Friday 28 August 2015

Customise the sound from your electric car

Why silent electric cars need to make their presence felt. And have your say about what sounds you would like to hear emitted by electric cars.

halosonic electric car - emits synthesised sounds to alert pedestrians so they don't walk out in front of it and get mown down
Image 1 of 2
Electric cars are suited to urban environments - but their very silence can make them deadly 
Image 1 of 2
The HALOsonic car can generate a range of sounds so that pedestrians know it's nearby 

They don't like it when you use the n-word - "Noise is bad, sound is good." I was gently corrected about this on more than one occasion. Noise is what the HALOsonic car eliminates, sound is what it creates.

A technology demonstrator beneath the bodyshell of a Toyota Prius, the HALOsonic showcases innovative British engineering that makes a four-cylinder engine sound like a V6, V8 or V12. Want to hum like a spaceship as you drive down the road? Simply push a button.

If you're thinking it's an aftermarket gimmick for boy racers who want their Corsa to growl like a Cambiocorsa, you're wrong.

There is a serious point, because in the future - when we're all driving around town in silent-running hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) - safety legislation will insist that our cars need to generate some sort of sound.

If they don't, the evidence suggests people get hurt. Research from America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that when a hybrid is slowing, stopping, reversing or manoeuvring in a car park, it's twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash than a regular vehicle.

Stateside rules are already on the way. The Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act has the backing of former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry. Earlier this year Japan published guidelines on banning silent motoring and the EU will inevitably follow suit.

The most advanced solution to date is provided through a joint venture from high-end car audio specialist Harman Automotive and Lotus Engineering, from whose names HALOsonic derives.

Their objective was to blend road and engine noise cancellation with sound synthesis. Lotus has developed it, Harman has bought the rights and is in the process of selling it to major car manufacturers. The first production vehicle to use it will be on sale within 12 months.

Tony Harberman, Harman's sales director, says: "We can generate a sound, tune it to the throttle input and play it back through speakers. They can be inside the car for the driver, or outside for pedestrians. We don't want to create noise pollution.

"One of the advantages of hybrids and EVs is the lack of noise, so we need to ensure the sound is projected only towards pedestrians and other road users."

The external speaker is built into the nearside front bumper - the point closest to pedestrians on the pavement - and would swap sides for left-hand drive models. At speeds above about 30mph it can be switched off, because tyre noise on the road surface takes over.

The key issue is what sound it should emit. "It's strange for us because as an audio company we have always taken the approach that we should reproduce sound the way the creator, the musician, intended," says Harberman.

"Now we have to create something ourselves. It can literally be anything. It could have cloppety hooves if you wanted, but [in practice] it's got to be something the recipient is going to understand as a car."

The technology has been demonstrated to the bulk of volume car manufacturers, all of whom appreciate its safety benefits.

The most interesting thing, according to Harberman, is the range of different approaches they adopted. "At the conservative end," he says, "you have those who want a hybrid or EV to sound like the rest of their range.

"At the other, people want to experiment. They don't want it to be like a petrol or a diesel engine and want to use it as a sensory engagement with the brand."

As well as the actual sounds being created, three other factors are key to avoiding accidents. The listener instantly needs to know where the sound is coming from in relation to where they are, a rough estimate of speed and whether it's accelerating or decelerating.

Tricks with pitch and volume help solve these problems, and fake gearchanges can be added for extra realism.

It's all just a question of programming software algorithms, which have an interesting history. Lotus originally created them during the 1980s, for its active suspension systems in Formula One.

Further down the road, the potential for synthesis technology is vast. Think of the car as a mobile phone and the sound it makes as a ringtone. Future hybrids and EVs need not have just one tune, but drivers could choose from hundreds and there's the potential for new sounds to be downloaded from the internet.

The soundtrack of the engine could be an expression of the driver's individuality, in the same way as a bodykit.

And what about celebrity engine noises? HALOsonic has recently commissioned legendary music producer Steve Levine, who has worked with Culture Club, Motorhead and The Beach Boys, to create a distinctive new car sound.

The possibilities are endless, but the company has to start somewhere. It's about to commission serious research into what the public thinks would be the best hybrid car noise.

Sorry, sound.

Read More Motoring

How we moderate
blog comments powered by Disqus

Auto Trader Car Search


More from the web


More from the web



Back to top

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2015

Terms and Conditions

Today's News


Style Book

Weather Forecast