Can an enhanced driving experience still be authentic?

At the end of the day, it just comes down to, is it fun and enjoyable? If it adds to your experience of slinging your toy around a track, then how does it hurt? (Sure, have an off button though for when you just want to drive in peace)

And if you don't think it can enhance the experience, then you must have never played a good driving game. If you have ever been immersed by a good driving simulator, or enjoyed a car game with a great engine audio, then you should already know a completely artificial engine note is essential to selling the  illusion. Try turning off the sound on your favorite racing game next time you play it and see how it changes how you feel about the experience. The thing that really got me was the first time I tried driving a Tesla Model S in Forza. All the regular sounds were there, tire squealing, brake noises, wind noise, but with no engine note, I could not get into it and I couldn't adjust to the speed the car was moving at. It completely broke the illusion and made the car undrivable for me. So I can easily see how adding an artificial engine note to an EV could enhance the experience.

For sure it would be fun to download any engine not you can think of and try them out, but as has been mentioned what they really need to do is develop a unique and original kinda sci-fi sounding motor note, and thus it would be authentic, as well as enhancing the experience.

Dodge kind of tried this with the EV Challenger thing they're making. I was surprised they didn't just throw a hemi engine note at it, they actually did attempt to make something unique and new that still sounded like a muscle car, unfortunately it just wasn't very good. They should probably hire some video game audio developers to help :)

That's a great question. I'm firmly in the camp of it being dumb. The horseless carriage analogy fits well.

BUT

If I understand it correctly, my BMW has a pipe underhood that's meant to deliver a throaty sound to the passenger compartment. I always liked the sound of the car but it really hit home after letting a Miata driver borrow it and she returned with wide eyes, "the Miata doesn't sound like THAT." Now I relish the sound. 

Yet it is a kind of artificial, is it not? For purely functional reasons, that sound would not reach my ears. And so it's stupid, right? 
 

And then what do you do with custom tuned exhaust? Or even any exhaust that makes it sound any different from the "real" of open headers and straight pipes (legality aside), or, conversely, as silent as a Cadillac.

So maybe it's okay because all of the above are tuning or enhancing the vibrations (sounds) that ACTUALLY emanate from the moving and exploding bits in the machine. ?
 

Undoubtedly, sounds make the experience more fun. I learned this firsthand with a peppy little 2nd gear scratch 89 Prelude when I wore headphones one night. It's true. But something just feels ridiculous or embarrassing about imitating something else. Like putting a racing wing on a Geo Metro. Or a non-functional hood scoop on an Impreza RS. I'd be somewhat embarrassed to run any of those "mods." Poser-esque. I think the ICE-replica sound would constantly grate on me. Rolling my eyes, you would hear the very authentic sound of me apologizing to any passengers in my car. 

P3PPY said:

That's a great question. I'm firmly in the camp of it being dumb. The horseless carriage analogy fits well.

BUT

If I understand it correctly, my BMW has a pipe underhood that's meant to deliver a throaty sound to the passenger compartment. I always liked the sound of the car but it really hit home after letting a Miata driver borrow it and she returned with wide eyes, "the Miata doesn't sound like THAT." Now I relish the sound. 

Yet it is a kind of artificial, is it not? For purely functional reasons, that sound would not reach my ears. And so it's stupid, right?

It's mechanical sound, mechanically delivered?

If so, it's NOT artificial.  It's genuine engine noise - used for aesthetic purpose, yes, but 100% authentic.

Artificial would be if it was electronically synthesized and broadcast through speakers somewhere.

Keeping in mind this is strictly an opinion and I get that it may sell cars but I am still here:

Does a P51 Mustang need any enhanced sounds................no because it's a P51 Mustang.

This only goes one of two ways for me:

1. The manufacturer is admitting the basic ingredients are so lacking it needs fru fru sauce.

2. The manufacturer thinks I'm so unsophisticated that I can't understand subtlety, so I need fru fru sauce.

So, how does Hayden Paddon's electric rally car with mechanical noise generator fit in?

I haven't seen any details on how exactly the thing works.

In reply to Oapfu :

If it serves a purpose such as alerting people to it's approach I am OK with it........otherwise I find it lame.

It dropped in my inbox, and I'm just drifting further the way I was already leaning.

This time the thing that grabbed me was the title of the article. It's like it's borrowing from the marketing firm's playbook, claiming the word "enhanced" for referring to artifical layers in the experience, when, from M-W: "heighten, increase.  Especially : to increase or improve in value, quality, desirability, or attractiveness" which I think suggests it's better used for things like sharper throttle response and better brake feel. Not that a magazine article title was ever mean to be dissected like this...

What we're really discussing is whether an artificially augmented experience can be authentic, and it cannot. It can be great, but the augmentation in this case is fake by definition. The question is whether or not you care about authenticity, and I don't think there's any one answer and that will vary by person and topic. A lot of replicas work a lot better than the things they're mimicking. But I still think fake engine noises in an EV are an egregious and stupid fakery, and that's my opinion on this topic.

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

I guess it really comes down to where we each draw the line between "real" and "fake" when it comes to sound. A guitar makes a "real" noise. Is that noise still real when the signal from that guitar is routed to an amp? What if it's routed through effects before it gets to the amp? Still real?

And the real question here is what is the emotional impact of that sound? 

We use mechanical contrivances to alter the sounds of cars all the time. Does a Borla muffler sound more real than a Supertrapp? Is an H-pipe more real than an X pipe? Does carpet and insulation hamper the authenticity of the sound?

I guess what I'm saying here is that my ideal isn't necessarily "most authentic experience" but rather "maximum driver engagement." If the soundtrack serves that goal and doesn't distract from it, it's a net good IMO.

JG Pasterjak said:

In reply to Jesse Ransom :

I guess it really comes down to where we each draw the line between "real" and "fake" when it comes to sound. A guitar makes a "real" noise. Is that noise still real when the signal from that guitar is routed to an amp? What if it's routed through effects before it gets to the amp? Still real?

So what I'm hearing is we need to ability to hook up effect pedals to our exhaust notes. Maybe make a mount on the dead pedal.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

I see what you mean, and agree it's going to be an individual thing.

I even like electronic music, but a synthesizer's reason for existing is to make sounds.

A car has to have an exhaust system, but it doesn't have to have a synth. There's a huge amount of stuff here that's down to preference and decided not on mechanical purity but what looks/sounds/feels best.

I have strong feelings on the topic, but I'm not under any delusion that they're the only correct ones. Apologies if I'm a bit twitchy about language; I think we end up with a lot of stuff nobody thinks is ideal because the marketspeak starts talking about the new hotness like it's an accepted inevitability.

Your conclusion makes perfect sense.

In reply to theruleslawyer :

JC Whitney used to sell a cow horn, ostensibly for ranchers.  It didn't have a button, it had a pedal.  Press it lightly and you got contented lowing.  The harder you pressed it, the louder/angrier it got until it got to full on psychopathic bull about to kill you.

Me, I wanted to attach it to the accelerator pedal and go autocross.

MooooOOOOOOOOO!!!!