MG4 Pedestrian Alert

[ReintjeWA]

And no pedestrian has ever turned their head as I’ve come up behind them which indicates that no-one hears any noise.

I remember driving in a car park (very tiny car park, just a strip of cars to either side of a road really) once in a quiet rural town, and there was a lady that turned her head at the last minute as she realised I was “creeping up” on her, but I always thought it must’ve been the tyres. I feel that if it was the PAS she shouldn’t have been startled.

It made me realise I need to be more aware that pedestrians won’t hear me coming.

 

[Martinonline]

The Entertainment system was R40, but is now R63. No sound with either of them! I see the icon when a person is detected, so the sensor is working, which is why the dealer/MG thought the sounder must be faulty. But putting in a new sounder hasn’t helped.

As far as I know the PAS does not require the detection of a person; it is like the reversing sound lorries and some cars have. The image you see is likely to feed into the Forward/Reverse collision alert/braking system.

 

[Lord Randall]

From about 22 minutes in is when the testing starts in detail without the sounder, and at about 25 minutes with the sounder. It seems the whirring/whine sound we hear is in fact the PAS sounder, not the motor.

Heatpump compressor is way louder then this sound. Like a lot louder.

 

[Wizard of Oz]

Do we know what the actual sound should be? Is it white noise, a deep hum, is it the jingle from the ice cream van?

It's a loud"Get out of the f&*DF*ng way!"

 

[Ian Key]

It doesn't make any difference if it works or not. The youngsters have their noise cancelling earphones in and the OAPs are deaf so most of the population can't hear you anyway

 

[siteguru]

Pardon?

 

[Ian Key]

Pardon?

YOU NEED TO REMOVE YOUR NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES as obviously you don't fit into the OAP category

 

[tsedge]

YOU NEED TO REMOVE YOUR NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES as obviously you don't fit into the OAP category

Now where is my automatic de-capitaliser?

 

[EvTek23]

The sound made from mine is very subtle, nothing like as loud as a VW, Porsche or Audi although the sound is similar, like a sci-fi film spaceship.
EV's are designed to produce a noise known as Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) the level has to be between 56 dBA and 75 dBA at 2 metres below 12mph. I would say the MG is at the quieter end of the range. I have previously posted about how I tested mine. You need a nice quiet or private road, open the windows, turn off the HVAC, turn down infotainment system. Drive away to a slow speed, then turn the drive control from D to N, (at which point you are coasting) you'll hear the whirring noise stop, which you may well have associated with motor and drive system. Brake to a halt and repeat if necessary to tune yourself into the noise the car makes.

 

[ReintjeWA]

The sound made from mine is very subtle, nothing like as loud as a VW, Porsche or Audi although the sound is similar, like a sci-fi film spaceship.
EV's are designed to produce a noise known as Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) the level has to be between 56 dBA and 75 dBA at 2 metres below 12mph. I would say the MG is at the quieter end of the range. I have previously posted about how I tested mine. You need a nice quiet or private road, open the windows, turn off the HVAC, turn down infotainment system. Drive away to a slow speed, then turn the drive control from D to N, (at which point you are coasting) you'll hear the whirring noise stop, which you may well have associated with motor and drive system. Brake to a halt and repeat if necessary to tune yourself into the noise the car makes.

Tried that this morning and I could hear the PAS very clearly indeed. I was surprised to hear the PAS gets quieter when you slow down to a very slow crawl, because I would've thought that's when the car is at its quietest and therefore needs more artificial sound to warn pedestrians. It is easily outdone by the tyre noise on a rough surface I think.

 

[Everest]

I could hear the PAS very clearly indeed

Too many TLA's... I read that as Power Assisted Steering. Showing my age again, from when PAS was a key thing to look for in the classified ads.

 

[InnocentSmith]

What speed are they testing at? Page 182 of the Owner manual:

View attachment 33223

At low speed the PAS should sound all the time, not just when pedestrians are detected.

Mine has never made any sound at all on the outside.

