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Fake Engine Noise Is the Auto Industry's Dirty Little Secret

Posted by timothy on from the mazda-puts-it-right-up-front dept.

HughPickens.com writes Stomp on the gas in a new Ford Mustang or F-150 and you'll hear a meaty, throaty rumble — the same style of roar that Americans have associated with auto power and performance for decades. Now Drew Harwell reports at the Washington Post that the auto industry's dirty little secret is that the engine growl in some of America's best-selling cars and trucks is actually a finely tuned bit of lip-syncing, boosted through special pipes or digitally faked altogether. "Fake engine noise has become one of the auto industry's dirty little secrets, with automakers from BMW to Volkswagen turning to a sound-boosting bag of tricks," writes Harwell. "Without them, today's more fuel-efficient engines would sound far quieter and, automakers worry, seemingly less powerful, potentially pushing buyers away." For example Ford sound engineers and developers worked on an "Active Noise Control" system on the 2015 Mustang EcoBoost that amplifies the engine's purr through the car speakers. Afterward, the automaker surveyed members of Mustang fan clubs on which processed "sound concepts" they most enjoyed.

Among purists, the trickery has inspired an identity crisis and cut to the heart of American auto legend. The "aural experience" of a car, they argue, is an intangible that's just as priceless as what's revving under the hood. "For a car guy, it's literally music to hear that thing rumble," says Mike Rhynard, "It's a mind-trick. It's something it's not. And no one wants to be deceived." Other drivers ask if it really matters if the sound is fake? A driver who didn't know the difference might enjoy the thrum and thunder of it nonetheless. Is taking the best part of an eight-cylinder rev and cloaking a better engine with it really, for carmakers, so wrong? "It may be a necessary evil in the eyes of Ford," says Andrew Hard, "but it's sad to think that an iconic muscle car like the Mustang, a car famous for its bellowing, guttural soundtrack, has to fake its engine noise in 2015. Welcome to the future."

27 of 823 comments (clear)

  1. Just give the option to turn it off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    For some, having engine noise is fine. However, the '70s and '80s with the purring V8s are gone, and the vehicles that will be the norm will either be hybrids, diesels, or electric cars.

    As someone who likes modern cars, we don't need any more noise added. In fact, there is something nice about a Tesla or Prius's silence at idle.

    1. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In fact, there is something nice about a Tesla or Prius's silence at idle

      Unless you're blind, or happen to be looking the other way when the drunk in a prius bears down on you. Which is why some sort of fake engine noise will eventually be mandated (if it hasn't been already).

      The "tick tick" of your turn signals has been fake for years, mechanical relays are long past.

    2. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Kjella · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unless you're blind, or happen to be looking the other way when the drunk in a prius bears down on you. Which is why some sort of fake engine noise will eventually be mandated (if it hasn't been already). The "tick tick" of your turn signals has been fake for years, mechanical relays are long past.

      But not on your internal speakers, at worst you have to install an exterior speaker to deliver "engine" noises. In fact, you can probably do active noise cancellation of it internally so you barely hear your own engine. The turn signal on the other hand serves an actual purpose, to remind you that you're still signaling to other people that you're turning as in some curves it won't turn itself off. For driving a manual car the engine noise serves a purpose too, but it's getting more and more rare even here in Europe.

      --
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    3. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The click is there as a safety feature so that you don't have to look down to see that your turn signal is still on.

    4. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by BlueBlade · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This "mandated" engine noise concept is so infuriating to me. We finally have the technology to remove both the air and noise pollution at the same time, but you want to add noise to an otherwise silent engine just because people aren't used to silent cars? People will just have to adapt to the fact that you can't trust your hearing to know if a car is coming or not anymore.

      This reminds me of that ridiculous law that there had to be a person walking ahead of a car because unlike horses, cars can't react if something's in the way.

      --
      Religion is the best example of mass psychosis
    5. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Coren22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It sounds like you fell for the sound engineering than.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    6. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by bws111 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What, exactly, was 'ridiculous' about the law that there had to be a person ahead of the car? The reason for that 'ridiculous' law was that a nosiy car could, in fact, scare a horse and cause it to bolt, and a bolting horse is a dangerous thing. The person had to be in front of the car to warn others that it was approaching so they could be prepared, nothing ridiculous about that at all. Once cars became commonplace they were no longer scary as people and animals got used to them. When that happened there was no further need for a person in front or a law requiring such.

      Like it or not, people have been trained for over a century that cars make noise. We even instruct children to 'stop, look, and listen'. The world is not going to suddenly adapt to silent cars. People (and service animals) will need to get used to silent cars - that is not going to happen until silent cars are ubiquitous, which is certainly not true now. There is nothing ridiculous about mandating some amount of noise in the meantime.

