Electric Vehicle Sound-Expert User Perception (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
Electric vehicles are quiet at low speeds and thus potentially pose a threat to pedestrians' safety. Laws are formulating worldwide that mandate these vehicles emit sounds to alert the pedestrians of the vehicles' approach. It is necessary that these sounds promote a positive perception of the vehicle brand, and understanding their impact on soundscapes is also important. Detection time of the vehicle sounds is an important measure to assess pedestrians' safety. Emotional evaluation of these sounds influences assessment of the vehicle brand. Laboratory simulation is a new approach for evaluating exterior automotive sounds. This study describes the implementation of laboratory simulation to compare the detection time and emotional evaluation of artificial sounds for an electric vehicle. An Exterior Sound Simulator simulated audiovisual stimuli of an electric car passing a crossroad of a virtual town at 4.47 ms-1 (10 mph), from the perspective of a pedestrian standing at the crossroad. In this environment, 15 sounds were tested using experiments where participants detected the car and evaluated its sound using perceptual dimensions. Results show that these sounds vary significantly in their detection times and emotional evaluations, but crucially that traditional metrics like dB(A) do not always relate to the detection of these sounds. Detection time and emotional evaluation do not have significant correlation. Hence, sounds of a vehicle could be detected quickly, but may portray negative perceptions of the vehicle. Simulation provides a means to more fully evaluate potential electric vehicle sounds against the competing criteria.
The emotional component in perceived quality of noises produced by car engines
International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2013
This study dealt with evaluation and paired comparison of noises of seven diesel cars running at idle. Participants evaluated noises' difference, indicated which one was the most appreciable, and verbally compared them when explaining the reasons of their choice. A systems method of analysis of free verbalisations allowed to quantitatively analyse the set of characteristics which are the most significant for the choice of the more pleasant sound. The results showed that emotional component was significantly present in the set of verbal characteristics of the noises' perceived quality and the 'weight' of this component in the set of evaluative characteristics was different for males and females as well as for participants with different experience of driving the investigated cars. The proposed verbal protocol analysis can be used by the supplier to evaluate influence of car noises and to identify the part of emotive attributes in their perceived quality.
A Case Study: The Urban Residents’ Choice for Electric Vehicles Warning Sounds
American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
Nowadays, people are exposed to noise on a daily basis. Therefore, in an overvibrant urban environments electrical vehicles operating at low speed are too quiet to be detected by pedestrians (especially vulnerable group are visually impaired people) and urban residents in general. Thus, electric vehicle warning sounds are sounds created to alert and warn pedestrians to the presence of electrical vehicles (e.g. hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and all-electric vehicles) moving at low speeds. The goal of this paper is to determine through a case study what the pedestrians would desire and prefer the electrical vehicle warning audio signals to sound like. The case study involved 201 participants who had the task to fulfil a specially designed questionnaire for this purpose. Regarding the questionnaire, the participants were not prepared in any way for the testing they were just advised to keep in mind that the warning sound they select for the "role" of a pedestrian should not be irritable at the same time for the "role" of a driver. The results obtained from the questionnaire were analyzed and discussed in the paper. When speaking about the concept of smart cities and the legislation around the whole world today this is certainly a hot topic where the opinion of pedestrians and future drivers should not be overlooked.
Affective evaluations of and reactions to exterior and interior vehicle auditory quality
Journal of Sound and Vibration, 2002
Affective reactions to and evaluations of auditory stimuli are fundamental components of human perception. In three experiments, participants rated their affective reactions (how pleasant I feel) and preferences for these affective reactions (how much I like the way I feel) as well as affective evaluations (how pleasant the sound is) to interior and exterior binaurally recorded vehicle sounds varying in physical properties. Consistent with previous research, it was found that the orthogonal affect dimensions of valence (unpleasant–pleasant) and ...
Experience and information content affect interior vehicle sound quality assessments
International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2013
Recent research has found it useful to distinguish between the form and meaning of sounds. To investigate the relevance of meaning, naïve students and professional drivers listened to four levels of meaning neutralisation and four levels of spectral slope of recorded truck sound. Self-assessment of emotional reactions showed that professional drivers did not vary much in activation and rated over all lower activation than naïve participants whose affect ratings moved more or less along the annoyance correlation line in the upper left quadrant of the affect map. This gives some information about the importance of the source being recognisable and of previous user experience for product sound quality. It is further supported by that the overall difference between naïve participants' and professional drivers' ratings decreased with increasing meaning neutralisation. The methodology applied in the current study may be adopted to form homogenous panels of experts for sound evaluation.
Knowledge in Sound Design: The Silent Electric Vehicle—A Relevant Case Study
2017
This article builds on a large industry-driven sound design experiment focusing on the underexplored area of sound signature for silent electric vehicles. On the basis of some retrospective observations, and in the conceptual framework of design research, we propose a post-analysis that leads to provide insights on sound design as a discipline, considering its status, the status of its performers (sound designers), and its specific position between science and arts. The main aim of the article is to contribute to increase the general knowledge on sound design and to study it from the perspective of its principles, practices, and procedures.
