Fisker Karma hybrid sports car to generate motor noise through external speakers
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 14th 2008 4:02AM
posted Mar 14th 2008 4:02AM
[Via Autoblog]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
I want mine to sound like a train.
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".
Well with a hack like that pedofiles will surely likely pick this car up.
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
moan my IP!!!!
it should have an 'old beater' mode. Where it sputters and sounds like it's about to break down.
How about Funky Town?
Maybe I could hook mine up to a white noise generator for that truly stealth sound.
Honestly. If you are slow get the hell out of the left lane. You are not the police, quit being a rolling roadblock.
The left lane IS the slow lane!
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.
@nh: not in backward-ass america ;)
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...
Sorry Luiz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Countries_driving_on_the_left_or_right.svg
Woo-hoo, the world is 90% Republican . . . am I reading that map right?
[Sorry too much politicking going on here in the states.]
Although it's kind of cool, I would think that you will still feel fake for using it.
hmmm, time to sue them...
www.vroombox.com
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 :)
"karma's a bitch, it's gonna come round and hit you... at precicely 125mph"
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.
not the Spy Hunter music?
Neat. I'd have mine sound like a TIE fighter. Or maybe a snow speeder depending on what mood I'm in :)
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.
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.
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...
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.
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"!
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.
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.
But can it play doom?
No, but it can play GTA.
no, but it can hit people who ask if it can play doom at 125 mph
Hahahahaha...
Lowest ranked.
I shouldn't be suprised.
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.
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).
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!?
hm, enough noise for pedestrians to jump out of the way? ^^
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?
It's like putting socks in your underwear.
As if the wanna be thugs rattling my windows in the middle of their night with their noise wasn't enough.
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$$!!!)
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.
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.
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.
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?)
No! Dont get into the car!
I can't help it, its soo beautiful!
I'd love the flying car sound from the Jetsons... sweet..
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.
I want mine to sound like Stephen Hawkening
I want mine to sound like the car from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
the Eiilica can still hit 210 mph with only batteries and the only noise is air friction
Yes Virginia, there is something possibly more annoying than custom ringtones.
I want mine to scream, "I...AM...IRONMAN!" whenever I accelerate.
I would prefer "I can't drive 55" (becaues it only goes 48) **
**obscure simpsons reference?**
Isn't that similar to digital camera's that make a 35mm click and film advance sound? ...Ridiculous I say.
I can't wait for someone to hack the firmware and make someone's car sound like a clucking chicken or something.
You know, I think it's actually kind of a good idea, for the sake of pedestrians. It's much easier to avoid potential accidents when you can hear the car coming.
See You in court Fisker if you deploy this tech! Some Engineers and I have "patent pending" on it (ask Tesla). So be prepared to "PAY ME FOR THE RHYMES YOU STOLE FROM ME!"
That Crazy Frog / Annoying Thing would be the worst ever car sound.
ringdingdadingdingding...bwaaaaaa
WHOO WHOO!!
For the uninitiated:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOeP2xaFg1Q
Hmm.. I guess that one gallon of gas generates the 1.21 Jigawatts of electricity needed for time travel... oh and can I get the "back in time" by huey lewis playing all the time...
PS I like the kitt idea too... if only it had turbo boost...
*quietly puts away his bullhorn and ice cream truck music that he recorded*
In HS, we'd drive around the neighborhood with that song playing ... simply out for our own malicious entertainment.
Oh man, what a great option for the car - but for the wrong sounds. I'm with Engadget, I would much rather have it do something really useful like tell other drivers they're idiots.
Cute but are under-6yo's allowed to drive? and if not, who is this for?
And do they also sell beads for the car's spokes perhaps?
6 seconds? I hope they're not selling that as a sports car!
5.8 seconds is pretty good, but I believe they're marketing it as a luxury sports sedan. It is a full 4-seater with real trunk space, and that kind of performance netting you 100MPG is pretty excellent so there's definitely a solid market for it. Agreed that it's not "high-performance", though.
I would sooo rig it with a Stargate Puddle Jumper noise... yeah... I'm a nerd. :p
What. is. the. point?
Sure, they get rid of SOME pollution by making it a hybrid but then they cancel out all good that does by adding freaking noise pollution. well done.
Funny Ive thought of that already. And a million more car improvements, it seams that technology is lagging when it comes to the automobile. If someone gave me a chance we'd all be fly cruising back 2 the future.
I don't need to really hear the sound noise, though that's what made me buy my current car. I prefer it be playing a theme song instead!
Pretty cool concept, but dumb idea. Now how do I get it to sound like a squeal?
Fisker Karma doesn't have V8 engine. It uses 4cylinder. Because this new: http://www.bilgiustam.com/fisker-karma-motor-sesini-hoparlorle-disari-veriyor/
And the vehicle is really awesome... Handsome and smart looking.
If all the claims r true, then this car is trying to defy or redefine the laws of motion requiring certain qty of energy for a unit of mass to be moved over a unit of distance at a unit of speed in a unit of time.
Whew!!!! I think I've made it enough complicated beyond common sense....
So far it's not getting the greatest reviews for styling, but I really like it and would buy one in a heartbeat if it were 20,000 instead of 80,000.