Request for Enhancement: Pedestrian Horn

Here's a solution for < $1.
Amazon.com: Hohner Kazoo: Musical Instruments

Roll down windows and volume to 11? :wink:

Long discussion about auto minimum sound level here
Auto minimum sound level

mentioned here to as a pedestrian horn
Horn sound - Page 4

I like the concept of holding your high beams for 2 seconds and it making a soft alert beep

Some fellow forum members (DrTaras, for one) have had various sounds added to their EV.

Pedestrians here in the US are generally clueless, EV or ICE. I'm constantly astounded by the number of people who just walk out into the street without looking. In some countries, they'd be taken out of the gene pool, without hesitation. I think it would be nice to have a 'pedestrian alert' sound. But I doubt it would make a huge difference.

In the meantime, you can either quietly creep behind them, waiting for the moment where they realize that they never assessed the traffic situation before stepping into it, or, you can lay on the horn that you do have and watch them levitate.

LuckyLuke said:

Roll down windows and volume to 11? :wink:

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You can find a mp3 with a loud, rumbling truck engine noise and save it as one of your favorites then roll down the window and play it.

As reported on TMC and just now verified on my trip home with new S, with TC OFF the S is a beast to control. Controlling wheel spin is the issue and the difficulty is that you have no loud engine to gauge when the rear wheels start to spin out (begin slipping). If TM could enable a motor speed simulator that the driver could hear, then she could let up on the accel as soon as the tires break traction. Selecting TC OFF would turn on the sound generator.

I was able to get up an 1100 ft unplowed driveway at 31*F using stock all season tires, but not without a few 90* spin outs. Finally learned to carefully listen for the faint sound of the motor spinning up all of a sudden. An RPM noisemaker would make this a whole lot easier climbing thru snow or mud.
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Half the reason I want the pedestrian warning quieter horn capable EV is to introduce me and my quiet car in a Positive way. If I initiate the first parking lot moment of car presense realization, it is always a better experience. Without it so many times they aturn around startled and SHOCKED in a negative way that I snuck up behind them. The last thing I want is that kind of feeling about EVs. That will create mandatory sound laws faster than anything.

rcc said:

Better yet, if the horn is controlled by the software like everything else, how about letting us upload sound clips into the horn?

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Ohhhhh.. that would be sooooo awesome.. uploading any audio clip to play using a button ( not the horn though, as that must still be the horn sound for safety reasons ).. but having any audio uploaded to play by, lets say, quick double pressing the voice button would be pretty sweet.. and with the software updates - its completely doable... great idea rcc ! Hope Tesla is reading these forums !

Doug_G said:

Funny I've never had that experience. It's been more, "Oh, there's a car there. Whatever dude. I'll just slowly meander out of the way."

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Ditto, and I don't even have my Model S yet (i.e., I drive an ICE). Sometimes they know you're there and just ignore you till you honk or someone with them is like "uh, dude, move it before he gets tired of waiting and hits you." In a parking lot, folks don't seem to notice ICE noises--I rarely do. They're driving too slowly to be noticed, or folks are in their own little world, or they just. don't. care. I really don't believe the quieter hybrids and EVs are changing the parking lot dynamic a bit.

kendallpb said:

Ditto, and I don't even have my Model S yet (i.e., I drive an ICE). Sometimes they know you're there and just ignore you till you honk or someone with them is like "uh, dude, move it before he gets tired of waiting and hits you." In a parking lot, folks don't seem to notice ICE noises--I rarely do. They're driving too slowly to be noticed, or folks are in their own little world, or they just. don't. care. I really don't believe the quieter hybrids and EVs are changing the parking lot dynamic a bit.

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I was backing out of a parking spot in the Airport garage in Toronto, and a teenager that was talking to his parents was walking backwards and almost walked right into my car, while i was backing out.. Model S car is SUPER quiet - and if I was in an ICE , then for sure the kid would have heard my car and paid 'some' attention - to what level of attention, can be debated, but there would defiantely not be the sheer silence of the Model S - .... so with this silence, it surely needs some sort of sound alert - not a blaring horn sound - but just a driver triggered alert sound of some type.

Zas said:

I was backing out of a parking spot in the Airport garage in Toronto, and a teenager that was talking to his parents was walking backwards and almost walked right into my car, while i was backing out.. Model S car is SUPER quiet - and if I was in an ICE , then for sure the kid would have heard my car and paid 'some' attention - to what level of attention, can be debated, but there would defiantely not be the sheer silence of the Model S - .... so with this silence, it surely needs some sort of sound alert - not a blaring horn sound - but just a driver triggered alert sound of some type.

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"for sure"? How can you possibly know that? I've seen that happen in parking lots and parking garages with ICes. I believe you and some others are way overestimating how much people notice . . . and how they notice. It's like distracted driving--distracted walking! ;-) Hearing things doesn't matter if they're not listening.

Doug_G said:

I dunno, I've had someone walk right into the side of my ICE car in the past. If they're oblivious, then they're oblivious.

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That's the experience I've had. People walking in parking lots, or even crossing the street, often just don't notice their surroundings. The only difference I can see is who they blame when they get surprised. If it's an ICE car, then the pedestrian is blamed for not paying attention. If it's an EV or hybrid, then the car gets blamed for being too silent--even though there are ICE cars that are just as silent or more silent and the amount of attention the pedestrian pays is the same.

seems like I am outnumbered

but I do feel that the sound of an ICE will alert more people than would the Model S.. just my thoughts...

Zas said:

but I do feel that the sound of an ICE will alert more people than would the Model S.. just my thoughts...

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Depends on the ICE. Many of the higher end ICEs are as quiet or quieter than any EV or hybrid. The points here are 1) if you want a regulation because some vehicles are too quiet, then you should apply that to all vehicles that are below a certain noise threshold, not just some vehicle types. And if it weren't that some vehicles were allowed to be so so loud (particularly trucks, sports cars, and motorcycles), the difference between the quiet vehicles and the loud ones wouldn't be as great. 2) Pedestrians don't pay nearly as much attention as they should, so it's up to the driver to watch out for them. I doubt anything short of an air-horn will be effective in this regard.

I told someone at the Owners Factory tour in 2010, that Tesla needs to have an external speaker hidden, and allow downloadable exhaust tones. Imagine the tones you could have with that. whatever you could imagine.

Check out the video here, start at 7:03":

TEG said:

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