[LAD] Car engine sound emulation for future electic cars. ideas ?

[David Olofson]

On Saturday 02 August 2008, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
[...]
> > I think it'll need at least two parameters: rpm and throttle
> > position.  
> 
> Yes. In fact it's three - road speed determines tire and aerodynamic
> noise - but you can probably ignore that here.

Right; as long as we're talking about cars with wheels, we won't have 
to fake that part. ;-)


[...]
> One could also question why it should be 'combustion engine noise'.
> If it's just to make other users of the road aware of the car's
> presence and speed, it could as well be the sound of horseshoes
> on a hard surface. Probably even better, as this is impulsive
> and provides better localisation.

I was actually going to suggest some kind of pure synthetic indicator 
sound - but there is this "What's that weird noise!?" factor. Horse 
shoes might be a good idea though (at least it's real world sound), 
but I'm still worried that it might be more confusing than helpful.

Either way, my personal opinion on this is that electric cars should 
act and sound like electric cars. They're not totally silent anyway; 
at least not the ones I've heard so far.

Combustion engines, as implemented in your average car, just sound 
boring and annoying - maybe even more so to people like me, who 
actually enjoy the sound of a properly breathing engine. Most of that 
won't be missed if it just goes away...


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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