Some say electric vehicles are dangerous because they lack engine sounds and pedestrians can’t hear them approaching. Dominos Pizza has a whole fleet of electric delivery scooters so they decided it was their responsibility to protect the public and their research department developed the “Safe Sound” system. Real world tests as shown in the video confirm, it works pretty well, everyone seems to notice.
Thanks, Doug.
Video below:
Dolf Peeters says
Nice. But I guess the swearing of electric two wheel drivers is even more effective. I did some research for a company that liked to import electric scoots in the Netherlands. The main conclusion was that the action radius sugested by the manyfacturer was approx. double the real user time. As a freelance automotive journalist I did some research on electric motorcycles/scooters myself after that. Same story. Same sadness. Whatever the sound might be. Electric twowheelers are NOT the future. Anyhow, things that do not do “Brrrummm” and do not smell of unburnt fossile fuels are not interseting at all.
Mister X says
“Anyhow, things that do not do “Brrrummm†and do not smell of unburnt fossile fuels are not interseting at all.”
Well, since you come off as a “huffer” I’m not surprised… but any “real” gear/motorhead should know that electrics deliver 100% of the torque available right off the starting line, and that also makes passing an easy task akin to a high HP ICE vehicle, but better because one can REALLY FEEL the torque acting upon the body nearly instantly, and that sensation is difficult to obtain with an ICE vehicle other than a 2 stroke motorbike (and then one has to keep the front wheel near the ground).
I dig ICE vehicles and always will, I’ve owned 13 sec 1/4 mile 2 stroke Kawasaki 350, ridden my brothers Yamaha FZR 1000 to 155 mph, driven quite a few Porsche’s, and Ferrari’s at fun speeds, but electrics have been around longer than ICE vehicles and are here to stay, and as power storage technology improves, they will easily supplant ICE vehicles, it’s the future, accept it or lose out on some GREAT RIDES (if you come down off of your petrol buzz).
The domino’s sound is waaaay stupid, but then, their pizza is low class anyhow, so why not their “sound”?
Joe says
“waaaay stupid” – taking this a bit serious aren’t you? If you don’t hear a lazy, big bore, barritone v8 in that “Dominoes” idle, then your sense of humor needs a jolt. Get it? an electric jolt? haHA! hehe
Joe Nichols says
You ride home from work and plug your new bike into a wall outlet, eat, sleep and get up the next morning, unplug and ride to work ( I’m certified as a Chevrolet Volt tech, it cost about 73 Cents American to recharge one overnight). I make my living repairing internal combustion engines, It DAMN sure interests me!
GuitarSlinger says
@ Dolf Peters +1 . Brilliant ! Its about time somebody starts revealing the ugly truth about two wheel ( as well as four ) E/V’s
Let me add in the tendency of all E/V’s of late to do the Car-BQ / Bike-BQ routine at random – The joys of ‘ Bricking ‘ your very expensive battery pack – the fact that the simplest thing like turning your headlight on can diminish your range by some 50% – both cold ( below 32f ) and hot ( above 80f ) can and will adversely affect your batteries performance …. and safety ( review the FAA regs on why you cannot put your lap top in the luggage area ) etc etc etc . Oh BWTM ! ConEd – Pacific Gas & Electric – MGE etc etc have all come out stating bluntly that if even 1% of the population in major urban areas were to switch to E/V’s the results would overwhelm an already over taxed Electrical Grid , causing massive and regular Black/Brown outs ( NYTimes KC Star Bloomberg WSJ LA Times Seattle Times etc )
hoyt says
…which emphasizes the need to update the grid, not to discourage another transportation medium.
Paulinator says
C’mon you gotta love it.
Z_Money says
Teething ! No worries. Every technology goes through this phase. They laughed at the idea of flying before the Wright Brothers. Eventually we will have batteries that will last longer and weigh less and have less of a carbon footprint (there will be more solar and wind). I know of several people whose electrical bills are minimal because they contribute to the grid about as much as they consume. Just in the last 10 years the size of motorcycle battery has gone down form lead-acid to lithium-iron-phosphate. The size of the car engine has gone down, horse power gone way up and we all know what happened to the size of the radiator.
John S says
Except electric vehicles have been “teething” almost 120 years and same basic problems still exist. The range of these vehicles is identical to their 19th century ancestors. As for the Dominoes scooter, I’m sure what’s worse. Listening to that racket all day or working all day for $7.25 an hour.
Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" says
You guys are taking this post WAY too seriously. Did you listen to the video?
WillyP says
I did, and I felt really bad for that guy. I am glad I don’t have to work for Dominoes to feed my family. (knock on wood… 😉 )
Klaus says
The video looked ‘staged’ to me. Is the sound really that funny that people crack up laughing like that? Lots of young people on bicycles, must have been “Happytown”.
Joe says
c’mon, Amsterdam is bicycle-crazed.