2016
Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles [(H)EVs] are harder for pedestrians to hear when moving at speeds below 20 kph. Laws require (H)EVs to emit additional exterior sounds to alert pedestrians of the vehicles’ approach to prevent potential collisions. These sounds will also influence pedestrians’ impression of the vehicle brand. Current methods for evaluating (H)EV exterior sounds focus on “pedestrians’ safety” but overlook its influence on “vehicle brand”, and do not balance experimental control, correct context along with external and ecological validity. This research addresses the question: “How should (H)EV exterior sounds be evaluated?” The research proposes an experimental methodology for evaluating (H)EV exterior sounds that assesses pedestrians’ safety and influence on the vehicle brand by measuring a listener’s detection rate and sound quality evaluation of the (H)EV in a Virtual Environment (VE). This methodology was tested, improved and validated through three experimen...
Electric and Autonomous Vehicle: from Sound Quality to Innovative Sound Design
Proceedings of the ICA congress, 2019
This study follows long-term lines of research and realizations accomplished within the frame of electric vehicle sound design. It currently deals with the most up-to-date issue addressing the near future mobility: Autonomous Drive (AD). It has been implemented in a 2-year collaboration with a french car manufacturer that deployed a high-tech demo-car where the sonic dimension was explored in a spatial and a multisensory approach. Specific hardware devices (multi-channel diffusion system) and software protocols (spatialization and vehicle data transmission) made possible the study and realization of numerous and accurate internal/external warning sounds and auditory Human-Machine Interfaces. The autonomous driving condition was especially considered as it corresponds to an unprecedented user experience in terms of human-centered process, where sounds could play a crucial role for informing and, if necessary, reassuring the driver and passengers. This paper presents a thorough analysis of the project: initial requirements and data, multidisciplinary framework, technical details, sound concepts and realization. It also opens onto reflexive and prospective considerations about the global notion of sound quality that especially look at possible forms of low-intrusiveness in sound design, and their related properties.
Wow, what car is that?: Perception of exterior vehicle sound quality
Noise Control Engineering Journal, 2003
Up until now most research and application in vehicle sound quality has been directed at describing interior vehicle sound quality. Even though the interior sound of a vehicle is a major component of the perceived sound quality, exterior sound is audible both to potential users and bystanders. It may be argued that interior vehicle sound quality is concerned with meeting the buyerʼs expectation, whereas exterior sound quality concerns a) attracting attention and positive responses of potential customers and b) minimizing negative responses in the general public. It may therefore be argued that optimizing exterior sound quality will benefit both consumers and the community. This article describes an approach to perceived exterior vehicle sound quality. To attain an understanding of exterior sound, we investigate both the semantic descriptions that are elicited when different exterior sounds are heard and specific situations (i.e. a given sound/vehicle in a given environment). Across different sounds and driving conditions we find four subjective dimensions: loudness/annoyance, perceived quality, low-frequency content, and temporal variations. This factor structure allows discriminating the sound quality of a variety of modern cars. In more specific tests we find that participants both discriminate between different vehicles and different environments (free field conditions, urban driving conditions as well as different street shapes). These results indicate that designing and predicting exterior sound quality is a multidimensional task that requires different approaches than those traditionally used for interior sound quality.
Development of a Prediction Model of Acoustic Discomfort in Cars for Engine Idle Sounds
2011
Sound quality can be described as the relation between the perceptual reactions that reflect the customer's acceptance of a product that generates sound. Initially, A-weighted sound level was the only parameter used in the acoustic assessment. Since the 1950s, psychoacoustic investigations have contributed to enhance the correlation between hearing sensations and objective parameters that define the sound. Nowadays, the application of sound quality in product design is widely extended in the industry, being considered an important field study by the main automobile manufacturers. This aspect has become as important as other specifications that define the vehicle (design, equipment, colour, price...). Therefore, sound quality would be considered as a distinguishing factor that could contribute to the car purchase decision. This paper describes the development of a methodology to obtain a predicted model of acoustic annoyance applied to sounds of engines running on idle of compact cars, a feature that the customer can test in the car dealership in the process of purchase. Firstly, binaural recordings of eight car engines have been carried out by means of a digital artificial head placed on the seat of the driver. Main psychoacoustic parameters (level, loudness, sharpness, roughness...) were calculated. Afterwards, the design of a jury test was set up taking into account the kind of sounds to be evaluated. The recordings were presented to 12 subjects to assess the real sounds in a rate scale depending on the discomfort level perceived. The jury test was carried out in a laboratory where each subject listened to the recordings by means of headphones connected to an equalizer, making possible the reproduction of the sounds in an accurate binaural way and providing listeners with a realistic acoustic experience as if they were inside the vehicle. Finally, a model was established to predict the comfort rate for each sound using the psychoacoustic parameters as predictors.