Name: 電動汽車的聲音應該是什麼樣的？ (What should an electric car sound like?)
Uploaded: 2025-06-19T16:49:28.000Z
Duration: 5 min 18 s

情態副詞

For most of the history of the automobile, driving inevitably made noise.

在汽車發展史的大部分時間裡，駕駛不可避免地會產生噪音。

反身代名詞

In the internal combustion engine, air intake, fume exhaust, vibration, the combustion of fuel itself, all made noise.

在內燃機中，進氣、排氣、振動、燃料燃燒本身都會產生噪音。

程度副詞

Carmakers spent decades trying to reduce that noise, but could never really eliminate it.

幾十年來，汽車製造商一直在努力減少噪音，但始終無法真正消除噪音。

And then, one day, driving didn't need to make much sound at all.

然後，有一天，開車根本不需要發出什麼聲音。

The problem is, the world we built around the automobile relies on sound.

問題是，我們圍繞汽車建立的世界依賴於聲音。

適合希望獲得聲音反饋的駕駛員。

Culturally, we know that a car produces sound.

在文化上，我們知道汽車會發出聲音。

And for pedestrians and cyclists listening for cars.

行人和騎自行車的人也要注意傾聽汽車的聲音。

That absence of sound could make it dangerous as well.

We need our cars to make noise, or at least we expect them to.

我們需要汽車發出聲音，至少我們期望它們發出聲音。

Starting in 2019, regulators in the European Union and the US started requiring EVs and hybrids to play sound while they're in use, from hidden speakers called an acoustic vehicle alerting system, or AVAS.

從 2019 年開始，歐盟和美國的監管機構開始要求電動車和混合動力車在使用時通過隱藏的揚聲器播放聲音，這種揚聲器被稱為車輛聲學警報系統（AVAS）。

There are different standards around the world setting the rules for those sounds.

世界上有不同的標準為這些聲音制定規則。

And while they don't dictate exactly what the sounds should be, they each basically work by a common set of rules that sound designers have to follow.

雖然它們並沒有規定聲音應該是什麼樣的，但基本上都有一套共同的規則，聲音設計師必須遵守。

You can get creative, but not that creative, I guess.

你可以有創意，但沒那麼有創意吧。

The first parameter is sound pressure, or volume.

The AVAS volume has to reach minimum decibel levels.

AVAS 音量必須達到最低分貝水準。

This makes sure people can hear the vehicle without it being too disruptive.

這樣既能確保人們聽到車輛的聲音，又不會造成太大的干擾。

That volume has to increase as the vehicle goes faster.

Until, at speeds over 30 kilometers per hour, the noise of tires on pavement and wind against the car body become louder than the AVAS.

直到車速超過每小時 30 公里時，輪胎在路面上的噪音和風吹車身的聲音才會超過 AVAS 的聲音。

As vehicle speed changes, there are also regulations for the AVAS to shift in pitch.

隨著車速的變化，AVAS 的音調也會發生變化。

Higher pitch as the vehicle speeds up, and lower pitch as it slows down.

車輛加速時音調較高，減速時音調較低。

This makes sure that passersby have an idea of a vehicle's speed just by hearing it.

這樣，路人只需聽到聲音，就能知道車輛的速度。

Finally, there are regulations on the sound's frequencies.

最後，還有關於聲音頻率的規定。

The AVAS typically has to hit minimum volume levels at both high and low frequencies.

AVAS 通常必須達到高頻和低頻的最低音量水準。

High frequencies so that the AVAS can cut through low-frequency background noise, and low frequencies so it can cut through high-frequency background noise.

高頻是為了讓 AVAS 能夠消除低頻背景噪聲，低頻是為了消除高頻背景噪聲。

And that's the challenge, to make something within those parameters that isn't too quiet, but isn't too annoying.

這就是挑戰所在，如何在這些參數範圍內製作出既不會太安靜，又不會太煩人的東西。

So what AVAS sound designers typically design is a short, perfectly-looping sample.

是以，AVAS 音效設計師通常設計的是一個簡短、完美循環的樣本。

That can play faster or slower, depending on vehicle speed.

播放速度可快可慢，取決於車速。

But a simple linear increase doesn't match the dynamic sounds we're used to hearing in combustion vehicles.

但是，簡單的線性增長與我們在內燃機汽車上聽到的動態聲音並不匹配。

A simple pitching loop, it's very predictable.

簡單的投球循環，非常容易預測。

It sounds very linear, it sounds very, you know, uninteresting, it sounds very artificial.

這聽起來很線性，聽起來很無趣，聽起來很做作。

It's like when you have an LP player, for example, and you spin it faster, for example.

這就好比你有一臺 LP 播放器，比如你把它轉得更快。

When you pitch it too fast, it sounds weird, it sounds artificial.

投得太快，聽起來就會很奇怪，很做作。

To keep the AVAS from sounding linear, designers will layer on additional samples, filters, and modulations triggered by certain driving conditions.  Like full-throttle acceleration.

為了使 AVAS 聽起來不那麼線性，設計師會在某些駕駛條件下觸發額外的採樣、濾波器和調製。  比如全油門加速。

And those samples can be made of anything, from instruments.

這些樣本可以是任何東西，包括樂器。

For Cadillac, we have been able to use this ancient Australian instrument.

對於卡迪拉克來說，我們已經能夠使用這種古老的澳洲樂器。

So this is quite literally the score of a driving sound.

是以，這簡直就是駕車聲音的樂譜。

And they can even be inspired by combustion engines.

它們甚至可以從內燃機中獲得靈感。

There's a name for that last one, skeuomorphism, where a design resembles its real-world counterpart.

最後一種叫 skeuomorphism，即設計與其現實世界中的對應物相似。

Like early electric lights that mimicked the candles that came before them, or early mobile apps that mimicked the look of the objects they replaced.

就像早期的電燈模仿了之前的蠟燭，或者早期的移動應用程序模仿了它們所取代的物體的外觀。

As a way to transition into a new era of technology.

作為過渡到新技術時代的一種方式。

There's this patent from the very beginning  in the very early 1900s.

從 20 世紀初開始，就有這樣一項專利。

Let's put half a horse on the front of the vehicle, and basically make the car look like a horse, because that's what the people are used to.

讓我們把半匹馬放在車頭，基本上讓汽車看起來像一匹馬，因為人們已經習慣了。

Electric vehicles don't need to make noise, but they do need to bridge the gap from cars that do to a future that sounds different.

電動汽車不需要發出聲音，但它們確實需要從發出聲音的汽車過渡到發出不同聲音的未來。

And that's what these designers are working out.

這正是這些設計師們正在努力的方向。