired needs to avoid getting run over.

Even if we someday get perfect self-driving vehicles, I think having noise is still probably prudent.

 

[jayapple]

Hi All,

We at The University of Salford are conducting an experiment which is part of a project all about the design of algorithms that create electric motorcycle sounds, and we could do with some volunteers!

What is the purpose of this study?
The study is part of a project exploring and evaluating the design of algorithms which synthesise alert sounds for electric motorcycles. Traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles are commonly loud, with a distinctive sonic character. However, electric vehicles can be significantly quieter. As such, we are investigating the design of synthetic sounds for electric motorcycles for both safety and aesthetic purposes.

Who is running the study?
The study is run by researchers from the University of Salford in the UK, in collaboration with a commercial partner.

What will happen to me if I take part?
You will be asked to complete an online survey using the link provided at the bottom of this post. You will have the right to withdraw at any time or ask for your data to be deleted for any reason.

If you choose to take part online, you will be asked to complete the survey at your convenience. However, we ask that you use headphones to audition the sounds and to take care to make sure that the sound levels are comfortable.

In this phase of the study you will be presented with the sound of an ICE vehicle. This sound may be a recording of a real vehicle or may be a simulation of an ICE.

After listening to each audio sample, you will be presented with a list of 7 scales with opposite words at extremes of the scale (e.g. “fast” and “slow”) and asked to rate the sound on each of the scales. You will be able to listen to each of the sounds as many times as you need.

What are the eligibility criteria?
Participants must be at least 18 years old.

What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?
This study has been reviewed and granted approval by an ethics panel at the University of Salford.

There are no consequences for you if you decide not to take part, or later choose to withdraw your responses. You do not need to give a reason for non-participation or withdrawal.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?
The findings from this study will help us better understand how people respond to different types of engine sounds. This will help us develop acoustic alert sounds for electric motorcycles, which will likely be beneficial for pedestrian safety and to improve the soundscapes of the future.

Will my data be stored securely?
The collected data will be stored only on secure servers provided by the data collection service (Gorilla) and on password-protected university asset computers and University of Salford IT network. We will not collect any identifying characteristics such as name or address and all your responses will be anonymous. Because of this, once you have submitted all of your responses, we will not be able to identify you and withdrawing your data will not be possible.

Anonymised data will be kept as long as considered necessary by the research team to support further analysis and publication; it may also be used in future projects.

What will happen to the study results?

The findings from this study will be used to inform future research and product development related to this topic. The results will be written up in an internal report, will be shared with project stakeholders, and may be published in conference papers or academic journals. Any information made available in this way will be strictly anonymous i.e. we will never publish anything that could identify a response as coming from you personally or show that you have taken part in this study.


If this sounds good to you, a link to join the online experiment is here https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/949CEEAA-BAF9-4DF8-B7F8-74FE15146AA6

Thanks!

Many electric vehicles have no sound, which is really a hidden danger, especially electric motorcycles or bicycles, when I turn I will pay attention.

Motorcycles are now actually louder than cars, but this is illegal and far exceeds the decibels allowed by the city. That's why motorbikes, including electric motorbikes, are banned in many major urban centers in China.

Now there are many electric bicycles, the speed is very fast, but there is no sound, which is really a big hidden danger!

 

[jayapple]

I want to clarify that my comments apply to all plug in vehicles. Current US regulations aim to have 66% of all new passenger car and light trucks BEV or PHEV by 2033. California is aiming for a complete ICE phaseout by then or shortly thereafter. California will limit PHEV's to 30% of sales and require a 50 mile battery only range. The last time I checked only an upcoming Range Rover model had that range.

Presently there is a lot of consumer resistance to EV's. Ford lost over $4 billion, Lucid is on the verge of shutting down, Tesla has layoffs. Automakers are shifting future production plans from BEV/PHEV to hybrids. Hertz, which recently emerged from bankruptcy, is back to the brink of insolvency due to a big bet on EV's. Given a choice, only a small percentage of the car buying public wants them Cubanizaton of the fleet with ICE cars being kept on the road for extended lives is likely. Despite the availability of $7.5 billion in subsidies in the IRA only 8 charging stations have been built. Long waits to charge and broken chargers are the norm. Thieves steal the cords because they contain valuable copper. Utility experts say there will not be enough electricity to run EV's and meet expected growth in data centers. World copper mining capacity can't provide enough output to make EV's and additional transmission lines. Overall, the plan to rapidly transition from ICE to EV has not been thought out.

China saved Tesla, and as far as I know, very few Americans will buy an electric car.

 

[jayapple]

China saved Tesla, and as far as I know, very few Americans will buy an electric car.

I recently saw a news that the United States has invested billions of dollars in the construction of charging piles, and only a few have been completed.

This is unbelievable, in China everywhere can see a variety of commercial charging piles, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, etc.

Sometimes it does feel that electric parking Spaces occupy public resources, but the sales of electric vehicles are getting higher and higher, and the number of electric parking Spaces seems to be the trend.

And China also has a power change equipment, you don't need to charge, spend a few minutes to change a battery can drive away, this seems more efficient.

 

[Sal1950]

I find cars that have been turned into boomboxes for the whole neighborhood to be annoying.

The most annoying thing I found that far outnumbers H-D riders today is the riders and drivers
of the import bikes and cars with loud or no muffler exhaust. For some reason they think the sound
of their inline 4's turning 10k rpm, then banging off the rev limiters, is kool. Only thing worse was
the sound of 2 strokes but thankfully they've been mostly outlawed over pollution concerns.
Ring ding ding ding.