Study of the effectiveness of electric vehicle warning sounds depending on the urban environment

This paper analyses in detail the main characteristics of several warning sounds proposed by the industry, conducting a comparative study of the different design trends. A total of 131 sighted listeners were exposed to a virtual road-crossing test. The behaviour and appropriateness of warning sounds are analysed depending on the urban environment. For this purpose, three clearly different soundscapes have been selected: stopped vehicles at a traffic light, a pedestrian shopping area and the vicinity of a playground. The results highlight the wide variability in pedestrian reaction time for the different warning sounds used. Some signals considerably improve the detectability of the vehicle, providing results even above the ICE vehicle ones. However, other warning sounds do not decrease the reaction time with respect to the EV. In addition, a clear dependence is observed between the detectability and the soundscape involved, changing the results for the same warning sound depending on the acoustic environment.