Would you say that not making noise is an advantage of electric cars?

In this blog post, I’ve written my personal view on electric vehicle noise.

 

Currently, electric vehicles are still a bit of a mystery to consumers, and their development seems to be slow, but they are getting closer to real life. In the early days, the performance of electric vehicles was very different from that of internal combustion engines, such as short driving time and distance and very long charging time, but they have been steadily improving with the biggest advantage of being environmentally friendly. Eventually, electric cars were able to match the performance of internal combustion engine cars and were released as prototypes. They had the disadvantage of being somewhat expensive, but with government subsidies, the price is now competitive with internal combustion engines. In addition, electric vehicles have a number of advantages that internal combustion engines do not have, so the future is expected to be even brighter.
One of the known advantages of these vehicles is their silence. While those who have major roads near their homes may feel better about this, many people are bothered by the noise of cars. These people will probably be much less bothered and comfortable with the noise issue once electric cars become commonplace and internal combustion engines disappear. However, while I agree with this to a certain extent, I disagree with the idea of eliminating noise if we look at it from a different perspective.
First of all, car exhaust sounds are much more than just a sound. For example, let’s say we’re walking by the side of the road. You’re walking down the street, and a supercar speeds by behind you. You look back in surprise, and you can’t take your eyes off the car, but it quickly disappears from view. Similarly, when we see a fast sports car or supercar go by, we’re usually distracted by it for a moment. Is it because it looks cool? No, it’s not. Sports cars have different engines than regular cars in order to have great acceleration, and each has a different exhaust note. It was probably the sound that made you look back in the first place. Nowadays, sound is a component of the car and part of its personality. It may be incomprehensible to the average person, but car enthusiasts can relate to it even more.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in auto racing. In Formula 1 (F1), the world’s premier auto racing competition, cars are built specifically for the purpose of racing, and they have exhaust notes that are incomparably louder than other cars. When you watch a race, the cars pass in front of the camera, making a sound that really cuts through the wind. And the spectators get even more excited and enthusiastic about it, and the fan base grows. Imagine if an electric car was used in this situation. Naturally, since it doesn’t produce any exhaust, it wouldn’t make an exhaust note. Even if you artificially recreate the exhaust sound almost perfectly through speakers, would people like it? To them, the exhaust sound is the heartbeat of the car. In a society that distinguishes between the real thing and the fake thing, it’s hard to imagine that a “fake exhaust note” that doesn’t come from a real engine would be recognized as part of a car’s personality.
The next reason is that cars use exhaust sounds to let people know they are here. If we are walking down the street and realize that there is a car behind us, a large part of the reason is because of the exhaust note. So we expect a car to be behind us, and we move aside without looking back. There’s something that prevents us from listening to music in our earphones while walking down the street. It’s because it’s hard to see your surroundings through sound. So if we’re walking down the street while listening to a song, we don’t notice if a car comes up behind us. Now let’s replace all the cars with electric cars. If all of these cars are silent, we have our ears wide open, but it’s hard to know where they are without seeing them. It’s like we’re wearing earphones. This is more dangerous for drivers than pedestrians. People can be cautious enough on their own, but if they can’t hear each other, it’s harder for them to know where each other is if it’s a car-to-car relationship instead of a person-to-car relationship. If two cars come out of the corner of an alleyway without being able to hear each other, an accident is much more likely to happen. This is why car exhaust sounds shouldn’t be silenced for safety reasons.
Think about our daily lives. If you step out onto a major road right now, you’re likely to be surrounded by cars traveling down the street and their exhausts. For most people, exhaust sounds are just noise. However, it’s a necessary noise that gives each car its own personality and also gives away its location. What will happen in the future when electric cars will fill the streets? Will we be able to adapt to a dense traffic of cars on the main roads, but in silence? Just as there is white noise that is beneficial to humans even if it is noisy, I think it would be more peaceful to have some noise rather than extreme quiet, and it would be beneficial to society as a whole.