Lotus's new Halosonic sound generator

[DreamOf944]

if any, i'd take the first futuristic one, just as a fun gadget - but seriously, this stuff doesnt make sense - the car still has a horn, and people are supposed to watch out, not just listen.

[AlumarsX]

Every 4-cylinder car should come with this. Cause they sound like shit. I hate my car's sound. I can't wait till I finish college and get a proper V8 or a I6.

[vikkiandbradley07]

@AlumarsX awwww.

[bagggggyo]

That's pretty badazz in my opinion. Sounds like the future is here!!! LoL Star Trek comes to mind. i wonder what it sounds like when it goes warp speed HAHAHA I'm sure it'll just take a little "aftermarket" modification to make it sound like a Ferrari or maybe a old school rumbling muscle car V8 or whatever you want it to sound like. Now that would be something. Maybe that would relieve the girly tree hugger stigma that hybrids usually convey.

[jason123456789210]

put it in your ford fuckus electric and try it

[uszoninyc]

Why make a sound for an automobile sound like a JETSON's vehicle? It should sound car-like. I just heard the Chevy Volt sound tests (with blind testers), and I thought that was worse than this - but, tat STLL doesn't make these sounds better. Simplest is usually the best. If you're not familiar with an EV, then making it sound anything different than an oncoming car, is silly.

[kayvee53]

Iv heard games that sound better than this.... why didnt they just ask Microsoft for a few sound banks off forza or some shit? that sound SHITE!!!

[EnhancedNightmare]

Well, I guess there is a point in this. I almost got hit by some ultra silent car. Good thing about this invention is that the sounds are customisable, so if some sounds are awful or pointless it isn't hard to get a new one.

[MercuryMorrison1]

One of my biggest problums with EV's is that they have NO SOUND. I love my V8 engine noise. And if EV's are going to be the wave of the future, It'll be much easier for myself and others like me to accept them if we can still get that good ole V8 engine noise.

[SirPlankton]

I think this is a good idea since electric vehicles do not make any noise and that could be very hazardous to pedestrians/cyclists. The only problem is.... electric vehicles fucking suck! I seriously don't see the point in them, apart from another government scheme of extracting money from us by going 'green'. Come on people, volcanoes do worse in one blast than we ever will in 1000 years even if we took it to the extreme....

[torerobohoyo]

shit

[confispect]

Lol futuristic one was nice....people where like what is this thing pulling up.....honey is that a prius?

[0XxBesTofTheRestxX0]

I think the idea of this is not only to make driving electric cars a little more noticable, but since you have the choice of actually producing a gasoline engine sound, then it would sell a lot more to the general public because lets face it, you will never see a 29 year old bachelor in a Prius?

[rumplin]

I want the Star Wars pod racer sound from episode 1

[Linnehan13]

"Hey, I've solved the problem of noise pollution from traffic!" "Hey, these don't make any sound! WTF?!?!"

[mjkobb]

@Linnehan13 Not that I know of. There may be one out there someplace, but I've never seen one.

Search here on YouTube for "The Sounds of the Chevrolet Volt" to see what Chevy did for that car. The sound there sounds more like a car horn than the EV-1 alert did. On the EV-1, the alert was a bit more muted. To my ear, I think it was probably less startling than the prototype in the video I mentioned.

[foiblebear]

Just a heads up Lotus, acronyms are supposed to use the *first* letter of each word. You can't just choose any letter. That's not an acronym, that's scrabble.

[Reuterskiold]

okay all I have to say is WETODDED!!!!!

Firstly, Hybrids are a waste of money, they are all about fuel economy and helping the environment when in reality they are much worse, it takes a lot of money and resources to make the batteries for hybrids and when the battery's electrolytes are no longer polarized disposal is just as expensive and bad for the environment. VW tdi, my friends tdi gets 73 mpg all day and factory ones are comparable if not better than hybrids, plus they are faster.

[6SpAr6TAN69]

yea like i' m gonna be afraid of a freaking prius.

[6SpAr6TAN69]

If I' d wanted aan american V8 I' d buy an american V8 not a shity electric with some sort of sound enhancement...

..the futuristic one is fucking cool though.

[bicyclewreck]

Where's the sound for the stuck accelerator pedal?

[Coyotereviews]

"Have you ever been walking through a parking lot and got the crap scared out of you by a Prius?!"

No, because I pay attention to my surroundings. However, for those that don't, it's rare for a hybrid to run at low speeds on batteries alone. The gas engine kicks in very early...hybrids don't drive around like a pure electric car. Plus there's the tire noise. Few hybrids use LRT these days...those are the quiet ones. Only early Prius's used those. (Honda might still.)

[Syksiu]

Chyba ich pojebało

[DutchManticore]

HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA :D

And this is only the beginning of a new technology guys...

The first PC's sucked ass.. the first flatscreen TV's did.. but it'll get better.

[mjkobb]

Two words: Fucking awful.

Why would you make a passenger car sound like a delivery truck when it backs up? Ridiculous.

I've driven electric cars for 10 years. Rarely, somebody does not hear me coming, and what I want then is a way to alert them manually without startling them. I don't need a constant racket!