    7. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Engine noise is not and was never a "safety feature". It is a by-product of making the car go.
      Everything you listed are safety features.
      Deciding that engines are too quiet because people are used to them being loud is ridiculous.

    8. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by bws111 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just because something was not designed specifically to be a safety feature does not, in fact, mean it is not a safety feature. Noise IS used as a safety feature.

      Let me guess, you are one of those people who are so superior to everyone else that you can rely solely on vision to determine when it is safe to cross a road. Even at night with a moron driver who 'forgot' to put on his lights. Even when your vision is momentarily distracted by something. Even if you are blind.

    9. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Honestly, most modern cars these days are already so silent, the only sound you hear from them is the cooling fan and the tire noise. It is only the 'muscle' type cars, that make noise, and like the article says, its just because people expect them to. Hell, the 'Harley Davidson' edition Ford F150 magically sounds like a motorcycle, because they can make it sound any damn way they want now. I agree, the idea of mandating 'fake engine noise' is preposterous, because its pretending this is a new problem, when cars have already been nearly dead silent at parking lot speeds for years now.

      --
      I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
    10. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Solandri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Quiet (or as quiet as possible) is one aesthetic that may be desirable. For other people (or perhaps cars), a good rumble (as long as it not excessively load and obnoxious) is equally a desirable aesthetic. It's not so different, as you note, than choice of paint job.

      Not like a paint job. You can choose to avert your eyes from a garish paint job. You can't choose to shut off your ears to an obnoxiously noisy car. If you want your car to have a throaty rumble, fine, but pipe it through your internal speakers only. Don't inflict it on the rest of us just to stroke your own ego.

    11. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The association between 'loud' and 'powerful' is a trifle odd given that noise (like heat) is an inefficiency, a mere byproduct of the vehicle's attempt to do its real job.

      If all engines were of exactly equal (in)efficiency, using sound as a proxy for power would be sensible enough, since more powerful engines would bleed more waste noise; but this is hardly the case. Some engines achieve enormous power in near total silence, some fart-can nonsense is deliberately made louder, possibly even at the expense of performance.

      Is the fascination with vehicles that make loud noises some sort of primal thing, that we'll probably never manage to breed out of people, related to some retro equivalent of the competition between bullfrogs trying to croak more loudly and deeply to impress mates with their inferred size; or is it a much more recent development, largely tied to the period of American automobile manufacturing where engine designs and manufacturing tolerances were a bit crude; but The World's Greatest Nation could always just add more cylinders and bigger fins to achieve the desired effect, and thus likely to die out once the population turns over and most people have only been exposed to relatively well damped and comparatively efficient IC engines, or to electrics?

      Using your ears to judge a car likely won't go out of style(since your ability to sense the acceleration of an engine capable of ramping up like inertia is somebody else's problem is partially based there); but sound seems so...crude.

    12. Re:Just give the option to turn it off... by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hey that's a great study... but from the abstract, it doesn't look like they controlled for SHIT design factors like poor quartering visibility due to A-pillar design. Have you ever ridden in a Prius? Many hybrid vehicles make compromises in cabin design to gain a bit of mileage, and unless your study is controlling for that, then it's just a whitewash piece.

      Additionally, the article didn't control for the self-righteous attitude of most hybrid owners... which certainly must be a contributing factor in auto-pedestrian accidents. /s

      --
      Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
  2. Splits the community in half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some guys are in it for the power, and thus the engine noise is wasted energy.
    Some guys are in it for the feel, and thus the engine noise is the most important thing about the car.

  3. What about those of us who like quiet cars by edtice1559 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can we turn it off? If not, they are spending a lot of money on something that would add negative value for guys like me. The reason I don't ride a motorcycle or even keep the convertible top open on the highway is that I can't stand the noise and have no interest in going deaf.

  4. As long as I don't have to listen to it... by mspring · · Score: 3, Insightful

    from the outside, I don't care.

  5. Re: This is so stupid. by Fwipp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't understand this argument, really. It seems to me that on most roads with pedestrians, tire noise is louder than engine noise, and more than sufficient for me to be aware of cars behind me.