Edwin says
Doesn’t look staged to me. It would have just been a town of Holland with a large student population. I cracked up at the video. The sound is HILARIOUS! But after hearing it a few times I’m sure everyone would get used to it and accept it as the “dominos pizza boy sound” and it wouldn’t cause laughter
Mean Monkey says
Hey Edwin,
Here’s a thought, let’s create a series of “scoot-tones”. That way no-one will get tired of the “domino’s pizza boy soundâ€. There could be a random feature so that a different scoot-tone would play each time the scooter is started.
Dolf Peeters says
Hi Mr. X, I technically agree with you.But I am quit fossile. I am not unaware off nowadays technical blessings. I have an electric toothbrush. And I rode a Zero E-bike that indeed showed the torque trick before the batteries went flat. ButI understood that nowadays batterypacks are not ever lasting and very expencive to replace. And it seems not to environmental friendly to produce them. Maybe we are standing on the edge of something new. But I realy like metal things that move in their oily darkness. Exhausts that tingle while cooling down, an occassional drip of oil underneath my machines. Lately we took a trip into Zeeuw Vlaanderen. Inorder to get there you have to pass a 4 mile tunnel underneath the river Schelde. With my K750 sidevalve outfit and a WLA we plastered the tunneltiles with thunder. Ten minutes after we passed, the rumble was still dripping off the tiles. It was heaven.
Kind regards,
Dolf
Hawk says
Dolf, you’re my kind of guy!
There’s no sound in the world like a V-12 Ferrari at 7800 ….. but some come close to it.
Mean Monkey says
I think the video is funny. I’d kinda like to hear the sound of my old Panhead being kickstarted and running while cold coming out of the scooter. That would make people take notice too.
Joe Nichols says
Ok, Paul, you’re right, and I couldnt watch the Video until now, …..
Shade Newman says
Reminds of living on the lake. A bunch of the older guys rode around on golf carts, even to the local bars. Most were tricked out with chrome wheels, low-profile tires, stereos, etc. One old neighbor of mine recorded his harley under throttle, made a CD and would blast it out of his cart stereo while riding around. It was hilarious, as it actually seemed that the cart was “harley-powered”.
Jim Stumo says
If this is for real it must get on the rider’s nerves really quickly.
Ubiratã Muniz says
Man, I LOL`d…
the IDEA of recorded sounds for EVs is not new. AUDI is working on something like that for the R8 e-tron.
I think it´s the future (but still not the present…)
Woodie says
Are you sure this wasn’t an April fools joke….
I just laughed, if I’d have heard that coming along I’d have fallen off laughing..
Very Dangerous on my opinion
LOL.
john says
LOL
That’s like the ringtone for your cell phone that is just some guy saying “ring ring…ring ring”.
Auz1237 says
When cars first made an appearance on roads laws were introduced that they could not drive over 4 miles per hour, or when it was dark and they had to pull over or have a flagger walking in front of the car to warn a horse and cart who might be approaching. Eventually the need for the fake engine sounds will disappear as “Joe Public” becomes more used to electric technology and all this sound nonsense will go away just as it did when the car first appeared, and we no longer have to drive around with a crew of three at 4mph with a dude and a red flag 60 yards in front….. though of course it might be another 30 years before that all happens…!!
The actual acts and laws are below:
The Acts[edit] Locomotive Act 1861The Locomotives on Highways Act 1861:[5]
Limited the weight of vehicles to 12 tons (12 tonnes).
Imposed a speed limit of 10 mph (16 km/h) on open roads in town.
[edit] The Locomotive Act 1865 (Red Flag Act)The Locomotive Act 1865 (Red Flag Act):[5]
Set speed limits of 4 mph (6 km/h) in the country and 2 mph (3 km/h) in towns.
Stipulated that self-propelled vehicles should be accompanied by a crew of three: the driver, a stoker and a man with a red flag walking 60 yards (55 m) ahead of each vehicle. The man with a red flag or lantern enforced a walking pace, and warned horse riders and horse drawn traffic of the approach of a self propelled machine.
[edit] Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878With the highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878:[5]
Made the red flag optional under local regulation
The distance ahead of the still necessary pedestrian crew member was reduced to 20 yards (18 m).
Vehicles were required to stop on the sight of a horse.
Vehicles were forbidden from emitting smoke or steam to prevent horses being alarmed.[6]
[edit] Locomotives on Highways Act 1896Main article: Locomotives on Highways Act 1896
Many of the restrictions were subsequently removed by the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896.[5][7]
[edit] Locomotives Act 1898The 1898 Act included various measures relating to length weight and operation of locomotives on the highway
ddddd says
Electro scooter will never be a big hit until companies like these stop buying crap quality scooters. 99% of them buy from china. with COC EEC certificates that are paid for and not done the official way. like any manufacturer would do in any other part of the world. bad quality frames, fairings, controllers, batteries, motors etc will never become better unless they move the production some where else. consumers in Europe will never be satisfied with the quality that they get from importers of Chinese scooters.
OMMAG says
Every bit as annoying as the bells and music on iced cream trucks….