Article
Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) for Electric Trucks: Initial Thoughts for the Requirements (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Increasing numbers of electric vehicles (EVs) which consist cars and trucks on the city roads introduces acoustical challenges when compared to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). In our research, we used the semantic differential analysis method in jury tests to examine and differentiate the sound characteristics of both EVs and ICEVs. Participants were asked to rate different vehicle sounds using perceptual criteria. Our research showed that ICE trucks were regarded as being thicker and harsher than ICE cars, whereas E-trucks were perceived as being more effortless than E-cars. It's interesting to note that AVAS-equipped E-cars were perceived as being whistling, and howling than their non-AVAS counterparts. These findings point to a difference between existing AVAS sounds and the truck-like sounds commonly associated with ICEVs. Our continuing research focuses on understanding these differences by comparing psychoacoustic parameters taken from various analyses to improve the AVAS design for trucks and to improve the safety of pedestrians. This study is an important step toward creating a design guide for E-Truck AVAS sounds.