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There are two totally different kinds of technology noise I dislike: 1. Why do so many gadgets have to beep? Microwaves, washing machines, … 2. Engine noise.

There are two totally different kinds of technology noise I dislike: 1. Why do so many gadgets have to beep? Microwaves, washing machines, … 2. Engine noise. Some cars/motorbikes are specifically designed/modified to be loud because that’s what the customer wants. Some small/uninsulated engines (eg in a cheaper motorbike/scooter) are also loud.

thaumasiotes 4y ago
> Engine noise. Some cars/motorbikes are specifically designed/modified to be loud because that’s what the customer wants. Then there are the cars that aren't loud, so they play recordings of engine noise over the audio system. BMW has apparently gone as far as making the fake engine noise user-configurable, except that you can't turn it off. Because if you don't want to be forced to listen to fake engine noise, you're not the type of customer BMW wants, I guess. You probably shouldn't be allowed to vote or own property either.
- julik 4y ago
  I think this is a case of some misguided product managers (and since German car companies are known to be huge bureacracies - no wonder). It seems like there is a great important safety aspect to it - that first you can hear that the vehicle is moving (there is an audio cue), and second is the affordance that you pressing on the accelerator has an effect (that the accelerator/electronics is not broken) - idem for braking. Interestingly enough, railway engines had this problem solved a number of decades ago when they started using mechanical speedometers based on a clock. When the vehicle would start moving, the speedometer would start ticking. The faster you go the faster the ticking. Seems like electric cars need something similar (it does seem like a very useful safety feature to be honest).
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > When the vehicle would start moving, the speedometer would start ticking. The faster you go the faster the ticking. Seems like electric cars need something similar This would effectively prevent many people from listening to music in the car. It would not be tolerated. Which brings up the point that people very frequently choose to drown out the engine noise. That obviously limits how useful the engine noise can be, though of course it isn't very useful anyway. You cannot fail to sense that the car is moving if your eyes are open. You cannot fail to sense whether the brakes are working even if your eyes are closed.
  - eek2121 4y ago
    No, these are regulations for the blind. Laws, mind you. For a reason. So the blind don't walk out in front of a car. I agree with these laws. That being said, the noise should NOT be heard inside the car.
    - thaumasiotes 4y ago
      > No, these are regulations for the blind. No, they aren't. > Laws, mind you. No, they aren't. > For a reason. Nope. > That being said, the noise should NOT be heard inside the car. If you're going to admit that you're talking about something completely different, why say anything at all?
    - hedgehog 4y ago
      This is noise played inside the car for the occupants, totally unrelated to safety sound played outside. I'm not sure if anyone besides BMW does this.
    - amrocha 4y ago
      If you're gonna be driving a car and creating noise pollution for everyone outside it, you don't get to have peace and quiet inside of it. Hotter take: horns should be louder inside cars than they are on the outside
      - gxnxcxcx 4y ago
        > Hotter take: horns should be louder inside cars than they are on the outside I don't care if it is equal volume or a little taser zap when exceeding some threshold, but a sacrifice must be paid to the gods of annoyance in order to restore balance.
- vbezhenar 4y ago
  Playing engine noise is one of the most ridiculous thing I've ever known. I love BMW noise. I owned old BMW and I loved its sound. But I loved it because it was produced by engine that I loved, not because it was produced by some stupid subwoofer. I have no idea how would anyone buy that tech and I lost my faith in humanity that BMW did not go bankrupt with this move. I know that the only BMW car I would ever buy is E34, it was last BMW worth those letters.
  - silon42 4y ago
    If you had pets and an EV, it might be useful, at least on startup.
- spoonjim 4y ago
  Oof. Now is probably your last chance to get a decent naturally asprirated I6 BMW without all that nonsense.
- mikro2nd 4y ago
  I've said it before. I'll say it again (and get downvoted heavily again, because fanbois...) but BMW is an Intelligence Test. If you bought one, you failed.
  - brnt 4y ago
    That's a much cleverer way of putting it then my 'there no good argument for a BMW, ever'.
thfuran 4y ago
Engine noise inside the vehicle is horrible and I don't know why anyone would want it. Engine noise outside the vehicle probably reduces the rates at which collisions occur.
- bigiain 4y ago
  Lots of motorcycle riders claim this: "Loud pipes save lives". In my anecdotal experience, as the owner of both noisy and quiet motorcycles, there is very little truth to that. My noisy motorcycles have just as many "Sorry mate, I didn't see you" incidents as my quiet ones. On the other hand, looking like you might be an evil baby-eating biker (cruiser-style bike, black leather, open face helmet with a beard and sunglasses, blatantly disregarding road rules) does seem to have a probably statistically significant reduction in other road users treating you badly. People don't "not see you" or "not hear you" they judge you as not being a danger to them - perhaps subconsciously, perhaps consciously, but I have strong suspicion that lots of people do look and see you, but their heads categorise you as either "just a tiny fucking motorcycle, I'm insured so I don't care if they bounce off my car" or "I'd better not annoy _that_ guy, he might reach through my window and rip my head off and then go home and murder my family and pets". I could _maybe_ see an argument that especially quiet vehicles (electric for sure, but a lot of modern ice cars as well) might improve pedestrian safety with a little bit of "fake engine noise" being projected at low speeds where pedestrians are likely to be around, but 105db straight through pipes do not improve anyone's safety at 25mph+ in my experience, they just annoy people. (And I say that somewhat hypocritically, as the owner of a Ducati with aftermarket and louder than stock pipes, but which fall a long way short of 100+db straight through Harley Davidson pipes.)
  - jdbernard 4y ago
    I'll add my data points as well. I've had several bikes, one with a loud aftermarket pipe installed by the previous owner. Of all of them, the one that was noticed the most was the larger sport-touring bike with relatively quiet stock mufflers. Visual presence seems far more impactful than increased volume.
  - tsomctl 4y ago
Grimburger 4y ago
> Microwaves Something that always bugged me. It's loud enough that most people can tell if the microwave has stopped even from another room and many models will keep making noise for minutes after, even if you just want to let the food cool down. Meanwhile you'll rarely find a toaster that beeps. They often have a hidden setting to mute now, once upon a time I pulled open the cover and removed the buzzer out of annoyance.
- aastronaut 4y ago
  Solved this by manually removing the piezo from the microwave of a flatmate... so annoying.
eek2121 4y ago
My washer and dryer sing an entire tune when the cycle ends. Annoying as anything. Most of the microwaves that I've owned only beep when the timer is done, which I like. I do have one in my kitchen that beeps every minute or so and it is annoying. Thankfully, I have a second one in my office that does not.
- ericbarrett 4y ago
  LG? Mine have buttons on the front panel that quiet them entirely.
- markvdb 4y ago
  My no-brand Chinese battery charger plays half an 8-bit Mozart symphony really loudly when it is done charging. Luckily it seems to have died prematurely...
- nicbou 4y ago
  My old washing machine had a very loud mechanical buzz that nearly gave me heart attacks
chevman 4y ago
Shortly after our son was born, my wife and I went thru basically everything in our house and figured out how to turn off all the extraneous beeps and noises so we wouldn't inadvertently wake him up from a nap. We found most (not all!) devices typically have a way to turn this stuff off. Sometimes can turn off the exterior signal lights too. The other thing we did that we ended up really liking was removing our doorbell. We live in a fairly urban part of our city and that really helped cut down on the random noises.