 

[ianb]

I can now answer my initial query of 13/12/24. My MG4 does have a working Pedestrian Alert System (PAS or AVAS) but it is so quiet that you can’t hear it! - unless you know what you are listening for. At low speeds the PAS sounds continuously (not just when the car’s sensors detect a pedestrian nearby) and the noise it makes is the sound of a quiet electric motor, a gentle whirring sound. I had heard this noise before, but took it to be the sound of the car’s motor. At my dealer’s (Mangoletsi, Knutsford) today, they drove my car past me at low speed with and without the PAS working (they temporarily deactivated it by removing the appropriate fuse). With the PAS on, the car made a gentle electric-motor sound as it went past, just what you (at least, me) would expect an electric car to sound like, but with the PAS disabled the car was absolutely silent (except for tyre noise) with no whirring or motor-like sound at all. So the PAS works, and I hope meets the required loudness of 56 dB.
Whether it is loud enough to fulfil its purpose of alerting pedestrians to the car’s presence is another matter. Experience shows that pedestrians don’t hear it. The best tip I have seen from the responses to my initial post is to have the radio on, and open a window when near pedestrians. Then I’ll not only be legal, with an operating PAS, but they’ll also be safe.

 

[siteguru]

Generally I find that tyre noise is louder than the PAS

 

[Mickky]

Do we know what the actual sound should be? Is it white noise, a deep hum, is it the jingle from the ice cream van?

Most people, including myself, initialy get the wrong end of the stick concerning the pedestrian warning. On the first MGZS ev and the MG4 ,if your outside the car it just sounds like you think an electric car would sound. It dose not make a warning sound outside the car if it detects a pedestrian. The car will beep and or slam on the brakes but this internal to the car to frighten / wake up the driver. So do not get the wife and kids to stand in front of the car to see if they can get the warning sound to work.

 

[Anon70]

Should go all Lost In Space really...

 

[Rolfe]

I can now answer my initial query of 13/12/24. My MG4 does have a working Pedestrian Alert System (PAS or AVAS) but it is so quiet that you can’t hear it! - unless you know what you are listening for. At low speeds the PAS sounds continuously (not just when the car’s sensors detect a pedestrian nearby) and the noise it makes is the sound of a quiet electric motor, a gentle whirring sound. I had heard this noise before, but took it to be the sound of the car’s motor. At my dealer’s (Mangoletsi, Knutsford) today, they drove my car past me at low speed with and without the PAS working (they temporarily deactivated it by removing the appropriate fuse). With the PAS on, the car made a gentle electric-motor sound as it went past, just what you (at least, me) would expect an electric car to sound like, but with the PAS disabled the car was absolutely silent (except for tyre noise) with no whirring or motor-like sound at all. So the PAS works, and I hope meets the required loudness of 56 dB.
Whether it is loud enough to fulfil its purpose of alerting pedestrians to the car’s presence is another matter. Experience shows that pedestrians don’t hear it. The best tip I have seen from the responses to my initial post is to have the radio on, and open a window when near pedestrians. Then I’ll not only be legal, with an operating PAS, but they’ll also be safe.

There's a video on YouTube where someone does this with an MG4, with roughly the results you describe. I agree with @siteguru, I usually find the tyre noise from most EVs is the obvious thing, not the PAS, but I did notice a PAS on a passing EV one day last week.

 

[Kithmo]

Generally I find that tyre noise is louder than the PAS

I found that with SWMBO's Prius.

 

[Burgo]

Ours is really, really, quiet - our neighbour actually asked why it didn't make "that whirring sound" other evs make.
On the plus side, you can slide up right behind pedestrians jay walking on the road and scare the 5hi7 out of them by hitting the horn long and hard.

 

[Rolfe]

I was crawling along the village main street (built for pack ponies I think) and saw a youth wandering just outside the charity shop at virtually the narrowest point. I slowed almost to a stop and waited. Sure enough, he stepped right out in front of me, never looking up. His face when he finally saw me was a picture.

It wouldn't have been any different if I'd been in an ICE car. He was wearing full-size noise-cancelling headphones.