Nissan wants LEAF EV to sound like Blade Runner car for safety
2010 Nissan Leaf EV - Click above for high-res image gallery
While advocates have long heralded a reduction in noise pollution in addition to air pollution as advantages of electric vehicles, not everyone is convinced that silent cars are a good thing.
We use our senses to navigate through life and when one or more of them are diminished, we rely on the others. Such is the case for blind people who must use their hearing to make up for some visual deficit. Every automaker working on electrified vehicles is aware of this and researching what sorts of sounds those vehicles should make for safety reasons.
For instance, Nissan engineer Toshiyuki Tabata has spent his career making cars quieter, but is now working on the LEAF to have it create sound. No final decision has been made, but reports tell us that Nissan is currently leaning toward making the LEAF sound like the whining flying cars in the film Blade Runner.
Gallery: 2010 Nissan Leaf EV
[Source: Bloomberg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
epwolfram 11:16AM (9/18/2009)
Instead they should make it sound like a LEAF Blower..
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Jonathan 11:03AM (9/18/2009)
they should make all these cars sound like the cars from the jetsons
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JZeke 11:09AM (9/18/2009)
Yes!
fixitfixitstop 11:49AM (9/18/2009)
I was just thinking the same thing!
revaholic 11:05AM (9/18/2009)
That would be cool. I don't think I could ever stand a silent car like the Volt. I think that would make me so mad....mashing on the gas in an instance of fury and having no sound come out to complement my emotion :'(
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jpm100 12:56PM (9/18/2009)
Actually its quite interesting. You can come to a stop in one of these hybrids away from other traffic and find your self hearing everything around you like the birds chirping or every drop of rain. It feels futuristic actually. If the Volt is quiet upto speed that could be an interesting sensation.
Otherwise, if you want power, buy a retro muscle car.
dukeisduke 11:07AM (9/18/2009)
Since it looks like a catfish, it should make that annoyed sound a catfish makes when you're trying get the hook out of its mouth. Also add some whiskers around the "mouth", for a bit of whimsy.
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Volvonaut 11:07AM (9/18/2009)
Oh... well there was a time when Nissan was content to just have Blade Runner's director make them a commercial. Some viewers report this advertisement actually made them want to shift_buy a car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTV8ZGhwFB4
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The Other Bob 11:25AM (9/18/2009)
I want a Volt that sounds like a Landspeeder.
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tbirdfive0 11:51AM (9/18/2009)
You would be able to select your own sound like a ring tone. I want one that wounds like a 68 Chevelle SS. lol
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Evan 11:59AM (9/18/2009)
No. If people could select car sounds like ring tones, we'd have cars playing endless loops of Kanye West.
markus 12:00PM (9/18/2009)
Blade Runner is the most beautiful movie EVER,no question.
And the soundtrack from Vangelis is a masterpiece.
The problem is I don't see this car as good as the movie,it's another ugly condom lookin car
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Nibcrom 1:45PM (9/18/2009)
Agreed. If they want the sound from Blade Runner, it needs to at least look as good as the spinner.
CJC 1:40PM (9/18/2009)
I want one that sounds like Gilbert Gottfried.
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Stevi 12:32PM (9/18/2009)
I was thinking like the previous posters - make it sound like the Jetsons car. On a more serious note, I'm really glad they're addressing this issue. I'm a cyclist, and though I consider myself very aware of my surroundings when I ride, I have been caught off guard a couple times by a Prius creeping behind me. Luckily these particular Prius drivers were very polite and kept their distance, but the idea of a car silently tailgating me on my bike or worse, zooming around me... ugh scary thought!
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tgriffith 12:34PM (9/18/2009)
How about it sounds like a horse's clop clop? Haha
http://www.cargurus.com/blog/2009/04/19/a-prius-that-sounds-like-a-lamborghini
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jpm100 12:49PM (9/18/2009)
The best saleman ship award for "It's not a bug, it's a feature" goes to ....
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Wayno-san 1:15PM (9/18/2009)
There has to be a better way to help the small percentage of vision impaired people out here WITHOUT the introduction of additional noise pollution. Personally I was looking forward to the time where I, and the nature around me, do not get bombarded by the noise from the nearby main roads.
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Snowdog 1:47PM (9/18/2009)
Have any of these engineers ever gone outside and listened to a car approaching them?
Aside from muscle cars and rice rockets you don't hear the engine of an approaching car. You hear the wind and tire noise.
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mr.ed 3:17PM (9/18/2009)
Priuses have low rolling resistance tires that are very difficult to hear even without traffic noise. With traffic around, they're inaudible. I don't know what Hello Kitty sounds like, but that would probably be perfect for one of these catfish.