Fisker Karma hybrid sports car to generate motor noise through external speakers

You know how we love the electric cars around here, but internal combustion sure does sound sexy -- a big V-8 literally brings the noise in a way the nearly-silent whir of an electric motor can't hope to match. Well, it looks like the mad geniuses behind the $80,000 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid have hit upon an appropriately high-tech solution: speakers placed inside and out that allow drivers to give their rides any sound they want, including one described as "like something between a Formula One car and a jet plane." Interesting, to be sure -- but seeing as the Karma can hit 125mph and go from 0-60 in six seconds, we'd be happier if that rig just screamed at people to get out of the left lane.

[Via Autoblog]

[karts41 @ Mar 14th 2008 4:05AM]

I want mine to sound like a train.

[Jeff @ Mar 14th 2008 8:46AM]

How long before someone hacks it to make it sound like an ice cream truck? Nothing says street cred like a music box version of "The Entertainer" or "Pop Goes The Weasel".

[hamster3000 @ Mar 14th 2008 9:43AM]

Well with a hack like that pedofiles will surely likely pick this car up.

[Grey Acumen @ Mar 14th 2008 10:38AM]

I want mine to sound like someone yelling "waAhhaahhhhhOHMYGODIMGOINGSOFASTISUREHOPEMYBRAKESDONTGOOUTCAUSETHERE'LLBEAHORRIBLEDISASTERWHENMYBATTERYEXPLODESGETOUTOFTHEWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYOHMYGOD...."
etc while I'm accelerating, and then while I'm idling I want it to sound like some guy panting really hard from being out of breath

[OneLove @ Mar 14th 2008 11:11AM]

moan my IP!!!!

[Ellianth @ Mar 14th 2008 12:15PM]

it should have an 'old beater' mode. Where it sputters and sounds like it's about to break down.

[Neebs @ Mar 14th 2008 3:54PM]

How about Funky Town?

[Mathew @ Mar 14th 2008 4:45PM]

Maybe I could hook mine up to a white noise generator for that truly stealth sound.

[Seung-Hwan @ Mar 14th 2008 4:09AM]

Although it's kind of cool, I would think that you will still feel fake for using it.

[troof @ Mar 14th 2008 4:10AM]

Honestly. If you are slow get the hell out of the left lane. You are not the police, quit being a rolling roadblock.

[nh @ Mar 14th 2008 6:32AM]

The left lane IS the slow lane!

[OSnix*-geek @ Mar 14th 2008 9:41AM]

HRRMMMM not here in the states.... the left lane would be the "FAST" lane. See here in the states we drive on the right side of the road, NOT the left.

[Josh* @ Mar 14th 2008 9:45AM]

@nh: not in backward-ass america ;)

[Luiz @ Mar 14th 2008 10:11AM]

Actually... there are many more countries that drive on the left than on the right; so us britt's can stay kindda quiet about that...

[Will @ Mar 14th 2008 11:12AM]

Sorry Luiz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg

[ToxicDose @ Mar 14th 2008 11:28AM]

Woo-hoo, the world is 90% Republican . . . am I reading that map right?

[Sorry too much politicking going on here in the states.]

[Alex Herron @ Mar 14th 2008 4:15AM]

hmmm, time to sue them...
www.vroombox.com

[darkwolf6 @ Mar 14th 2008 10:17PM]

Ya, I also saw the idea like 12 years ago on that great tech show 'Beyond 2000' Which became Beyond Tomorrow for a while after 2000 :) (Never name a show after a year that is coming soon :)

[LordFarkward @ Mar 14th 2008 4:21AM]

"karma's a bitch, it's gonna come round and hit you... at precicely 125mph"

[Noah @ Mar 14th 2008 4:36AM]

I know what I want. KITT's voice and the Knight Rider music. Nothing confuses your enemies more than having your own theme music and a talking car.

[klew @ Mar 14th 2008 5:06AM]

not the Spy Hunter music?