thaumasiotes 4y ago

> Engine noise. Some cars/motorbikes are specifically designed/modified to be loud because that’s what the customer wants. Then there are the cars that aren't loud, so they play recordings of engine noise over the audio system. BMW has apparently gone as far as making the fake engine noise user-configurable, except that you can't turn it off. Because if you don't want to be forced to listen to fake engine noise, you're not the type of customer BMW wants, I guess. You probably shouldn't be allowed to vote or own property either.

julik 4y ago
I think this is a case of some misguided product managers (and since German car companies are known to be huge bureacracies - no wonder). It seems like there is a great important safety aspect to it - that first you can hear that the vehicle is moving (there is an audio cue), and second is the affordance that you pressing on the accelerator has an effect (that the accelerator/electronics is not broken) - idem for braking. Interestingly enough, railway engines had this problem solved a number of decades ago when they started using mechanical speedometers based on a clock. When the vehicle would start moving, the speedometer would start ticking. The faster you go the faster the ticking. Seems like electric cars need something similar (it does seem like a very useful safety feature to be honest).
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > When the vehicle would start moving, the speedometer would start ticking. The faster you go the faster the ticking. Seems like electric cars need something similar This would effectively prevent many people from listening to music in the car. It would not be tolerated. Which brings up the point that people very frequently choose to drown out the engine noise. That obviously limits how useful the engine noise can be, though of course it isn't very useful anyway. You cannot fail to sense that the car is moving if your eyes are open. You cannot fail to sense whether the brakes are working even if your eyes are closed.
- eek2121 4y ago
  No, these are regulations for the blind. Laws, mind you. For a reason. So the blind don't walk out in front of a car. I agree with these laws. That being said, the noise should NOT be heard inside the car.
  - thaumasiotes 4y ago
    > No, these are regulations for the blind. No, they aren't. > Laws, mind you. No, they aren't. > For a reason. Nope. > That being said, the noise should NOT be heard inside the car. If you're going to admit that you're talking about something completely different, why say anything at all?
  - hedgehog 4y ago
    This is noise played inside the car for the occupants, totally unrelated to safety sound played outside. I'm not sure if anyone besides BMW does this.
  - amrocha 4y ago
    If you're gonna be driving a car and creating noise pollution for everyone outside it, you don't get to have peace and quiet inside of it. Hotter take: horns should be louder inside cars than they are on the outside
    - gxnxcxcx 4y ago
      > Hotter take: horns should be louder inside cars than they are on the outside I don't care if it is equal volume or a little taser zap when exceeding some threshold, but a sacrifice must be paid to the gods of annoyance in order to restore balance.
vbezhenar 4y ago
Playing engine noise is one of the most ridiculous thing I've ever known. I love BMW noise. I owned old BMW and I loved its sound. But I loved it because it was produced by engine that I loved, not because it was produced by some stupid subwoofer. I have no idea how would anyone buy that tech and I lost my faith in humanity that BMW did not go bankrupt with this move. I know that the only BMW car I would ever buy is E34, it was last BMW worth those letters.
- silon42 4y ago
  If you had pets and an EV, it might be useful, at least on startup.
spoonjim 4y ago
Oof. Now is probably your last chance to get a decent naturally asprirated I6 BMW without all that nonsense.
mikro2nd 4y ago
I've said it before. I'll say it again (and get downvoted heavily again, because fanbois...) but BMW is an Intelligence Test. If you bought one, you failed.
- brnt 4y ago
  That's a much cleverer way of putting it then my 'there no good argument for a BMW, ever'.