Just this morning, I came up behind three people walking in the road (no sidewalks there). They heard me and moved aside, even though my car is very quiet.

Rolling tires make noise!

[zacheryandersen]

@mjkobb so you're saying is you need a device that makes a sudden blast of noise to alert pedestrians?

[mjkobb]

@zacheryandersen Nope, not saying that. GM got this right with the original EV-1 electric car back in 1997. They had a nice system tied into the high-beam headlight flasher. If you flashed the high beams, the car made a sound that was much less abrupt and jarring than the horn, but still distinctive enough that a pedestrian wouldn't miss it. You could think of it as the automotive equivalent of "Excuse me", where the horn is "Look out!"

[Linnehan13]

@mjkobb Is there a video of this in action? It sounds awesome!

[carlylespicks]

@mjkobb That is interesting because people don't seem to hear my GAS sports car or bike coming. Hard to hear when you not paying attention or with iPod.

[SRM1983]

And all in the name of people thinking they're saving the planet when in fact they're not really. Charging batteries causes as much environmental damage than normal petrol/diesel cars. Ridiculous invention for under educated, boring middle age farts who will purchase these milk floats.

[caspertoot]

WTF DUMB INVENTION

[LoriCiani]

I think the Futuristic sound 1&2 are sort of creepy in a B movie/Lost In Space kind of way. Reverse and there's Robbie the robot shouting, "Danger Will Robinson, danger!

[Octamed]

shesh, just stick a radar on the car and detect if the car any surrounding moving objects are likely to hit, THEN make an annoying sound

Also does anyone realise that modern cars ARE as quiet as electric? Does the driver have no control over their own driving and perception at those low speeds? Does anyone walk out on to a higher speed road without looking? Do bicyclists need to make v8 sounds?

It's a product looking for a problem

Half the point of electric cars is to get rid of noise pollution

[TheCHEVYNATOR]

Futuristic sounds more like the Jetsons.Maybe they should have Flintstones and when you hit the horn it says Wilmaaaaaa!

[itslynseyp]

HALO - to protect your car's paint job from stupid fuckers who don't bother looking at the road they're crossing, and/or can't see a 5ft high x 5ft wide blob coming towards them.

[quadrangleman]

@itslynseyp

you mean like the blind?

[Octamed]

yes, because blind people are wandering around aimlessly walking onto highways...

[quadrangleman]

what, cars don't drive around residential streets anymore? only highways? news to me.

[Octamed]

are the drivers blind to? ;)

[quadrangleman]

well, pretty soon these stupid things will be driving themselves, so why not? And yet we're still not getting a hovercar? Lame future is lame.

[Octamed]

electric cars *aren't* silent. There is the same amount of tyre and wind noise, which is most of the noise of a modern car.

[bg1379]

What are you talking about? The real reason for a product like this one is for pedestrian safety in a city environment, not for highway, obviously. Also, the vast majority of wind and tire noise is inside the car, not outside of it :) I can't speak for Australia, but in America, the large V6s and 8s that make up the vast majority of the cars on our streets are much louder in an urban setting than the vehicle's tires.

[Octamed]

"v6/8s are much louder in an urban setting than the vehicle's tires"

yes clearly, but the tyre sound is plenty loud enough. Just listen to any car going 30 kph and it's loud. In fact, most of the sound you hear from outside with standard cars isn't the engine anymore, since they are very quiet. The engine sound is also very low pitch and higher freq sounds are still audible.

Not to mention again, why are these blind people walking on the road? ;)

[bg1379]

Have you ever been walking through a parking lot and got the crap scared out of you by a Prius?! I am certainly not alone in agreeing that something needs to be done. . . .

And, if you are walking down an aisle of a parking lot, you are not going to constantly be looking behind you for a car- you can't always be looking 360* around you. . . . .

[lancefitzgiben]

how completely annoying

[atimholt]

I wanna see one of those on an Aptera! That'd be killer!

[NoveltyMop]

Hey, Futuristic 1 sounds almost exactly like my mom's Civic.

[revaholic]

Really love this idea.

I hope the Nissan Leaf has a system like this.

[motmyers1]

DUH! They are missing the BEST IDEA -- they should be using the Jetsons hover car noises - mapped to speed and [de]acceleration. Now THAT would be funny

[MysticalMrBob]

Its immoral to let a hybrid sound like a flat six, or an american v8. i'd hate to hear a v8 coming down the road, turn my head, and see a prius. if technology like this becomes popular, it'll become impossible to know if someone did an engine swap or if its just some fratboy who want's their RSX to sound like a GTR

[v6mondy999]

I know how you feel. I'd hate to hear 70s UFO approaching, only to turn round and see a chuffing Prius.

[itslynseyp]

Don't fear, you won't be disappointed, because if you heard the noise demonstrated you'd be more likely to turn your head wondering why a farty lawnmower is coming down the road, rather than a V8.

[TheCHEVYNATOR]

You know after a little while you will be able to download more sounds like Harley,Ricer,horse,skateboard.­..

[downfader2]

LOL!! I'd love to hear Horse on a prius. How about whining celebrity? Haha!