[Paul @ Mar 14th 2008 4:52AM]

Neat. I'd have mine sound like a TIE fighter. Or maybe a snow speeder depending on what mood I'm in :)

[miko34 @ Mar 14th 2008 5:13AM]

I knew this would happen. Speakers for motor noise. I just didn't expect the nerds to do it so quickly. Real car people won't go for hybrids, hydrogen, or pure electric cars unless combustion engines are outlawed on the streets.

Let's get these robot controlled cars now so that I can go drinking at a bar and not worry about a designated driver.

[Twitchy @ Mar 14th 2008 7:26AM]

I don't really think it is for the pseudo car nuts - people who only love V8s etc., but not a car with fantastic stats and styling like this baby aren't real car fanatics.

I think the speakers are more so as to avoid litigation by the blind: http://www.hybridcars.com/safety/blind-people-hybrid-safety.html

A bit silly though, considering that a large part of the noise created by a car in motion comes from the tyres (http://ec.europa.eu/research/transport/news/article_745_en.html), the solution is simple - force everybody who has an electric car to drive on extra wide 18-20 inch rims. I won't complain (and my girlfriend can no longer claim that it's a waste of money).

[#28 @ Mar 14th 2008 5:14AM]

But can it play doom?

[sully @ Mar 14th 2008 10:13AM]

No, but it can play GTA.

[andres @ Mar 14th 2008 10:13PM]

no, but it can hit people who ask if it can play doom at 125 mph

[#28 @ Mar 15th 2008 4:59AM]

Hahahahaha...
Lowest ranked.
I shouldn't be suprised.

[Generic @ Mar 14th 2008 5:32AM]

Hoping these are no cheap speakers because I'm an audiophile (he said with his nose nailed to the ceiling).

Thinking this through makes you wonder if the speakers are compensating for anything! I wonder what it may be!?

[Blackster @ Mar 14th 2008 5:35AM]

hm, enough noise for pedestrians to jump out of the way? ^^

[Generic @ Mar 14th 2008 6:10AM]

pedestrians are supposed to be out of the way in the first place, oh unless you are driving on the sidewalk, then that is a legitimate claim

what about all that noise cancelling research done by tire companies, is this where we will end up in the future, obfuscating all previous efforts to make further labor plausible?

[blarvh @ Mar 14th 2008 10:32AM]

It's like putting socks in your underwear.

[peshue @ Mar 14th 2008 5:39AM]

As if the wanna be thugs rattling my windows in the middle of their night with their noise wasn't enough.

[S @ Mar 14th 2008 5:52AM]

How about we just convert our current cars to hybrids that run on ethanol and hydrogen. That way we can get better gas mileage, but keep the wonderful, instrumental sounds which keep us buying sports cars that stir the soul, (not to mention warning those stupid pedestrians that there is a CAR coming FAST and it will RUN YOU OVER if you don't MOVE your a$$!!!)

[Pouya @ Mar 14th 2008 6:00AM]

I was hoping for that "baseball card in the wheel spoke" sound.

I thought its styling would be loud enough. Personally, I would never drive around in a car that looks like it has a silly mustache. . . even if it came equipped with a matching top hat standard. The poser soundtrack is merely the icing on the cake.

[Seoul Brother @ Mar 14th 2008 6:10AM]

I remember reading an official draft of the movie script to "Speed Racer" back in 1994. Keep in mind that "Speed Racer" went through a LOT of development hell, but the Mach 5 was supposed to look like a traditional internal combustion engine car, but in this draft, it had an electric or some sort of hybrid engine. It also used speakers and fake exhaust to have it masquerade as a traditional car. And whoo boy, you should have seen the Mach 5 for that movie. Frickin' gorgeous.

