Is it actually caused by the tyres or is it the flow of air under the car?
It happens to EV’s so likely not engine noise related.
As it sounds different on different surfaces why aren’t all roads designed to reduce what is effectively noise pollution?
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>Is it actually caused by the tyres
Yup.
Though of course there’s also wind noise happening at the same time, usually.
>why aren’t all roads designed to reduce what is effectively noise pollution?
Because we care more about designing roads to maximise grip and reduce deaths from multi-car pileups and/or simply sliding off the road or into opposing traffic when cornering.
Turns out gripping and letting go of the wheel tends to make the noise caused by gripping and letting go of the wheel.
There are two components to the “roar”. The first is vibration from the tyre sidewalls being deformed when supporting the vehicle mass and then returning back to shape as the tyre rotates. The second is the flexing of the tread blocks across the road surface as the tyre deforms and springs back during rotation. You’ll note 4wds with deep aggressive tread blocks for off road grip have much more tyre noise.
As for noise pollution it’s much less noise than airflow at anything over 60kmh or so so it’s not particularly significant.
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