thfuran 4y ago

Engine noise inside the vehicle is horrible and I don't know why anyone would want it. Engine noise outside the vehicle probably reduces the rates at which collisions occur.

bigiain 4y ago
Lots of motorcycle riders claim this: "Loud pipes save lives". In my anecdotal experience, as the owner of both noisy and quiet motorcycles, there is very little truth to that. My noisy motorcycles have just as many "Sorry mate, I didn't see you" incidents as my quiet ones. On the other hand, looking like you might be an evil baby-eating biker (cruiser-style bike, black leather, open face helmet with a beard and sunglasses, blatantly disregarding road rules) does seem to have a probably statistically significant reduction in other road users treating you badly. People don't "not see you" or "not hear you" they judge you as not being a danger to them - perhaps subconsciously, perhaps consciously, but I have strong suspicion that lots of people do look and see you, but their heads categorise you as either "just a tiny fucking motorcycle, I'm insured so I don't care if they bounce off my car" or "I'd better not annoy _that_ guy, he might reach through my window and rip my head off and then go home and murder my family and pets". I could _maybe_ see an argument that especially quiet vehicles (electric for sure, but a lot of modern ice cars as well) might improve pedestrian safety with a little bit of "fake engine noise" being projected at low speeds where pedestrians are likely to be around, but 105db straight through pipes do not improve anyone's safety at 25mph+ in my experience, they just annoy people. (And I say that somewhat hypocritically, as the owner of a Ducati with aftermarket and louder than stock pipes, but which fall a long way short of 100+db straight through Harley Davidson pipes.)
- jdbernard 4y ago
  I'll add my data points as well. I've had several bikes, one with a loud aftermarket pipe installed by the previous owner. Of all of them, the one that was noticed the most was the larger sport-touring bike with relatively quiet stock mufflers. Visual presence seems far more impactful than increased volume.
- tsomctl 4y ago

Grimburger 4y ago

> Microwaves Something that always bugged me. It's loud enough that most people can tell if the microwave has stopped even from another room and many models will keep making noise for minutes after, even if you just want to let the food cool down. Meanwhile you'll rarely find a toaster that beeps. They often have a hidden setting to mute now, once upon a time I pulled open the cover and removed the buzzer out of annoyance.

aastronaut 4y ago
Solved this by manually removing the piezo from the microwave of a flatmate... so annoying.

eek2121 4y ago

My washer and dryer sing an entire tune when the cycle ends. Annoying as anything. Most of the microwaves that I've owned only beep when the timer is done, which I like. I do have one in my kitchen that beeps every minute or so and it is annoying. Thankfully, I have a second one in my office that does not.

ericbarrett 4y ago
LG? Mine have buttons on the front panel that quiet them entirely.
markvdb 4y ago
My no-brand Chinese battery charger plays half an 8-bit Mozart symphony really loudly when it is done charging. Luckily it seems to have died prematurely...
nicbou 4y ago
My old washing machine had a very loud mechanical buzz that nearly gave me heart attacks

chevman 4y ago

Shortly after our son was born, my wife and I went thru basically everything in our house and figured out how to turn off all the extraneous beeps and noises so we wouldn't inadvertently wake him up from a nap. We found most (not all!) devices typically have a way to turn this stuff off. Sometimes can turn off the exterior signal lights too. The other thing we did that we ended up really liking was removing our doorbell. We live in a fairly urban part of our city and that really helped cut down on the random noises.