In BMWs at least you can reconfigure the car to silence the fake engine noises. It takes a coding app for your device and an OBD connector.
I expect most modern computerized cars can be similarly reconfigured.
But that then crosses over into the “dumb product design” realm. Fake sound effects for the driver’s benefit (as opposed to warning pedestrians) ought to be trivial to disable with no loss of actual function.
It should be an “opt in” system, not a “let’s try to figure out how to disable this” feature. At least for everyone except 16 to 21 year old males.
I suppose it’s part of the whole “no, you as a customer may not do any futzing about with our product” trend.
Not the Niro. I’m only aware of two methods for disabling the sound, at least on my model. One is to unplug the connection to the speaker, which is absurdly hard to access. The other is to use the fact that the European version of this car has a button to disable the noise and, while the US version doesn’t have the button, the wiring for it is still behind the dash. Splice into the wire, add a button, and you now you can turn the noise on and off.
One of the issues with this specific car, in this (US) specific market, is that the reverse beeping is so obnoxiously loud that people either back up really fast to minimize the time it beeps or they back up really fast and then drop the car into neutral and coast the rest of the way.
Neither of which are particularly safe.
If Kia just made it a bit quieter people wouldn’t be trying to bypass it. Also, it probably doesn’t help that the reverse noises comes from a speaker mounted behind the front bumper, it likely has to be quite loud for people behind you to hear it.
I do wish electric vehicles would make some noise at low speed to warn pedestrians. They could play “Turkey in the Straw” for all I care.
Same thing happened to the wife’s car. CVT went Tango Uniform, no repair possible, no parts, one transmission in Georgia the guy wants Thousands for, no guarantees. 
So, now I’ve got a little car, in really decent shape (except for the whole ‘Not Running’ thing) sitting in my yard. I’m either going to part it out, or try to entice someone to buy it to make an EV out of it. But it’s depressing.
It would be a hoot with a 5-speed, but not set up for it.
Don’t do that. Around here it would draw in kids (and adults) expecting ice cream. Greater ptrobabiliity of someone getting hit
This sounds to me like an argument that crossovers aren’t getting used the way they’re designed to, by buyers who are being goofy. I object. I have a Forester, which is a “crossover” or what we used to call a “station wagon”. It has four wheel drive. That means it can get up my driveway in snow. I’ve mostly had 4WD cars here, but have had three that weren’t, and it was a pain hiking up our snowy 250’ hill in the dark carrying groceries. Moreover, making multiple attempts to get up with 2WD, and sliding back down backwards, can be a bit unnerving. Several folks have slid backwards into trees here attempting this. I’ve seen passenger cars and delivery trucks get stuck partway up without any snow or ice, and seen a 4WD backhoe get stuck in snow. The thing is, my driveway is paved. It’s just difficult.
Nothing goofy about having a Forester living here.
Great. You’re one of the relatively few who use the vehicle for it’s intended purpose. I assume others in your area do the same. However, the majority of those who buy 4 wheel drive/AWD vehicles do so because they want to believe they’ll use it. Or maybe they buy into the advertising hype. Who knows the real reason. But the vast majority don’t use any vehicle, be it SUV, pickup, or EV with a phony stick shift, for what it was designed to do.
All I know is it has to do with status and fantasy (obviously not in your case). They see commercials of Jeep Grand Waggoneers climbing rough mountains and fording rivers, and they want that too. But then reality sets in, and they end up taking Susie to soccer practice and getting groceries, and the farthest they go off road is the Olive Garden parking lot.
Dang, you’re right, they would die like flies.
TARDIS wworp-vworp
Bike with cards stuck in spokes
William Tell Overture
Speed Racer theme song
East Bound and Down
You and I ware talking about two different things. I was referring to fake engine sounds pumped into the cabin for macho appeal. You’re referring to an external safety feature. I don’t find it surprising they made that hard to disable. It’s a double-shame that, per your description they did a dumb job on the feature.
That’s one aspect.
A second aspect is that whether as a matter of building cars able to be configured to comply with wildly different configuration safety laws, or just as a matter of creeping featuritis, modern high end cars have literally hundreds of configurable options inside their computers.
The “settings” screens of the driver UI access barely 10% of them. All the rest are available only via special tools for dealers and enthusiasts. I expect the marketing department would have a fit if the engineers proposed quite that monstrous a menu tree of choices. That would scare away more sales than it would engender. Which is also why we’re stuck with computer screen UIs, rather than one-physical-button-per-function as was common in the 1990s and before. Doing that to an ordinary 2023 car cockpit would result in something that looks like a space shuttle. Which again would scare away buyers as “too complicated for me”.
Depending on the car, the route, and the mission:
Ride of the Valkyries
Born to be Wild
The car-backing-up noise should totally be nothing but fart noises. Sourced from whoopie cushions, Hollywood sitcom sound effects, etc. But pure fart noises.
Probably better to suggest that it’s a fantasy highly dependent on region. For example, if you have a full bed pickup and life in a metro area, odds are good you need it less than once a year to haul stuff unless it’s part of your business. But if you live in a farming area, it’s a different story.
For AWD / 4WD it’s similar. I live in Colorado Springs, home to the largest Subaru dealership in the nation. Because while we get a fraction of the snow the mountains do, we get plenty and the town has a ton of steeeeeeep areas, including most of the East/West routes in town (North South is inclined, but far better). At least 3-4 times a year there’s a spot on my drive home where I get to see the 2WD vehicles sliding backwards into oncoming traffic.
Again, I absolutely don’t deny your overall point, that a lot of the desires for specific features are driven by the romance of being able to DO something, rather than the absolute need, thus my example of the pickup as well, but specific circumstances are the bane of statistics.
Bringing it BACK to electric vehicles though, as discussed in several of our other threads, the lack of long range from an ICE was a common argument against EV. But how often do you need to go 200+ miles? So lots of people were being aspirational about needing all that immediate range for circumstances that would likely not come up even once a year if that.
Teslas had that feature, but the NHTSA forced them to issue a recall to disable it. And if you think I’m joking, just look at what’s been happening at Twitter.
“Fortunately” the fart noise can still be played as the turn signal ticking sound, or made to sound like it comes from any seat in the car.
People like authenticity, so many are probably unimpressed. The article is wrong; it is easy to see other companies doing this. However, I am holding out for a spin brake, which would help Toyota’s staid image.
[quote]Teslas had that feature, but the NHTSA forced them to issue a recall to disable]
[/quote]
Joking aside, it seems like there is a real need to standardize some things.
Some sound effects -like backing up-- are a safety feature, and it should be obvious and recognizable to everybody.
Weird noises are fun, but they won’t cause your brain to react instantly and recognize danger…