This is how the pedestrian warning sound is heard on the Tesla Model 3

One of the problems that arose with the rise of electric cars is that, apart from tyre noise, they are completely silent, so pedestrians cannot hear them approaching, especially at low speeds, and, since not everyone has their eyes on the road, this could lead to accidents.

The solution that legislators and car manufacturers have proposed to tackle this problem involves fitting electric cars with noise generators that alert everyone nearby to the presence of the car. Tesla, for its part, has added an external speaker system to its vehicles. Recently, these have been seen in action on a couple of Tesla Model 3s.

The first video is courtesy of Zach Feldstein, and you can hear the sound from a Tesla Model 3 in Deep Blue Metallic belonging to his neighbour, which according to Teslarati was emitting the “reverse” version of the noise intended to tell pedestrians that a car is coming or, in this case, reversing. While it is definitely futuristic and suited to a car with new-era technology, we think it also sounds a little strange.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that the Tesla Model 3 had a pedestrian noise generator, when a technician at Tesla spread the word that the electric car maker had started fitting external speakers to its smallest model. The technician also said that every Tesla Model 3 built after 1 September would feature this technology, which is capable of emitting two different sounds: one for driving forward at low speed and another for reversing.

https://twitter.com/BLKMDL3/status/1173271923293212672

This is how the Tesla Model 3 sounds

There is also a second video, courtesy of Tesla owner David, who captured a white Tesla Model 3 reversing slowly and sounding like something from The Jetsons. For some reason, this doesn’t sound as strange as the blue one, but that is probably due to the proximity of the car’s speaker.

According to the NHTSA, pedestrian noise generators will save 2,400 people from injury and could prevent damages of between $250 and $320 million. Therefore, both electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will be required by federal law to feature some kind of noise generator before 1 September 2020.

https://twitter.com/D_Love/status/1173056296448352256

The Acoustic Vehicle Alert System, or AVAS, is already mandatory on all vehicles approved in Europe. This system must generate a sound, chosen by the vehicle manufacturer itself, when the vehicle is travelling below 20 km/h or when reversing. At higher speeds the system switches off and produces no sound, as the vehicle’s rolling noise is considered more than sufficient.

During BMW’s NEXTGen event, in addition to announcing the earlier timing of its electrification plans and presenting concepts such as the BMW Vision M NEXT, the Bavarian brand announced that it had signed Hans Zimmer himself -winner of an Oscar for The Lion King’s soundtrack- to compose the sound this plug-in hybrid will generate when driving.

Technical specifications of this car

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