EU regulations for car sounds very liberal?

When the new green car technologies started to show up they were very enthusiastic as they announced that the cars were silent and produced barely any noise. But they simply didn’t remember that that could become dangerous for people that, instead of driving, walk on the streets.

So, to ensure that safety is preserved the brands will have to come up and create artificial sounds for their electric and hybrid vehicles to become audible. Still in order to prevent any crazy experiences the European Union has already suggested some types of sounds that aren’t allowed or that should be avoided in its proposal for a “Regulation on the sound of level of motor vehicles” (in 9.12.2011).

Prepare yourself to laugh…because I don’t think any brand would be considering this kind of sound to their car. This list includes as sounds that are not acceptable: sirens, horn, chime, bell, emergency vehicle sounds, alarm sounds (fire theft, smoke) or intermittent sounds.

But then it gets even better as we go down to the sounds that should be avoided like the melodious sounds, animal and insect sounds, or sounds that confuse the identification of a vehicle and/or its operation (e.g. acceleration, deceleration etc.).

I can already imagine for example a Nissan Leaf driving around with the sound of birds singing, or an i-MiEV with a 5^th Symphony of Mozart sounding, or even a Twizy with a bee sound. Oh that would be funny! And with this proposal it might even come true.

In the end the proposal explains what the EU expects from the sound generated. It “should be easily indicative of vehicle behaviour, for example, through the automatic variation of sound level or characteristics in synchronization with vehicle speed.”