The impact of automobile warm-up noise characteristics on annoyance

In the automotive industry, the sound of a vehicle plays a crucial role in its perceived value, highlighting the importance of understanding the relationship between subjective auditory perceptions and objective physical measures. This study investigates the psychoacoustic properties of warm-up noise emitted by vehicles equipped with an accelerated warm-up system (AWS). Our main goal is to analyze the discomforting aspects of this noise and reveal that its cause is related to tonality. Through extensive auditory experiments, we aim to uncover the nuances of this relationship, finding that both tonality and roughness significantly contribute to annoyance perception, particularly at higher frequencies. This investigation provides crucial insights for acoustic optimization in automotive systems, focusing on improving the user experience and product quality during the AWS warm-up phase.