  6. Re:HondaKarts? by tompaulco · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I would like to see proof that straight pipes by themselves do anything for the cars performance. The stock muffler provides a certain amount of back pressure and the engine is specifically tuned to work with this type of pressure. Eliminating this pressure is more likely to reduce rather than improve performance.
    Of course every teenager with $100 thinks that a bolt on part (which fits all models of Honda, Nissan and Toyota!!!1!!ONE!!) is somehow going to improve the performance of the vehicle better than the hundreds of Japanese PhDs that designed the car.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  7. Re: This is so stupid. by demonlapin · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Tires are almost silent on paved roads. Have someone put their car in neutral and turn the engine off as they roll down a hill toward you.

  8. Re:Noise is a safety feature. by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah but any noise will do. The sound doesn't have to be engine noises. It can be a recording of a baby screaming "VROOM!!!!", or a recorded message like "I need a vehicle with a very loud engine to reassure myself I'm not gay".

  9. Engine noise is a thing of the past. by adric22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This sort of reminds me of when Motorola was putting fake antennas on their cellular phones (with the real antenna inside) because they thought people wouldn't buy the phone if it didn't have a visible antenna. But eventually, society learned that an visible antenna was not necessary and we moved on. I suspect in another 20 years most cars will be a lot more quiet as a result of hybrid and electric drivetrains. I've been driving an EV now for 3 years and now that I've grown accustomed to the silence, hearing any engine noise at all sounds so yesterday, so obsolete.

  10. I want silent vehicles by sjbe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is nothing ridiculous about mandating some amount of noise in the meantime.

    I completely disagree. If you mandate noise you will never get silence. Plus once you get enough cars close together you almost can't distinguish them anyway because it basically becomes white noise. Just because people have become accustomed to a certain amount of noise is not a credible argument for continuing to emit noise pollution needlessly. And no, I am not at all concerned about blind or inattentive pedestrians crossing the road in front of me. It's MY responsibility as a driver to drive carefully and watch out for possible road hazards. It is also their responsibility to watch out when crossing the road. Hell, people get hit by trains while walking and they make a huge racket and are 100% avoidable by staying off the tracks.

    1. Re:I want silent vehicles by Githaron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. It makes more sense to give all blind people car detectors than to make all cars noisy.

    2. Re:I want silent vehicles by Cochonou · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You just have to mandate a decreasing amount of noise over the years, so that you will eventually get silence, and so that people will have enough time to get used to silent cars. As you do for almost every transition.

    3. Re:I want silent vehicles by Obfuscant · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you mandate noise you will never get silence.

      Why should silence be a goal? Being able to hear an approaching vehicle is not just a safety issue for blind people, it is an issue for anyone who is trying to cross a road and can't see approaching cars.

      Plus once you get enough cars close together you almost can't distinguish them anyway

      It isn't important to distinguish between multiple oncoming cars. What's important is that "there's a car coming", not that "the first car in the line is a Prius, the second one is a Volvo, the third is ...".

      Just because people have become accustomed to a certain amount of noise is not a credible argument for continuing to emit noise pollution needlessly.

      One person's "pollution" is another persons "ambient sounds". The sound of a properly muffled car engine is hardly "pollution". You're confusing the concept "I don't like hearing..." with "it is pollution".

      It's MY responsibility as a driver to drive carefully and watch out for possible road hazards.

      And it is the responsibility of the person trying to cross the street not to step out in front of an oncoming car. Even were your job done perfectly, they'd still have to do theirs because the laws of physics say that I can step out in front of you much faster than you can stop.

      It is also their responsibility to watch out when crossing the road.

      Ahhh, ok. Blind people should just sit quietly at home listening to the radio and not dare wander about the streets where they might become a hindrance to you. They can't "watch" anything, so they shouldn't be anywhere that "watching" is required.

      Should we also relegate paraplegics to the dust bin because they cannot obey the "walk" signal at a signalled crossing? They can only manage the "don't walk". And how dare they try using cross-walks in the first place. They aren't called cross-rolls, you know.

  11. Tires are nowhere near silent by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Tires are almost silent on paved roads

    The hell they are. Tire noise accounts for 70-90% of overall noise energy when travelling over 50mph.

    Have someone put their car in neutral and turn the engine off as they roll down a hill toward you.

    I will notice the car getting louder and louder as its speed increases. What's your point?

  12. Re:electric car driver here by Lab+Rat+Jason · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd stack a Tesla against ANY gas powered car you care to bring out...

    http://youtu.be/BJJvhiFINsY (warning... some profane language)

    Noisy cars are for noisy drivers... I've been arguing this point with my brother for years, every time he buys a louder muffler for his 5.9 Grand Cherokee... it never gets any faster, but it perpetually gets louder and worse gas mileage. I think car owners just need to cop to the fact that they want people to look at them, and what better way to do it than to put a loud ass fart pipe on a WRX?

    --
    Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?