Why do all EVs make the same quiet hovering sound when they drive ?
In: Engineering
EVs make noises during operation because they are required to by law. It’s not the same sound across cars, but typically the same across vehicles of the same make. The EU parliament and US National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration both made rulings requiring electric cars, and hybrid cars operating in fully electric mode, to make sounds while operating. The reason is very simple: without sounds the cars are nearly silent, which is a risk to pedestrians, particularly those with vision problems that rely more on sound to detect cars as a hazard.
In the USA, this is called the “Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System” and consists of speakers built into the frame of the car to make sounds to alert pedestrians
Podcast on the subject (with examples of sounds used by different manufacturers): [https://www.20k.org/episodes/autotone](https://www.20k.org/episodes/autotone)
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