A criticism heard from time to time about electric vehicles is that the fact they do not make noise could endanger passersby who will not notice that a vehicle is moving in their direction. That is why some electric vehicle manufacturers (see Tesla) have given drivers the option to change certain features in the sound of the vehicle such as the sound of the drive away, the ride in reverse, the horn, and more. The question is whether it is possible to do something similar in the MG Zs.
The answer is you can’t change the drive-away sound in the MG Zs. The drive-away sound, as well as the horn, the reverse, the ignition, and the locking and unlocking of the car sounds, are fixed and cannot be changed.
I personally called MG’s customer service to find this information and was told that it is in fact not possible to change the driveaway sound as I was told in no uncertain terms. “There is no such feature in MG Zs” as per the customer service representative.
What is happening in other brands?
It is true that some electric vehicles offer the option of changing the driveaway sound to other sounds.
Tesla even went as far as allowing drivers to upload sounds independently beyond what the car manufacturer offered in its database.
The result was that Tesla drivers could turn on their driveaway sounds to that of a Porsche or Lamborghini and show it off around town or change their horn sound to the familiar La Coqueracha.
All good things, however, must come to an end. The USA NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration) found all this “music fest” to be unsafe and in the end, made Tesla recall all the vehicles with this feature.
All the vehicles in which the “Boombox” application – the one that allows the sound changes – was installed have been recalled by Tesla.
So while it is a little disappointing, it seems that the MF Zs drivers are in good company, and despite the fact that it is not possible to change the sound of the drive away (or any other sound for that matter) at the end of the day, what we really want out of our car is it to be safe to use, for us, and for other drivers and passersby in the roads.