[Seoul Brother @ Mar 14th 2008 6:11AM]

I remember reading an official draft of the movie script to "Speed Racer" back in 1994. Keep in mind that "Speed Racer" went through a LOT of development hell, but the Mach 5 was supposed to look like a traditional internal combustion engine car, but in this draft, it had an electric or some sort of hybrid engine. It also used speakers and fake exhaust to have it masquerade as a traditional car. And whoo boy, you should have seen the Mach 5 for that movie. Frickin' gorgeous.

[Sam Zebian @ Mar 14th 2008 6:23AM]

I would rather have it be silent. I love driving in a silent car, my mom's hybrid doesn't start the engine for 30 seconds after driving, and it's cool. When you go under 30 mph, it's completely silent. (I wonder if criminals will start using electric cars because of their quietness?)

[LarryLarryLarry @ Mar 14th 2008 6:41AM]

If you read the article, it says that the car goes 50 miles on a plug-in charge. Then it kicks over to a ONE GALLON fuel tank which gives an extra FOUR HUNDRED and FIFTY miles of range.

The whole thing is totally impossible. If you can get 450 MPG, what do yuu need batteries for? It's an obvious fraud.

[Josh @ Mar 14th 2008 5:31AM]

If you actually read the article instead of skimming it, the gas motor acts more like a generator for the electric one; "the car automatically taps a one-gallon fuel reserve that generates enough electricity to power the car a further 450 miles."

I'd be in for two if I was in the market... and could afford one.

[LondonConsultant @ Mar 14th 2008 5:30AM]

According to the article, you need batteries to store the electricity that is generated by that one gallon of petrol and then dissipated over the next 450 miles. It'd be interesting to see the evidence behind that 450 miles claim - do they perform fusion on that one gallon...

[Toby @ Mar 14th 2008 5:36AM]

I'm not sure about the realiability of this, but I beleive the article says the extra gallon of fuel is used to produce enough electricity to drive the car 450 miles. The fuel is running a generator, not directly running the engine. I would be willing to believe that you could produce a lot more electricity from a gallon of fuel than you could store in a battery.

[LarryLarryLarry @ Mar 14th 2008 6:50AM]

Of course! If you put an electric generator AND an electric motor between the gas motor and the wheels, your milage goes from 40 MPG to 450 MPG. Makes perfect sense.

I never really believed in entropy anyway.

Shame on me for "skimming the article"!

[LondonConsultant @ Mar 14th 2008 11:16AM]

And if you put an electric generator AND an electric motor AND a kiwi fruit between the gas motor and the wheels, your milage goes from 450 MPG to 900 MPG. That's because Kiwi fruits are the electrical opposite of batteries and so double the transmitted energy.

[deraven @ Mar 18th 2008 12:22PM]

I don't know where they're getting this idea of a 1 gallon fuel tank - never seen that mentioned anywhere else. So far, the range of the vehicle has consistently been stated as 500-600 miles with the first 50 fully electric and an overall fuel efficiency of about 100MPG.

Also, there isn't a traditional gasoline engine connected to the drive train at all. The car is powered by the electric motor 100 percent of the time with a gas-powered generator with the sole purpose of topping off the batteries. Sounds like you picked the one bit of the article that's probably not correct to begin with and coupled that with your lack of understanding with regard to this vehicle's design and decided to condemn it. Well done.

[zapot8 @ Mar 14th 2008 6:58AM]

No! Dont get into the car!
I can't help it, its soo beautiful!

[Courtney White @ Mar 14th 2008 7:02AM]

I'd love the flying car sound from the Jetsons... sweet..

[-Tj- @ Mar 14th 2008 7:15AM]

I think I'd rather just have a real V8 under the hood instead of a V8 sound effect. Somehow, that just screams "weak." I'd probably just turn it off and not tell anyone about it. The car cool enough without it, imo.

[Lanman @ Mar 14th 2008 7:35AM]

I want mine to sound like the car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

[nintendo fanboy hater @ Mar 14th 2008 7:37AM]

the Eiilica can still hit 210 mph with only batteries and the only noise is air friction