And that's relevant how? If you live in a city where everyone owns a petrol scooter it's absurd. Can't wait for all of these to be electric, it's just common sense.
There is literally any noise from the engine, whine or otherwise. Whether a noise is bad or not can be subjective but silence is objective.
So at least for that one it kind of draws into question your overall conclusions here. You might be hearing an ICE and thinking it is electric, or some specific badly tuned vehicle or something.
I am very certain I am talking about electrical and hybrid vehicles. The first one that had me aghast was a Nissan Leaf. Today, too many. Obviously I cannot confuse them with ICE ("brooom").
The point about the "whining possibly-engine" comes from a chat with a friend, where I said that they had decided to really use the most annoying overlapped noises to make the cars audible: he replied, those are not the additional noises, but the "noises from the engine" (probably from the whole system). I don't know.
> silence is objective
The electrical and hybrid vehicles I witnessed are very far from silent (save for the bicycles - I can't assess them, too little experience). As expressed, to us those noises - running noises and operational noises - are annoying to a whole new level.
Nissan Leaf motor is silent, there's really just objectively not a noise from the motor itself which could offend you.
There's still some possibilities here: maybe you came across someone with a broken car and believed that to be representative.
Most other explanations here just involve some form of confusion on your part to be honest: that it was the backup-alert noise that it makes _because_ the car is otherwise too silent, that it wasn't actually a Leaf but an ICE engine that you saw, or something else.
>>And the noise pollition I hear coming from the electric to me is a million times worse than ICEs.
Is this some kind of trolling?
>>accessible (we do not have electronic money).
And is this some kind of joke? An electric scooter can be plugged into a solar panel and recharged within a day. For free. Even if every oil refinery on earth explodes you will be able to charge your electric scooter by the wonderful power of the sun.
Unless you mean the cost to purchase - have you seen the cost of a new Vespa? You can have two electric scooters for the price of a new Vespa.
And electric scooters have long ago matched needs of city users in terms of range. Recharge time isn't as fast as petrol, sure, but people tend not to drive scooters for 500 miles in a day. You drive it to work, drive it back, plug it in. Or charge during the day using solar.
Or you know, for really crazy sci-fi ideas just look at china, where electric scooters with swappable batteries are extremely common. Even if you work as a food delivery driver you can have a fresh fully charged battery in less time than it would take you to fill up with petrol.
No, perfectly serious. If your question is because you thought I meant noise levels - no, I meant noise quality. E.g. a good insulated ICE has a pleasant noise. On the contrary, the sane people I know physically panic in front of the strident cacophony and asylum level beeps that the new vehicles are bringing.
> An electric scooter can be plugged into a solar panel and recharged within a day. For free
Well, that is also not always satisfiable. But it's an idea: if you remain nearby, you could plug the solar panel in - and, with some structure, also get your shade. (Panel-as-umbrella. I am serious. Shade is not granted everywhere.)
But - still very serious - we know that research to make electric vehicle recharge through solar panels failed (not enough miles collected in a reasonable time): if the electric scooters are so efficient (in terms of miles/charge), would not it be a good idea to have them continuously under some solar power connection? Maybe "barrel roof" models - the roof as a solar panel stripe.
Anyway: as noted in the other replies, that recharge for electric vehicles passes through electronic money when you are far from your own outlets is a problem.
You know this is a thread about scooters, right? If you live somewhere like Rome or even London all you hear is just very loud revving all day long, not least because teenagers who ride them tend to just rev them for no reason. But even a vespa is very loud compared to a petrol car. And again, electric scooters usually don't have any kind of artificial synthetic noise to make themselves known like cars do. So it you magically replaced all petrol scooters with electric ones the streets would get about 50x quieter.
>>would not it be a good idea to have them continuously under some solar power connection?
Maybe. Scooters have tiny electric batteries, usually no more than 1-2kWh. That much can be easily recharged in a day from even a small solar panel. But I suspect a scooter with a canopy wouldn't be accepted purely because it looks weird. But you can get foldable panels that fit in your backpack, leave it on the scooter when you park it and it will recharge to full while you work.
Fair point about mediating between generics and specifics, but I am not sure I have yet heard an electric scooter's noise - I was more focused on electric engines in general, and I suspected that there can be similarities with the cars.
Relevant: I only returned to the thread today as yesterday I had to leave just after my post, and I walked thinking "I really cannot remember a loud Vespa". Destiny served: minutes later one passed by - admittedly much too loud. But I am not fully convinced somebody did not do something to it (the noise may have not been the out-of-the-factory one).
But you wrote «it's just common sense» and I am fully skeptical and wary about what could happen with the tech implementations. 'Cause also in real time, as I am typing, a Lexus (I think) passed by and even if the noise is low, its texture was sufficient to have me break the typing and go look at the perpetrator. Would common sense be something granted, electric vehicles would be planned as a nice solution - instead of torture with drawbacks, as we see it.
And: ok, urban context, but still: how do you charge them - suppose you live in a flat? What if solar is not sufficient?
And what if, still speaking of horrific implementation, with the current craze, they build "smartphones with two wheels"? Would we still be able to find "proper" (electric-based) ones, lean - say, without microphone GPS and tracking libraries?
You mention Rome: I had to notice that telephone conversations with people on public transport there are broken continuously by the bababababa of the doors alarms. Another perspective on urban noise and on common sense. The transformation of the landscape into the merge between mechanical factory and construction site is ongoing.
> leave it on the scooter when you park it
Well, that is part of the «that is also not always satisfiable» and «if you remain nearby» in my post. Your proposal (parking and leaving equipment there) could work in the Draconian Saudi Arabia, but not generically.
But (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48792667) there is (it seems, I am not sure where it comes from) an especially fastidious noise from the engine, then additional noises to make the vehicle louder (and those I have heard are worse than nails on chalkboards), and then additional alarms to increase the "construction site" effect.
It is not a matter of decibels. It is a matter of nerves impact.
I wrote «the noise poll[u]tion I hear coming from the electric to me is a million times worse than ICEs». Pollution. It has many dimensions - "loud" is just one.
You need to recharge electric vehicles (of course), and the recharging systems I am informed of require electronic money. Not all people have it. (And not all people accept leaving a DB track of their stops.)
"Cheap" makes no sense here - you may have misunderstood the post. Whether charging costs 1 penny or 1 grand, it is still inaccessible if the plugs are automated totems not accepting cash.